Care
The Tiburon Limia is known from warm, shallow waters, thick with aquatic vegetation. These fish have a subtle beauty, the flanks sparkling with specks of steel blue, and showing a bright flash of yellow-orange in the dorsal fin. Males in breeding condition also take on an intense yellow-orange over the chest area. Several dark vertical bars may also be seen, depending on the fish's mood. Female fish are usually quite obvious as they grow much larger than the males, and when carrying young, will take on a very rotund appearance. The aquarium should be spacious and contain plenty of hardy plants (both rooted and floating) that will help the fish to feel secure, and which will also enable any fry to hide from the adults when breeding takes place. They will nibble on soft-leaved plants, although will not usually cause too much damage if a diet rich in vegetable matter is offered. Be sure to provide them with hard, alkaline water as they will not fare well under soft, acidic conditions. It is best to keep the Tiburon Limia in good sized groups, with two or three females to every male. However, it is not advisable to keep this species with similar livebearing species as interbreeding is likely to occur. They can, however, be kept with small non-livebearing species that are peaceful and enjoy the same conditions. There is currently a little taxonomic confusion surrounding this species, some experts believing it to be synonymous with
L. dominicensis. The pictured fish were tank bred in the Czech Republic.
Feeding
Green flake, flake, micropellets, small frozen foods, vegetable matter: blanched spinach, lettuce, kale etc. These fish will leave aquatic plants alone if a good proportion of vegetable matter is included in the diet.
Breeding
Easy. The female gestates for around 4 weeks, and then releases a small number of fry (usually 15-40) depending on size of the female. The young are already approximately 6mm long at birth. Adults often predate on the fry, which is why it is important to create a maze of plant cover for the young to hide amongst. Sexual maturity is reached at 4 months of age.
