Espei rasboras court and spawn in one of the aquarium's oddest postures: the pair turns upside-down beneath a broad leaf and fixes the eggs to its underside. That single fact shapes baby care, because the nursery this species designed for itself is the shaded underside of vegetation in soft, warm water. Home care means providing broad-leaved plants, protecting the eggs from the adults' own foraging, and feeding fry that begin life needing microscopic food in dim, gentle conditions. Get the leaves and the quiet right, and these coppery, black-wedged rasboras will raise a generation in the shade of their own garden.
Provide broad leaves and guard the eggs beneath them
Give the breeding group broad-leaved plants with clean undersides at mid-height, and check those undersides daily once the fish are in condition, because eggs fixed there are both the prize and the adults' next snack. You can move a leaf bearing eggs, carefully, to a nursery tank of the same soft water, or keep the group in a dedicated planted tank where enough eggs survive the foraging to sustain a slow trickle of fry. The dedicated tank is the lower-effort route and suits this species' modest, repeated spawning. Either way, dim light over the nursery protects developing eggs and matches the shaded streams the species comes from.
Feed infusoria where the fry hang
Hatched espei fry hang near surfaces and vegetation before swimming freely, and their first real food is infusoria or liquid fry food delivered gently among the plants where they gather. A mature tank again earns its keep, since its leaves and moss carry microfauna that fry graze between your offerings. Baby brine shrimp follows once the fry are hunting visibly, and crushed fine food after that. Feed small amounts several times a day and watch for the moment the youngsters begin schooling loosely and showing the first copper tones with the dark wedge, the moment the nursery turns from specks into recognisably young espeis.
Keep the water soft, warm, and still at the edges
Espei fry share their parents' preference for soft, slightly acidic, warm water and for shelter from current and glare. A sponge filter, small matched water changes, and planting thick enough to break sight lines across the tank keep conditions steady and the fry bold enough to feed. Avoid housing them with anything larger or faster, because espeis are peaceful to a fault and their fry are simply eaten or outcompeted in mixed company. Slow water work matters too: a siphon moved gently and a bucket checked for specks should be as habitual in this nursery as in any tank raising very small fry.
Grow the school together in the shade
Raise the youngsters as a group, because espei rasboras are schooling fish whose wedge markings and copper colour deepen in company and in subdued light over dark substrate. As they grow, widen the diet to fine frozen foods and quality micro pellets, and keep the group in the planted conditions they know rather than moving them to a bright, bare display. Young espeis startle as a school when shadows cross the tank, so a settled position away from passing traffic helps them feed and grow evenly. Within a few months a well-run nursery produces a shimmering school that spawns beneath its own leaves, and the cycle becomes self-sustaining.
Write down the leaf checks and micro meals
The espei routine is a set of small, specific acts: check the leaf undersides, move any egg-laden leaf, deliver the finest food among the plants, confirm the sponge filter. Each is easy, and each is exactly the sort of thing that gets skipped when it is nobody's named job. Listing those nursery tasks in KinsLe's Care Teams assigns the leaf checks and feedings to helpers day by day, with completed tasks marked by a timestamp, so the fry under their leaves are tended as faithfully as the adults who placed them there.