# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna >  Indostomus paradoxus

## hwchoy

this is the one from Myanmar, _Indostoums paradoxus_.



hellooooo little worms, dun shy dun shy, come out and play  :Grin:

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## benny

I suppose only tubifex worms are small enough for it?

Cheers,

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## stormhawk

These guys will feed on live daphnia, newly hatched BBS, microworms, walterworms and yes, live tubifex too.  :Smile: 

Easy to keep species, non-demanding and very shy too.

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## ranmasatome

i want leh...but no space..lol :Smug:

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## mickthefish

they are a paradoxical fish, but nice to see , are they breedable?

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## stormhawk

Yes they are breedable. They are cave/crevice spawners. The Germans used small PVC tubes to breed this species. The males are slimmer than the females. Females will get alot fatter and produce greenish eggs which can be seen through the armour plates at the belly region. I think Ralf Britz published an article on spawning them but I don't have a copy of it I think. If I do I'll notify via this thread.

I had several with some gravid females but they never spawned for me. Maybe because I kept them in a community setting. Sadly all of them are no longer around. I took a pic of a dead but gravid females showing the green eggs I mentioned but I have to look around for the pic. Stashed it somewhere. Unfortunately they're not available of late so I'll have to wait a little more before I come across any again for a future breeding attempt.  :Sad:

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## Justikanz

Cool looking.  :Smile:  I was wondering for the longest time what fish was Choy's avatar...  :Razz: 

But what exactly are they? Sticklebacks?  :Opps:

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## hwchoy

> Cool looking.  I was wondering for the longest time what fish was Choy's avatar... 
> 
> But what exactly are they? Sticklebacks?



yes sticklebacks. for a long time (since 1929) only one species was recognised, the _Indostomus paradoxus_. then in 1999 Ralf Britz and Maurice Kottelat described the populations from southern Thailand as _I. crocodilus_ and those from the Mekong as _I. spinosa_.

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## Kross

This is one interesting fish!

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## Justikanz

For SO long, I had tot that sticklebacks are only found in Europe and are cold water fish... Never tot that there would be Asian sticklebacks. Would they be available for keeping? They sure look extremely interesting for a planted tank...  :Smile:

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## alanng

nice nice.. like pipe fish.. how much? where to get it?

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## Quixotic

For those who are interested in the _Indostomus sp._, found them at TB Ben. Not sure the exact species.

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## Ibn

Remember reading about sticklebacks a long time ago in a TFH book on breeding. These pics bring back fond memories.

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## Shaihulud

Y618 is selling I_ndostomus_ in their diamond shrimp tank. Its so small that i doubt anyone notices them  :Very Happy: , am thinking of gspecially getting a nano tank to keep 2 of them.

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## benny

I also saw them yesterday at C328 with valice. We were considering, but their dietary requirement is a bit of a challenge and frankly, this isn't a fish that we can just dump into a community setup. Probably won't survive.

Still tempted, but the certainly of doom held me back. As such, we left the shop empty handed. 

Cheers,

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## hwchoy

they seem to survive pretty well in a heavily planted tank, especially those with thick carpet scape.

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## Wackytpt

Benny, are they the super small size one in one of the small tank?

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## benny

> they seem to survive pretty well in a heavily planted tank, especially those with thick carpet scape.


They might do well in a planted tank, they are also able to fit through the Eheim filter inlet basket. Inevitable end..




> Benny, are they the super small size one in one of the small tank?


Yes of course. In the goby tanks. Just as Mrs. Toh if you are not sure.

Cheers,

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## hwchoy

nah they aren't that stupid and can be very fast moving. mine survived amongst the hairgrass for a very very long time.

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## Ah_ZhaN

Choy, are they capable of accepting artificial daphnia powder readily ?? Or stubborn with live food solely ?

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## hwchoy

actually I never see them eat except bbs.

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## Ah_ZhaN

So when you ran out of BBS, what do you feed ? Or you can supply BBS all the way ?

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## Quixotic

I think they only go for live food, never touch the dry food. I fed mine with BBS and tubifex previously.

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## Ah_ZhaN

Quixotic,
You comm them with any other fishes ? Or purely a species tank ?  :Grin:

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## Quixotic

If I remember correctly, there are some other fishes but can't remember what. It didn't do too well.

