# hatchetfish breeding?



## Plecostomus

I have two hatchetfish in my 20g tank along with some other fish, and I'm pretty sure one is male and one is female and they have been mating. Anyway, do they put their eggs in bubble nests? And do they eat their own eggs? Will the other fish eat the babies? I'm not expecting for them to have babies, and I've never breeded fish before, but it would be kind of cool if they did have babies. The tank is heavily planted, and has lots of floating plants since hatchetfish are top feeders.


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## Sue Gremlin

If you have common hatchets, they have apparently never been bred in captivity. I did find some info on Marbled hatchets in case thats what you have. Cut and pasted from animal-world.com: 

Recommended conditions: Ph 5.5-6.5, 5° dGH. 
The Marbled Hatchetfish are egg layers. Add peat extract to darken the water until it is almost opaque and keep the lighting subdued. Feed small flying insects to induce them to spawn. (Fruit flies or Black mosquito larvae will work).
The Marbled Hatchetfish will go through a long courtship after which the female will deposit eggs on plants and roots. The parents should be removed after spawning. The fry will hatch after 30 hours and become free swimming in 5 days. They must be fed finely powdered flake food (or similar; see baby fish foods) for the first 2 or three days but will eat baby brine thereafter.


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## Plecostomus

hmmm... mine are common, but I think the breeding would be similar to the marbled hatchetfish. The eggs will probably be eaten by all the other fish, so I'm not all that hopeful.


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## Guest

Just wondering, what have they been doing that tells you they are breeding? Have you seen any eggs?


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## Plecostomus

I think that the hatchetfish were mating because they seemed to be doing the courtship that Sue Gremlin was talking about for marbled hatchetfish. I wouldn't be surprised if it was very similar for common hatchetfish.



Sue Gremlin said:


> The Marbled Hatchetfish will go through a long courtship after which the female will deposit eggs on plants and roots.


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