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This has to be one of the best looking characins in the hobby. The broken stripe is a natural for showing and they have lifted prizes as single, pairs and trio's the length and breadth of the country.

Breeding Ulreyi has given me great pleasure from when I first acquired the fish in the late 80's.

Sexing Ulreyi is mainly done by body shape. The male is more slender than the plump, female. Sometimes the male's dorsal fin has more colour and a tint of yellow in the caudal.

As with most fish for breeding it is essential to get them into condition. I feed them 2-3 times a day on quality food like Tetamin flake, Brine shrimp and Whiteworm.

I prepared an bare 18"x10"x10" tank, this was filtered by a Biofoam sponge filter and the temperature was 78f - 80f. The p.h was neutral to alkaline 7-7.5.

Black water extract was added and sometimes rain water was used, but I found the hatch rate to be less with rainwater. Nylon mops where used as the spawning medium.

After about a month of water changes and quality feeding the pair were selected.

The pair were introduced to the breeding tank in the late evening before the lights were tuned off.

Spawning usually took place the next morning when the daylight came up.

The male darts back and forward in front of the female trying to impress her which eventually leads to the pair rubbing against each other, spawning has started.

The female scatters her eggs over the mops with the male shadowing her every move as he fertilises the brood. This goes on for some time until the female looses interest, she then starts to hide, that indicates that the spawning period is over.

Both fish should be removed at this stage, as they will eat all the eggs.

Methelene blue was added to the water after spawning had finished, this was to reduce fungus that can kill off the eggs.

Hatching time can be different depending on temperature. In this case the incubation time was 24 to 36 hours before I started to see small like slithers of glass sticking to the side of the tank. They started to become free swimming after 3 to 4 days. I then removed all the mops, this allowed me to remove any debris that might pollute the tank.

For their first food I would give them Liquifry or infusoria. The fry where kept on this diet for 10 days before I started them on newly hatched Brine Shrimp and micro worm.

No water changes where carried out over the first two weeks other than to top up the tank after the removal of debris.

25% water changes where carried out once a week for the next month and this moved up to twice weekly after that.

At around 3 months the fry were needing more growing room so they were moved to a larger tank. At this stage they were eating most foods, but I found they grew very quickly at first on good quality flake.

Even though I got a good number of eggs from my spawnings the most Ulreyi I managed to rear up to a good size was about 60.

This fish makes a great show specimen and breeding the broken strip gave me a lot of enjoyment.

Nannostomus pencilfish have always been a big favourite on the show scene. I have always rated they very highly for both showing and breeding.

They are a naturally shoaling fish so it is best to keep them in large numbers. This enables you to pick the high standard needed for showing and the quality required for breeding.

As with most of the family, Marginatus like to be kept in well-planted tanks with low lighting as they prefer the shade.

The body pattern and colour can be outstanding in such a small fish, with black horizontal lines along their flanks, a gold/yellow colour between and a small dash of red along their sides. All the fins are blood red apart from the caudal and pectorals which are clear.

Sexing is quite easy, the male is slimmer and his colour is more intense.

It is so important to feed small fish well before attempting to breed them. They will put on body and the better the quality of the fish the higher the possibility of a successful breeding.

I like to feed them twice a day on newly hatched brine shrimp and good quality flake food. This brings them into good condition for spawning.

The breeding tank was a 15x10x10 filtered with a biofoam sponge filter and just enough air to break the water surface. A temperature of 78f and a neutral pH. of 7.0.

Floating and sunken plants were added to give shade and a spawning medium, this also made it harder for the parents to find the eggs as Marginatus are avid egg eaters.

The tank was set up for a week. The pair were selected and the male was put into the breeding tank. The female was put in a smaller tank to keep them separated for a couple of days.

The female was transferred to the breeding tank in the early morning, within minutes of the introduction the male starts to colour up.

He then proceeds with his spawning dance, nudging against the female and generally harassing her, I have seen this going on for up to an hour.

When they are ready to spawn the female will dart away in-front of the male in search of a leaf to lean on, the male will nudge her in the stomach and they will then swim tight along side each other and deposit their spawn throughout the leaves.

They then take a short break and then go hunting for the eggs. After a small feed they then proceed with their spawning, I have seen this go on for 2 hours.

If the breeding has been successful then hatching should take place in 3-4 days.

The fry cling to the glass and plants. After 3 days they became free swimming and so I started feeding them on liquifry and infusoria, after 10 days they were taking newly hatched brine shrimp.

They tend to be slow growers and take about 7 months to reach full size.

This fish possess a labyrinth gland that enables it to survive in oxygen depleted waters throughout Asia.

The labyrinth as an organ comprises or a folded mass of bone and capillary rich tissue situated internally near the gills. Its function is to store and extract oxygen.

The males have longer dorsal fins and bright orange on the throat and chest area. The pelvic fins and the front of the anal fins also carry this orange colour.

I have been keeping fish for 3 years and this was my first egglaying fish that I ever bred.

I was in my local Aquarium shop in Kirkcaldy when I first saw these elegant fish.

I brought them home and settled them into a holding tank for a few days. I then set them up to breed in a 36x15x12 deep tank. The tank was kept shallow because when the fry hatch the make for the surface.

The tank was covered in a layer of duckweed and kept at a steady 78f, as the fry will not tolerate fluctuations in temperature.

I added a piece of polystyrene as I had been told that these fish would possible use this to lay their eggs on.

I put the pair of fish into the tank and I kept checking on their progress. After two days there was no sign of a bubble nest on or near the floating polystyrene but the female was thinner.

I took her out of the tank because she had laid her eggs, and left the male to tend the eggs.

They had used the duckweed as their spawning medium and this is why I had not noticed the spawning site. After two days I noticed tiny black specs darting around the top of the tank and after three days the top of the tank was a mass of the tiny black specs about a ¼ inch long.

I fed the fry on liquifry for about 3 ½ weeks and then they went onto Baby E. for another week, after this they were fed newly hatched brine shrimp.

They grew at a slow steady rate until they where big enough to except crushed flake food.

If you tend to breed this lovely fish you require plenty of tank space, as the survival rate is very high using this method.

This fish is a peaceful and graceful fish that can grace any community set up.

I have had a lot of pleasure in breeding this very graceful and peaceful fish.