[See post to watch Flash video]

Copyright © Andrzej Ostropolski 2010

Cordoras Melini will like plenty of plants and driftwood throughout the aquarium, with a central open area for swimming. They should be kept in schools of at least six. The fish are omnivores they will feed on live or frozen brine shrimps, blackworms, daphnia, algae wafers and sinking shrimp pellets. High quality flake food may be used as supplement. Breeding Cordoras Melini is not hard – the addition of new, clean, oxygenated water appears to be the primary stimulus for this species. During spawning, the males will follow the fertile female around and circle her. The eggs are no larger than 1.5 mm and can be left on the glass as well as on plants and spawning mops. Unlike many other catfish species, Corydoras Melini produce rather small batches sometimes less than 10-15 eggs. The eggs will hatch after 4-5 days if the water temperature is around 25ºC. At this point, the fry is around 4 mm and almost invisible from gravel. When the fry hatch, they will feed from their yolk sac for another 48 hours. As the first food for Corydoras Melini fry you can use microworms. As they grow larger, you can start giving them newly hatched brine shrimp and then gradually increase the size of the food. After four weeks they will be over 1 cm long and much thicker than when they hatched.

Copyright © Andrzej Ostropolski 2010

Ancistrus sp is a genus of freshwater tropical fish in the family Loricariidae of order Siluriformes. Native the fish coming from the Amazon River basin, the Negro, lower Trombetas, Tefé, Madeira and Tapajós River basins. Ancistrus is one of most common fish kept by aquarists as good algae-eater, tolerant to a wide range of water conditions, and compatible with most other freshwater tropical fish. The fish are omnivore species that needs a lot of algae based food and vegetables combined with small and infrequent meat food.

Copyright © Andrzej Ostropolski 2010

Breeding this fish is quite easy and straightforward. When fish are mature and ready, males attract females to small cave or hollow where the female will lay about 50 – 200 eggs. The eggs will be attached to the inner walls of the cave. The male will stay close to the eggs to guard them and fan fresh water over the eggs using his ventral and pectoral fins. After 5-7 days when the eggs hatch, the fry will stay inside the cave and the male will continue to guard them. Eventually, the fry will leave the cave and start swimming around. In mature aquarium they should have enough food from algae. You can provide additional food by holding a piece of Romaine salad under hot water for a while before placing it in the aquarium. As fry grow a bit bigger, you can start giving flakes food and tablets. During the following weeks the fry become completely brown. Frequent water changes are imperative since the fry produces an impressive amount of waste products. In two months time they should be around ½ inch long (2.5 cm) and look like small copies of their parents.