Tropidophoxinellus hellenicus

Tropidophoxinellus are a small genus of two Greek and two North African species. They are superficially similar to Alburnus but both genera seem not to be related. To fall in love with Tropi's is not easy as they are just small, silvery fishes, but I am a fan of these mini-bleaks. Tropidophoxinellus hellenicus is not a threatened species but I was so keen to keep and breed them, that I could not resist, when I visited Greece witin the activities of the FREDIE project. My broodstock of seven juveniles originates from lower Pinios River on Peloponnese were it was collected in late 2011. As they occur in lakes and there are no reports, that they migrate to rivers to spawn, I was optimistic that they will do well at FSJF. In a large outdoor tank, they breed in 2012, at an age of about one year. But only one juvenile was found in November 2012. The spawners had grown very nicely during summer 2012 and all survived the winter. They started to spawn in May 2013 and in late May, the tank was full of small larvae just ready to start swimming up. Parts of the larvae were taken to an extra tank where they grow well. Then, the adults spawned again several times and the breeding tank was full of larvae and small juveniles in late summer. In November 2013 I realized, I have maybe breed more than 150 small Tropis, so they are ready to be given to other small fish freaks. In 2014, I did not remove the juveniles and the broodstock had increased to 20 adults. But still about 50 juveniles were present in the tank in fall. This species turns out to be very easy to breed but very few people like to keep it.