Taxonomy & naming
Valdesalici and van der Voort described Badis laspiophilus in 2015 from the Shipra swamp area in the buffer zone of the Buxa Tiger Reserve, Jalpaiguri District, West Bengal. It belongs to the family Badidae, the Asian chameleonfishes, and to the genus Badis, which has been split and expanded by many recent descriptions from India and Bangladesh.
Morphology
A very small fish. FishBase gives a maximum of 1 in SL. Like other Badis, it has a stout, laterally compressed body, a long dorsal fin and a mouth that opens upward slightly; males are the more colourful sex in the genus.
Habitat
FishBase lists the species as freshwater and demersal, known from the Shipra swamp area of the Torsa River drainage in West Bengal, India. The type locality is a swampy area at 177 ft elevation in a forest reserve. No temperature or pH range is recorded by FishBase.
Feeding
Diet is not recorded for this species. Badis in general take small live invertebrates from near the bottom, and the species in the trade accept live and frozen foods of that size.
Mating
Courtship has not been described for this species. In Badis as a genus, males hold a small territory, display colour to females and defend a cave or crevice.
Breeding
Breeding of B. laspiophilus is not documented in the sources available to the atlas. Species of Badis are cave spawners whose males guard the eggs and fry.
In the aquarium
A fish for a small, densely planted tank with caves, leaf litter and gentle flow, kept apart from boisterous tankmates because of its size. It appears in the trade through specialist importers and is typically offered under its scientific name.
Conservation
FishBase records no IUCN assessment for B. laspiophilus. The known range is a single drainage in West Bengal, so a small locality count is the main concern.