Atipa, Brown Hoplo

Geographic Origin and Biotope: Monstrously widespread over almost all Latin America, from east of Trinidad and Tobago down to south in Argentina. King of the mud: fearlessly dominates seasonal drying pools, hypoxic swamps, and acidic blackwater trickles, moving when necessary over muddy dry land.

Taxonomy and Morphology: Absolute colossus of the Callichthyidae family. Popularly renamed "Brown Hoplo", it touches 20 cm (8 inches) in size (true "armoured beast"). Thick barrel-shaped siluriform, shielded on the flanks. Structures the absorption of gaseous oxygen directly in the hyper-vascularized viscera.

Social Behavior: Quiet nocturnal tank. Willingly coexists with conspecifics, passively stacked during the day between branches and foliage. Unleashed dragon of the seabed with the arrival of evening, where the 20-centimeter sizes will mess up the entire riverbed.

Coloration and Sexual Dimorphism: Pure utility with no frills. Monochromatic "stealth" livery: armored brown-green (often perfectly muddy). The mature male outshines the female with abnormal curved first pectoral spines and reddish fangs/villi for nuptial grip.

Aquarium Setup: Pachydermic aquariums with solidly covered panes (they attempt mass escapes by jumping high). Requires imposing carpets of fine sand and very solid and immovable furnishings (glued rocks, giant pipes, immense mopani). Any coarse substrate will fatally disfigure it.

Diet and Feeding: The greedy omnivorous fury. Extremely broad-spectrum scavenger. Never satiated, exterminates infesting snails, demands epic doses of massive granular pellets, immense earthworms and mixed bottom meal; cleans up decaying plant remains.

Water Quality: Biological ironclad in every sense. Ranges without stress in enormous thermal gaps (20-28°C / 68-82°F) and tolerates chemical swings as acidic (pH 5.5) as basic (pH 7.5). Mixed water hardness (GH 2-20). Nitrate accumulation that would intoxicate it must be stopped, always providing surface oxygen.

Compatibility and Tankmates: Indifferent to fish swimming in mid-water. Supreme companion for large tanks of South American beasts: Oscars, Midas Cichlids, Arowanas. However, it will munch overnight on anything tiny that dares to rest on the bottom of its aquarium.

Aquarium Reproduction: Surface nester in grand style. The male engineers and fiercely defends with bites large frothy castles (bubbles) under floating debris and foliage. Having fertilized the adhering eggs, the male becomes a ruthless fury: immediately remove any female and conspecific.

Risks and Diseases: Point of weakness: the very long barbels. If forced onto rough gravel, it lethally splits them, causing devastating septicemia. High mortality and intolerance towards intoxication in the tank by copper, undissolved salt or malachite green.