Aspidoras dipinnai is one of the newer species of Aspidoras to hit the United
States in recent times. I was lucky enough to swap for a group of small F1 fry from
top breeder Ingo Seidel of Germany. (I’m running out of neat fish to swap with
Ingo, I sure hope he did well with the Rainbow Shiners!). Anyways, if you are
familiar with Aspidoras, you will notice the typical body colors are made up of
black, gray and light silver to white in assorted patches and spots, usually not
showing an easily recognizable pattern through out. These guys are no different and
it would be impossible for me to try to give an accurate description in words to give
you a visual conception of what they look like!
Again, as a typical Aspidoras, they are on the smaller side. Males only reach an inch
in total length and the females just a bit larger, to an inch and an eighth.
My young group grew rather quickly, reaching adult size within ten months of
receiving them. Soon after their adult size was obtained, they must also have
sexually matured and they began to spawn. The first couple clusters of eggs that I
found plastered on the glass only produced a few viable eggs that hatched. It didn’t
take long for them to start a regular routine of spawning about every three weeks.
Eggs, usually around sixty, are deposited both on the glass sides of the aquarium and
in a yarn mop that was placed on the bottom of the aquarium. The ten gallon
aquarium is bare except for a small ATI Hydro-sponge filter and the spawning mop.
The underside of the aquarium is painted black for a sense of security. Water
changes of fifty percent are done every seven to ten days. The pH averages around
6.8, GH 140 ppm, KH 35 ppm and temperature around 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Diet
consist of assorted flake and pellet foods, live baby brine, frozen bloodworms and
live black worms with the last being the best conditioner for breeding.
As I said earlier, they spawn routinely and they have been for over a year now,
but I have not had great success with them! The largest number I’ve had hatch from
a single spawn is five. I’ve learned to appreciate getting two or three from a spawn,
since many spawns produce nothing. To date, I have only raised a dozen!
(YES….enough for the Greater Pittsburgh Aquarium Society’s BAP program!) My breeding group consists of three females and five males so I don’t think the problem
is a “bad” male or a “bad” female. ed. note ( I’ve heard other hobbyists, and I too use
the term “bad” male or “bad” female when breeding attempts continuously fail when
a single pair of fish is set up for breeding. The thought is that one of the fish in the
pair is unable to spawn, possibly due to a physical or internal problem, age, etc.) I
have tried various conditions with both the breeders’ aquarium and in the methods of
hatching the eggs. I am kind of running out of ideas on what to try next but I will
keep slugging away at it. Maybe it’s something simple like they need to mature to
five years before they ‘really’ reach maturity and start to produce good
spawns…yeah, that’s it, five years, I’ll just keep trying and see what happens....... ©
2007
