Breeding Hoplisoma similis

Hoplisoma similis is also known as the Smudge Spot Corydoras.

It originates from the Rio Madeira Basin in Brazil. It inhabits small tributaries, creeks, pools and areas of flooded forest.

It is a medium sized Corydoras reaching up to 5cm in length.

Water parameters for Hoplisoma similis are listed as being 22-26 degrees Celsius, a рH range of 6.5-7.5 and TDS of up to 250.

I first bought a group of 6 sub adult Hoplisoma similis off Eddie Tootel from the ASOV in early 2023.

Eddie had had a good run of breeding them over covid19 and he had lots of sub adults to sell.

They settled well into my 150 litre 120cm long aquarium which contained other Corydoras types and some rainbow fish.

I kept them at 25 degrees Celsius. pH 7 and a TDS of 200.

I conditioned my Hoplisoma similis on protein pellets flake and frozen food and I was expecting them to breed for me but alas there was no sign of any breeding activity from them.

Being a Hoplisoma I thought that they would be relatively easy to breed.

I bought another 6 Hoplisoma similis off Eddie for my brother and his were going wel too but there were no signs of his breeding either.

I decided to move a trio of my Hoplisoma similis (2 males and 1 female) into another 120cm 150 litre aquarium with some driftwood and subwassertang.

I reduced the temperature to 22 degrees Celsius and kept the other water parameters the same as there original aquarium.

I fed the trio some frozen bloodworms to help condition them further for breeding.

One day I was checking in on them and found that the female Hoplisoma similis was swimming around carrying and egg in between her anal fins.

I have bred Hoplisoma trilineatus before so I was aware of how these Corydoras spawn.

The female Hoplisoma similis was looking for a place to deposit her egg and I lost sight if her as she swam over the driftwood and into the subwassertang.

I decided to place a floating spawning mop into the breeding aquarium near an air driven sponge filter so there was water movement near the mop.

I have read that Corydoras like to deposit their eggs near some sort of water flow probably to reduce the likelihood of fungus developing on the eggs.

I checked the mop a day later and found a number of brown 1mm sized eggs had been deposited onto the mop by the female Hoplisoma similis.

I removed the eggs from the mop to hatch out in a seive that was suspended in a fry tank with the same water parameters but slightly warmer at 25 degrees Celsius with an air driven sponge filter for aeration.

I also had some Indian almond leaves in the fry tank which had darkened the water slightly.

About 4 days later the Hoplisoma similis eggs hatched and I released the tiny fry into the fry aquarium.

I could not see the fry foraging but I was feeding them with microworms as well as some fry powder.

About a month later I saw that the Hoplisoma similis fry had grown to arouup 1cm.

I am continuing to grow out the fry and have had more spawns from the trio of Hoplisoma similis since the first lot of eggs.

I found that the Hoplisoma similis spawning was triggered by the full moon on one occasion and a low pressure event from a storm front on another occasion.

I could see the 2 male Hoplisoma similis avidly chasing the female prior to both spawning events.

I believe that having 2 males to 1 female is a key consideration in spawning these Corydoras because the female is hounded by the males until spawning.

I do not believe that one male could keeр up the constant pressure on the female in order to get her to lay eggs which is why the 2 male system seems so effective.

Hoplisoma similis is a very attractive fish and well worth keeping and breeding in my opinion.