 These
are a new, undescribed species of Aspidoras catfish that
have recently been bred by one of Germany’s top catfish breeders,
Erik Schiller. Senger is mentioned in association with the “orientation”
of the fish, so until the scientific world officially describes
the fish, it can be identified in the hobby as Aspidoras
species (sp.) “Senger.”
I am fortunate to have “fishhead” friends living here
in the States and in Germany, who are also friends with Erik. Usually
once or twice a year, at least one of these friends have an occasion
to travel back and forth between the USA and Germany and will gladly
transport fish for me along with them. This is how I obtained my
group of these little rarities, about eight months ago in November
2002.
When I received the fish they were still very young and unsexable.
As with most Aspidoras their growth rate is quick and within
several months they obtained a size of an inch or better. Once they
reached this adult size, surprisingly, they started to spawn for
me!
The group of adults, eight fish, is housed in a bare-bottomed, fifteen-gallon
aquarium. The underside is painted black for their comfort. A sponge
filter with a one-inch lift tube with good airflow provides the
filtering. Water changes of fifty percent are done every seven to
ten days. Water pH ranges from 6.6-7.0 between changes. Temperature
ranges in the mid to upper 70’s. The TDS reading average is
260. Their diet consists of live blackworms, frozen bloodworms,
live baby brine shrimp, and assorted sinking food sticks and crushed
flakes, feedings usually twice a day.
They place their eggs in either a small cluster of 20-30 in the
middle of the glass on the side of the aquarium or in a yarn mop
which lays on the aquarium floor or…. are you ready for this….
in the inside of the lift tube of the sponge filter! (I guess they
like the current!)
When they started spawning it was about every five days, but I wasn’t
able to hatch out any of the eggs. They appeared to be “bad”
eggs right from the start; I blamed this on the young age of the
fish. Just because they were large and spawning doesn’t mean
they are old enough to have viable spawns. I think this is a common
problem with many Corydoras species, too. As the weeks passed, I
started to get a fry or two to hatch. I took comfort in this, knowing
that it was just a matter of time before the hatch rate improved.
One thing I started to do was add a few gallons of R/O water each
week, bringing the TDS reading down to 158. The hatch rate slowly
increased over the weeks and I’m now getting hatches of forty
to fifty percent. I do believe that the increase is due to the fish
ageing a bit and the softer water isn’t hurting either.
These fish are easy to maintain, very active and peaceful as all
the species of Aspidoras are. They would be a pleasant
addition to any aquarium housing smaller community fish, not to
mention that you would be one of the few to have them!
|
Up
5
|
