Nothobranchius rachovii Beira 98

I first kept rachovii in 2011 and bought more pairs several times between then and 2024. The pair from 2011 produced lots of fry which survived long enough to show color but then succumbed en masse to oodinium. In subsequent years I never got fry, or only one or two. As with all Nothobranchius, results are extremely variable, possibly due to my handling the peat inconsistently.

In summer of 2023 I started with two more pair and kept all the fish together in a 20″ 8 gallon tank with two small bowls of peat for the males to defend. I collected peat and eggs in December and January, left the peat to incubate in zip-locks in my 80° fishroom and got the first small hatch in mid-June, right about six months later.

I tried drying a re-wetting the first two batches of peat, which hatched a total of three more fry, one of which survived.

Not a roaring success, but I got a total of 8 healthy adult fish from those two collections of peat — 4 pairs.