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ne day as I was visiting a local store, out of the corner of my eye I spotted two little fish swimming vigorously up and down one corner of the tank, so I decided that a better examination was called for. When I peered into the tank all I could see was two little Aspidoras. I could not determine as to what their sex may be, as they were on the smallish side but I took the chance that the behaviour I had noticed earlier and continued to observe, which was mainly that the smaller of the two was pursuing the other larger one, was an indication that they may possibly be of different sex. As there were only the two left, I went ahead and purchased them both.

Aspidoras raimundi - (C125)

Upon arriving home I placed them in a ‘hospital’ tank measuring 25cm x 17cm x 17cm., the water being mature tank water with a PH of neutral 7. The filter was a small air powered sponge filter, the temperature of the water was kept at 24°C and the fish were fed twice daily. In the morning they got a small amount of pre soaked flake food and in the evening (about ½ an hour before lights out) a feeding of newly hatched brine shrimp. I also did a 20% water change every morning using water that was at room temperature.

The fish were quarantined for ten days and as they showed no signs of disease were moved into a tank that contained a couple of pairs of Skiffia Multipunctata livebearers. The tank measured 50cm x 29cm x 19cm and had a sand substrate and filtered by a air powered small corner box filter, the air flow was on what I would describe as being neither too slow or too fast. I fed them one day on newly hatched brine shrimp and flake, and the next day on newly hatched brine shrimp and grindall worm and so on. On average I did 15% water changes probably six out of seven days. Into one corner of the tank I placed a woolen breeding mop.

Over the next couple of months around a dozen eggs were found on an average of every ten days, but these always (no matter what I did) fungused up. This led me to believe that maybe the fish were too young to be fertile, so I decreased the amount of water changes I did to 5% daily and 30% on the seventh day.

After a couple of months of this the fish had grown with the ‘female’ measuring 30mm and the ‘male’ measuring 25mm and
so I decided to try again. This time I carried out 10% every day, with on the seventh day doing a 30% water change. Every time I carried out a water change the temperature of the water dropped to 22°C. After eight days the fish spawned and 23 eggs were collected from within the spawning mop and that part of the glass that the mop was pressed up against. These eggs were put into a small plastic container and an air stone added, the next day a further 9 eggs was collected from the same area and there were no signs that the Skiffia had been eating, or trying to eat the eggs. The eggs took around 30 hours to hatch. After a further day the fry no longer carried their yolk sacs, and the fry were then added to a small tank that was filtered using a small air operated sponge filter, and had very similar water measurements as to the tank they had been spawned in.

The water conditions at the time just prior to spawning (these fish have only spawned during night time) were:- Temp 22°C, PH 6.5,GH 3°, KH 3°, nitrates nil, & nitrite nil.