Article © Des Penny, uploaded January 01, 2002.

I have always had an interest in Microglanis and one day soon after Christmas I went into a local shop which was selling some Microglanis at a low price of only £1 each. I purchased twelve of them and took them home. On the way home I was delayed and the fish got quite cold.

When I eventually arrived home I placed these fish in a 90 x 45 x 45 cm tank the furnishing of which consisted of loads of bogwood and pipes for the fish to hide away in. The aquarium was bereft of plants as it had no light over it and it is also in a dark corner where it is quiet and fairly undisturbed except when feeding the other tanks over it.

The pH varies from a low of 4.8 to a high of about 6.0. Hardness is between 8 - 10° GH. Water changes take place about once a fortnight if they are lucky. The colour of the water is like tea. Temperature varies between 22°C to a high of 25.5°C.

The other fish in the tank were a collection of Dianema longibarbis, D. urostriata, Brochis splendens, assorted Corydoras and Banjo Catfish, Opsodoras sp., Amblydoras hancocki and a small shoal of six unidentified characins which have occasionally spawned.

They were fed shredded cod, coley, prawns, mussels, cockles and ox-heart. They also got live Daphnia, bloodworm and river shrimp when I could collect it.

One day when I was feeding the tank I noticed something small dart in, grab some food and disappear. On investigation, which meant taking out about six pieces of bogwood and about the same number of pipes (although this still left some bogwood and pipes in the tank), I discovered that there was between 30-40 young Microglanis at about 12 mm long present.

I left them in the tank with all the other fish, replaced all the bogwood and pipes and carried on feeding the same cocktail of food. They are now between and 30 and 40 mm in length and need a fairly constant supply of food as they quickly loose their belly. They are perfect replicas of the adults.

I can only hazard a guess at what triggered them to spawn. It could be any of the following or something totally different:

• They had a drop in temperature and were then quickly warmed up
• The characins spawning could have triggered them off
• It could have been the food cocktail
• A combination of any of the above

At the present time I estimate them to be about four months old. I am going to set up a tank for them in the future and try to spawn them again only this time I will keep a very close watch on them and try to find out how they spawn and record any other details.

There is further information on this species on the Cat-eLog page.

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