I think it will do better on its own, or with lots of plants as cover, or for any micro food found among them in case live food is a problem.

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## Shaihulud

Propably throw in some tubifex worm and hope they eats it, or that nothing eats it before them. They are realllly small and im wary of getting fishes that i can't keep. Maybe a tank with daphnia or in a shrimp tank with baby shrimp heheh.

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## Ah_ZhaN

I got 6 specimens for around a week plus(kept them together as a species tank). So far I have only witnessed them taking tubifex worms. And 1 tubifex per fish is enough to suffice them for the day, i.e, 1 Indostomus paradoxus which ate 1 tubifex worm won't crave for a second helping.  :Surprised:  I shall commence my training of feeding ADP soon.  :Grin:

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## GaspingGurami

Mine starved rather than take dried/frozen food.

LL

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## Ibn

Bump for some beautiful fish. Finally able to locate some in the US.  :Smile:  Now the question is which one?

1. Indostomus paradoxus
2. Thai armored stickleback, just labeled as Indostomus sp.

Anyone have any idea of what species the 2nd one is? The picture from the website is quite small and I've never kept these guys before. 


Anyone care to try to ID the I. sp. in the picture and also shed some info on their care? I'm considering picking some up for a 4.4 gallon (24x6.5x6.5) tank with some shrimps.

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## Quixotic

> very hard to tell the three species apart. _I. paradoxus_ (my avatar, see http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...d.php?p=147452) from Myanmar, _I. crocodilus_ from southern Thailand, and _I. spinosa_ from northeastern Thailand.


According to uncle Choy, it's rather difficult to ID these guys, so if there are no better pictures... *shrug*

Eric, don't think too much and just pick them up! Nice little fishes that is hard to come by.

Michael Schlüter used PVC pipes for hiding places and spawning them. The article seems to tie in with my expeirence that they only take live food, like cyclops, artemia, daphnia.
http://translate.google.com/translat...omus%26hl%3Den

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## Quixotic

Another article from Alexander Dorn.
http://translate.google.com/translat...dorn%26hl%3Den

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## Ibn

Thanks for those links. Read the second one earlier today, but that first one is new to me. I went ahead and ordered 6 I. paradoxus since the other ones were actually out of stock.

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## Quixotic

According to a new published DNA research, it is found that Indostomus paradoxus, is a close relative of the spiny-eels. It is more closely related to synbranchiform (swamp and spiny) eels than to other gasterosteiform fishes (sticklebacks, pipefishes and their relatives).

Intrestingly, it is also suggested that the pipefishes, seahorses etc may be more closely related to gobies than they are to the sticklebacks.

Here is some information from Practical Fishkeeping
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.u....php?news=1584

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## fishkipper

i got some from a bait shop, they look nice for a while, but they only accept live food so they all died of in about 3 weeks.

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## vstudio

Got mine from Wu Hu a while back! :Smile:

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## EvolutionZ

just to share.. i don't feed my fishes with life food.. almost 2 months ago, i bought 2 of this fishes.. after a week, they went missing and i thought they were dead..
till a week ago, i noticed both of them swimming out.. i think either they ate the NLS pellets i fed, or they were on starvation for almost 2 months?

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## hwchoy

if your tank is heavily planted and have a good collectio of mulch amongst the vegetation, then they can easily survive on the micro-organisms.

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## EvolutionZ

yea, my tank quite heavily planted.. guess its time for me to buy some live food for them!

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## vstudio

> Choy, are they capable of accepting artificial daphnia powder readily ?? Or stubborn with live food solely ?


Erm...I've seen mine eating frozen bloodworms.. :Smile:

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## ryangiggs

Sorry to bumped up this old post... anyone had any success in breeding these?

I bought a few of these last year... i think around 6-8... 

Most of the time they are hiding in my densely planted 3ft tank... sometimes i wondered if they are still there coz i cannot see them for months at a time... and the most i can see is 2-3 came out... never all at the same time...

Yesterday i saw 1 which was very bloated at the stomach... i wonder if it is pregnant? Can it be successfully bred in captivity?

I have 2 albino cory, dozen Otos, many Fire Reds shrimps, dozen amano shrimps, 4 starlight bristle, 3 Wood shrimps (2 pregnant as well)

I am wondering are they feeding the amano shrimps larvae? Do i need to seperate the indostomus for spawning?

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