By John Reid
Breeding Tatia Intermedia & Rasbora Espei
An interesting account by club member John Reid on how he was able to breed an unusual South American catfish and an attractive Asian rasbora in the same tank.
Tatia Intermedia Rasbora Espei 
Origin - South America, Origin - Thailand
River Amazon
Size 12cm Size 4.5cm
Temp 21-24°C Temp 24 - 28° C
PH 6.5 - 7.5 PH 5 - 6.5
I received a pair of Tatia Intermedia from Graham Ramsay and placed them in a 30 inch tank with around ½ inch of fine sand, three pieces of bog wood with a large amount of Java moss covering the bog wood and two pieces of clay pipe. The tank temperature was 25°C and I used three sponge filters for filtration. I had the light on for around eight hours per day. I varied the feeding from flake food to white worm, frozen foods and occasionally earth worm.
Around six weeks later I decided to add twelve female and four male, Rasbora Espei as there appeared to be no fry from the Tatia Intermedia. At the same time I added a large amount of Indian fern. I did a fifty percent water change, the temperature was increased to 28°C and I added black water extract.
It was around ten days later I started to see tiny fry in the Java moss. I fed them on microworm, decapsulated brine shrimp and brine shrimp. I was concerned that the adult fish would eat the fry but to my surprise the fry all survived and grew very quickly.
I was cleaning under the bog wood and found what looked like a large mass of frog spawn. I did not want to lose the eggs so I removed them to an ice cream container with an air line. After six days there was approximately five hundred tatia fry and two days later they were looking for food. I fed them on micro worm and ZM O grade flake. The fry are now three weeks old and although I have lost a number of them in the first week they are growing well and have been transferred to an eighteen inch tank to grow.
Article first appeared on West Lothian Aquarist Society web site.
http://westlothianaquaristsociety.vze.com