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Danny Blundell (1) Johnny Jensen's Photographic Library (3) Allan James (1) Sebastián Preisz (1)

Description: Similar looking to Callichthys callichthys but is smaller and its body is not as flattened as this species and has larger eyes. Habitat: Unlike all other genera of subfamily Callichthyinae, the species of Lepthoplosternum are absent in the northern portion of the South American continent, north of the Rio Amazonas. The species list that are in the upper Rio Amazonas are, Peru (L. altamazonicum), middle Rio Madeira (L. beni), Rio Paraguay (L. pectorale), and in the laguna dos Patos drainage (L. tordilho) in southern Brazil (Roberto E. Reis). Aquarium Care: Peaceful species which will do well in a planted tank with free swimming place. They can be quite easily housed in your planted community tank as they don't grow as large as Megalechis thoracata or Hoplosternum littorale and don't show any aggressive tendencies. Being from the southern parts of the South American continent it prefers tempertures to be on the lower side of tropical i.e: under 75°f. Reproduction: This is a bubble-nester, where the female deposits her eggs in floating plant material or a floating polystyrene lid. Will attempt to spawn in a community setup, but if they do it would be a good idea to move the pair to their own breeding tank to make sure that the spawning is successful, in that the fry will survive the attentions of the rest of the tank inmates. Males have thicker pectoral spnes. To read a report on breeding this species you can go to the breeding article section for an indepth look at "how to do it". Diet: As with most "Hoplo's" a good varied diet of frozen, live and a good quality flake food. It will eat most things given and of course keeping up the water changes.

Dwarf Hoplo

Hoplosternum pectorale, Hoplosternum magdalenae, Callichthys pectoralis, Hoplosternum pectoralis.

Callichthyidae

South America: Paraguay River basin. Type locality: Monte Sociedad, Paraguayan Chaco.

8.5cm (3½ins)

20-23°C (67-73°F)

6.0-7.0.

Ferraris, C.J. Jr., 2007. Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types. Zootaxa 1418:1-628.
ScotCat Factsheet no. 30. Dec. 1998.