When it comes to sexual identification, the male
Hujeta Fish can be differentiated from the females from its smaller body size and unlike the female which can develop plump body appearance (due to eggs development) during mating season, the male fish is overall very slim.
Breeding usually takes place when the temperature is kept at an ideal level of 27 to 28 which is slightly higher than the normal water temperature that they used to live in. Once mating is done, the eggs are released to the water surface and it will quickly sink to the bottom and adhere to any surface that it comes into contact with. I would suggest a tank setup with lots of plants and rocks to be used as a perfect hatchery because this will prevent the parents of cannibalizing and making a meal out of its own eggs.
For successful breeding routine, it is best that you should maintain a ratio of two males against one single female to ensure that all the eggs ended up fertilized. You should immediately remove the parents once the mating ritual is over usually ends after 2 hours period and in a single spawn each healthy Hujeta gar mating pair can produce anywhere between 2000 to 5000 eggs. With clean water condition and constant water temperature maintained throughout the period after fertilization, the eggs should hatch in about 2 days.
The fry can be free swimming after 4 to 5 days and during this critical period, you should provide ample supply of live baby fish foods such as
brine shrimp and
daphnia. In about a week, you should start feeding them microworms in order to accelerate their growth. Young hujeta should be fed as often as possible so that this will avoid cannibalism within the group. If this is not properly done, you will find that the larger fry will end up eating the smaller ones and the numbers will reduce significantly. Low mortality rate has always been an issue with raising baby hujeta fish.
Other interesting fish to consider as new pet:
African Lionhead Cichlids
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