| Common Name | Bubble eye
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| Species/genus |
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| Keeping | These are extremely delicate fishes and need to be
handled with great care and by expert aquarists. As their name implies, they have a large
bubble like sack just below their eyes, something like swollen eyelash. Their body is similar
to Oranda and usually come in bright orange colours. There are also other colours such as
metallic, calico etc.. A lion head form is also available which lacks the dorsal fins. Usually
all these are very slow swimmers and they are not competitive. The bubbles are prone to
break if hurt or pricked by something sharp. So care should be taken not to keep any sharp objects
such as gravel, strong plants, wood etc.. in their tanks. Normally kept in a barren glass
tank with external HOB filters and may be live plants of soft variety such as Cobomba. They
cannot be kept with any other species or other gold fish. They have to be on their own tanks.
Given good conditions and space they can grow from 3 to 5 inches long, excluding fins. The bubbles grow
bigger with age.
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| Breeding | Select a pair of healthy male and female. You can have multiple males
and females breed together as a mass. Have a 20 Gallon breeding tank with some plants and a sponge filter which
does not produce a very strong water movement. Water level to be not more than 6 inches. Clean conditioned water should be provided. After introducing the male and female condition them with live foods for a week. Then make
a 40% water change with cool fresh water. You can add some ice to the water to make it cool before adding it
to the tank. The drop in temperature will stimulate the fish to breed. The male chases the female
vigorously, but not violently. The female is pushed to a corner and the male shimmies around the female.
Eggs and sperm are released and eggs get fertilized. Eggs are colourless and sticky. They normally stick
to plants. Parents may eat the eggs so remove them after spawning. Males can be identified by small tubercules
near the Gill covers during breeding period. Normally male will be less rounded than female and will
chase her around mostly.
Eggs will hatch after 4 or 5 days. Eggs can be spoiled by fungus, spoiled eggs are white milky coloured.
So keep the gentle filter action and add a few drops of methylene blue to the water. Fry may need freshly
hatched brine shrimp to start with. They grow fast and soon should be able to eat powdered flakes and other
vegetable matter. Good quality fry can be obtained only if the parents are strong and healthy.
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| Origin | Temp | Water | Temper
| Size | Tank | Food | Breeding
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| Japan | 65-75°F | 7.2-7.6 pH
| Very Peaceful | 3-5 inch | 20G Tanks
| All, worms | Egg layer
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