Quotiens pisciculus adnabat, totiens amicus escam spectabat.

They form a matched pair, often called a correlative pair.

• quotiens = as often as / whenever
• totiens = so often / each time

So the sentence has the pattern:

Whenever X happened, Y happened.

That is one of the most important things to notice in this sentence.

The imperfect is very common for repeated, habitual, or ongoing actions in the past.

Here, the idea is not one single finished event, but a repeated pattern:

• the little fish would swim up
• the friend would look at the bait

So the imperfect fits very well. In natural English, you might translate it in several ways:

• Whenever the little fish swam up, the friend looked at the bait.
• Whenever the little fish would swim up, the friend would look at the bait.
• Whenever the little fish was swimming up, the friend was looking at the bait.
• Each time the little fish swam up, the friend used to watch the bait.

Latin imperfect does not always match just one English tense exactly.

Pisciculus means little fish or small fish.

It is a diminutive form, built from piscis meaning fish. A diminutive can show:

• small size
• affection
• sometimes a slightly vivid or playful tone

So pisciculus is not just fish, but specifically little fish.

Adnabat is from adnare, meaning to swim to, to swim toward, or to swim up to.

The prefix ad- adds the idea of movement toward something. So this is more specific than just nabat, which would simply mean was swimming or swam.

In context, adnabat suggests that the little fish was approaching by swimming.

Escam is accusative singular from esca, meaning bait, food, or something used as a lure.

Its job is to be the direct object of spectabat:

• amicus = the friend
• spectabat = was watching / looked at
• escam = the bait

So escam is the thing being watched.

There are two clauses, and each has its own subject:

• pisciculus is the subject of adnabat
• amicus is the subject of spectabat

So:

• the little fish was swimming up
• the friend was watching the bait

A learner should notice that Latin often makes this clear through endings, not just word order.

Because Latin does not have articles like English the and a/an.

So:

• pisciculus can mean a little fish or the little fish
• amicus can mean a friend or the friend
• escam can mean bait, the bait, or sometimes some bait

English usually has to choose one. Latin leaves that to the context.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because Latin uses case endings and verb endings to show grammatical roles.

English depends heavily on position:

• The friend watched the bait is different from
• The bait watched the friend

Latin does not depend on word order as much, because forms like amicus and escam already signal their functions.

In this sentence, the arrangement helps create a neat balance:

• quotiens ...
• totiens ...

That balanced structure is very natural in Latin.

Yes. Quotiens can be used in different ways depending on context.

It can mean:

• how often? in a question
• as often as / whenever in a statement like this one

Here it does not mean how often?, because the sentence is not asking a question. Also, it is paired with totiens, which strongly signals the meaning whenever / as often as.

This is a vocabulary nuance.

• videre often means to see
• spectare often means to look at, watch, or observe

So spectabat suggests more deliberate attention. The friend was not just accidentally seeing the bait; he was watching it.

That makes spectabat a good choice if the action is careful or repeated.

Several translations are possible, because Latin tense and aspect do not always match English in only one way. Good natural options include:

• Whenever the little fish swam up, the friend looked at the bait.
• Each time the little fish swam up, the friend watched the bait.
• As often as the little fish came swimming up, the friend would look at the bait.
• Whenever the little fish approached, the friend was watching the bait.

The best choice depends on how strongly you want to show the repeated, habitual sense of the imperfect.