Blackbelly limia

Care at a glance

Overview

Keep six or more in 60 liters or larger at 22 to 28 C, pH 7.5 to 8.5, in hard water. Feed a varied diet of vegetable flake, algae based foods, and frozen daphnia or brine shrimp. Peaceful and undemanding, they make a good hard water community fish with rainbowfish or other livebearers. Keep two females per male to ease the constant courting.

In the wild

A hardy, attractive limia whose females carry a dark belly patch and whose fins show black barring, set against blue tinged flanks in good condition. Keep a group in a hard water tank with plants and open swimming space. They graze algae and take most foods. Stable hard water keeps their colors up.

Good to know

Limia melanogaster is a livebearer in the same family as guppies and mollies, native only to Jamaica. Males reach about 4 cm and females about 5 to 6 cm, with the black belly of gravid females giving the species its name. Broods are moderate and the fry are easy to raise.

Did you know

Gravid females develop the dark belly blotch that gives the blackbelly limia its name, a handy sign that fry are on the way.

Related species

• 

  Humpbacked limia

  Limia nigrofasciata

  2.4 in (6 cm)20 gal (75 L)72–82°F (22–28°C)

• 

  Cuban limia

  Limia vittata

  3.9 in (10 cm)18 gal (70 L)73–82°F (23–28°C)

• 

  Perugia's limia

  Limia perugiae

  2.8 in (7 cm)20 gal (75 L)72–82°F (22–28°C)

• 

  Cauca molly

  Poecilia caucana

  2.4 in (6 cm)16 gal (60 L)77–86°F (25–30°C)

• 

  Dusky millions fish

  Phalloceros caudimaculatus

  2.4 in (6 cm)12 gal (45 L)64–75°F (18–24°C)

• 

  Guppy

  Poecilia reticulata

  2.4 in (6 cm)13 gal (50 L)64–82°F (18–28°C)