Care
The Lesser spiny eel is commonly found in heavily vegetated, sluggish sections of tropical rivers and swamps, where it spends much of the day buried in the sandy or silty substrate, emerging during the evening to feed on crustaceans, insect larvae, and worms. Adults tend to inhabit larger rivers.
This oddball makes an unusual addition to the peaceful fish community where there are no small fish present. The aquarium should have a soft sand substrate so that these diggers can bury themselves, and plenty of hiding places amongst plant thickets, bogwood, smooth rocky caves, PVC pipes and so on. Larger specimens are capable of undermining the decor, so do ensure everything is well supported and secure (many aquarists like to place the decor on the base of the aquarium prior to adding substrate around it). Indian Almond Leaves (Terminalia catappa) are also very much appreciated as 'leaf litter', but these must be replaced on a regular basis as they gradually decompose. The footprint (length and width) of the tank is much more important than the height. Lighting can be diffused with the use of floating plants if the eels are shy, but keeping them in groups will often give them the confidence to be more day active. Although they tend to stay buried for much of the day with just their snouts protruding from the cover, they do become very active at night. Be sure that the aquarium has no gaps at the top, as these fish are great escape artists. Spiny Eels are not aggressive, but adults are capable of taking small fish overnight, so tankmates must be chosen with care. Neon Tetra sized fish, for example, are not recommended. Suggested tankmates would be large Rasboras, large gouramis, rainbowfish, L-number suckermouth cats etc. Spiny Eels are fairly sociable and are best kept in groups of 5 or more. Clean, well-filtered water is absolutely essential, but keep water movement gentle.
Feeding
Must be given frozen foods such as bloodworm, white mosquito larvae, vitamin-enriched brineshrimp, daphnia etc. Larger specimens will take bigger frozen foods such as Mysis shrimp, finely chopped krill etc. Some dried foods may be taken by established fish.
Breeding
This species has been bred in the aquarium and rather unusually for a bottom dweller, the roots of floating plants seem to be favoured as a spawning site. No parental care is given, so nocturnal breeding can be easily missed in a community set up.
