Crocodile Toothpick Fish

  

           The Crocodile Toothpick Fish (Indostomus crocodilus), while some state that a tank as small as a 5-gallon is enough for a group of these fish, I would recommend a larger sized tank as they can be very territorial at times. When raising live food for these fish, I recommend using Moina due to their fast reproduction cycle (faster than daphnia) and the small size that these fish can fit in their mouths. When buying Moina, I prefer using eggs, as in case of a culture crash, one can simply start a new one with saved eggs. Breeding is relatively easy a pair will lay eggs in a cave or even in the holes of rocks such as dragon stone and guard them. The adults tend not to eat the babies, so the main issue is feeding them. I personally had no success feeding them powdered food and had to resort to infusoria. Culturing infusoria is easy; you just need a container of some water and throw in some veggies or fruit, and then you wait in till you see the water turn clear with snow-like particles moving around. You can then directly pipette small amounts of this water into the tank to feed the fish.