PlanetCatfish.com

Just wanted to see who else is currently keeping Aspidoras out there? I picked up 2 different species from Nabob_Mob (on this forum) earlier this year, and got some (as of yet) unidentified Aspidoras from an LFS a little over a week ago. I've spawned all three types and I'm having a lot of fun with them. They are a bit more active and entertaining than most of my Corydoras, and at least so far their fry seem to grow a lot faster than the Corys too. I'll try to post pics as soon as I get a photo tank set up, they are hard to photgraph in a full size tank as they move around too much. The two identified species I'm currently keeping are Aspidoras spilotus and C118. I make no promises but with a little luck I'll have more than enough fry to trade or sell in a few months.

I currently maintain four species of Aspidoras, C118, spilotus, albater, and C35. Are you have stated, they are very active and easy to breed. I am always looking for other species.

Mark

Currently I only keep A. poecilus and CW52, but have kept and bred others over the years; C35, C118, C119, C125, eurycephalus, taurus and cf. rochai.

All but eurycephalus and C35 I found very easy. 119 I never got to breeding...they were very agressive to eachother.

@mark, Great to other Aspidoras fans. I believe I've narrowed down the unknown Aspidoras down to either A.depinnai or A.sp."black fin" (aka CW52 I think). Or there's always the possibility that it's a "Frankenstein" mixed Aspidora. I think the fry will help answer the question, because as the name says they'll have a "black (dorsal)fin" for the 1st few weeks of life if it's CW052. I'll keep this post updated, and if you're interested I can hopefully get you some when they mature a bit.

@kim m - I would love to keep A.poecilus, and I've read they're at risk of falling out of the hobby -so keep up the good work! I'm very impressed by your list Aspidoras, it seems I'm on the wrong side of the Atlantic! I may be wrong but it appears only a few species are ever readily (though still rarely) available in the U.S. I've heard of aggresive Aspidoras before - I believe it was Aspidoras sp. Goia is this the same as C119?

@rmc: I happen to be lucky to know a few people in the UK and Germany who do/did quite a good variety of Aspidoras species. I forgot A. depinnai in my list BTW

Usually they are vary hard to come by. The only commercially imported species you will find here is taurus and "araguaia" wich seems to be spilotus or C125 (?).

I am not shure if C119 and sp. Goias are the same.

Well, I am pretty sure I have ID'ed my unknown Aspidoras now. After they spawned I'm growing out a group of fry and they all have black dorsals and tails, so it looks like CW52 is a match. The pictures of CW52 adults on corydorasworld.com are the closest match to my adults so it makes sense. Also won an aquabid auction last week for A.albater F1's, so that'll make 4 types. Hopefully other species will make their way onto some import lists.

Would keep them but probably not allowed in NZ . Not many fish are compared to other countries.

Bummer. Do they have good reasons why? I know here in the U.S. we can't keep certain fish and plants because of (usually unscientifically proven) fear that they will be released in the wild and spread, but I didn't know other countries had rules on what you can and cannot keep.

I hope you don’t mind another Aspidoras fan joining in on the conversation;

I keep; Aspidoras spilotus, Aspidoras albator and Aspidoras pauciradiatus.
The albator and spilotus are good spawners and I even find eggs in the hang on the back filters, how they manage to get into the filter, lay eggs and escape is amazing to me
These fish seem to prefer laying eggs where there is current moving over the eggs.
The albator and spilotus are very curious and not a bit shy, the pauciradiatus can be a bit more shy and do spawn but, eat eggs as fast as they are laid.

I agree on the fry growth rates, I found out that other than C. aeneus fry, the Aspidoras
fry will out-compete other fry for food, they are much faster at finding food items.
In my fry tanks, I make sure that if mixing the fry, only C. aeneus fry go in with Aspidoras fry, otherwise the Corydoras fry may starve, at least this is an observation I’ve made.

Don

Glad to hear from another Aspidoras fan Don! I am finding the same thing as you I think. I have my C118 fry (which seem to be the least voracious of all the Aspidoras fry I've worked with) in with older C. sterbai fry right now, and it's time to separate them! The sterbai's are not even in the race when it comes to feeding time! That is amazing about the hang on the back filter! My CW052's have been pretty funny when it comes to their egg laying lately. I found a big pile of eggs on the outside of my floating fry container, then 4 eggs laid in pairs on opposite sides of a 4 leaf pattern plant - almost like they planned it that way! The next day I found 2 eggs one on either side of a big ramshorn snail. I showed a few friends and we all had a good laugh. Here's a pic of the 4 eggs on the plant and the eggs on the fry container - not the best quality image, but you get the idea:

Hi rmc,
Yes they are amazing little fish!
I just took a few pictures on my cell phone(Sorry for the quality) but, without taking the filter apart here are some eggs laid tonight on the outlets of the HOB filter, this is a two outlet filter and they swim up stream to lay eggs its very comical to watch actually. The only bad thing is that I have had them overshoot the falls so to speak and find a female dried on the floor!
I also ended up taking out the filter cartridges because they kept getting caught on the back side of them in the actual filter box!

I placed small arrows by egg pictures in ms paint, I hope the pictures show enough detail.

Don

That's pretty cool! I read somewhere that in nature they sometimes lay their eggs on emerged rocks that have water flowing over them. So I'm thinking that's the idea there. Good way to prevent egg predation!

Due to circumstances that are not worth discussing, I only have 2 (but very lively) C118 remaining. If there is someone out there who would be willing to part with another 7, I would love to start breeding them again.