Tropical Fish Keeping banner

Spawning Farlowella (Twig Catfish)

17K views 95 replies 16 participants last post by  LisaC144 
#1 ·
I think it is particularly rewarding when fish feel so "at home" that they spawn, particularly when they are a species that are not that prone to spawn in community aquaria. Aunt kymmie had her discus spawn the other week, and that is just what I mean. Today it was my Farlowella, last week the Bolivian Rams [another story for another thread].

I put three Farlowella vittata (Twig Catfish, click on the name to see the profile for info on this fish) in my 90g flooded Amazonian forest setup last year, not knowing if I had male/female in the trio; with my eyesight even a magnifying glass wouldn't allow me to see the "bristles" on the male's snout:lol:. Solely due to their different girths, I had a hunch there were two females and one male. For the past several days one fish has spent a lot of time on the glass beneath the filter spraybar. A bit unusual in itself, since these fish occur in slow-flowing waters and in this aquarium very rarely stay close to the filter flow (which is pretty minimal anyway), although that can be a sign of trouble if they need oxygen. So I kept an eye on the fish, and I thought it looked quite plump.

This morning the pair were on the glass with a clutch of 8 eggs in between; as of a moment ago there are 10 more eggs. I took the attached photos which aren't that good with my cheap camera, but you can see the "plumper" female above and the thinner male below, and the fairly large eggs. I realize now that for the past few days the female has been cleaning the glass in preparation.

The authorities say this is not a particularly difficult fish to spawn, though as noted in the profile feeding the young is tricky. Fry of various fish appear every now and then in this aquarium, though I rarely witness actual spawning routines, since most of these forest fish spawn in the early dawn so it goes unobserved and many scatter eggs in plant thickets; some, like the Nannostomus eques pencilfish deposit them on the underside of leaves and I have several times witnessed that. This is not one of the species that I would have expected to spawn on its own initiative in a large community aquarium.

Byron.
 

Attachments

See less See more
3
  • Like
Reactions: Tankfull Tropicals
#33 ·
Byron- that is amazing! Good pics, too. I know you always like to let nature "take its course" but I'm happy to hear you netted out the babies to the 10gl. It'll be interesting to watch them develop. I'm loving your new camera skills!!
 
#34 ·
Congratulations! That is certainly some exciting news for you. They are pretty cute when they are so small. I hope some of them grow to adulthood for you. What will you do if your tank becomes over run with these guys?
 
#35 ·
Congratulations! That is certainly some exciting news for you. They are pretty cute when they are so small. I hope some of them grow to adulthood for you. What will you do if your tank becomes over run with these guys?
Sell them. They sell for $12-15 each in Vancouver.:)

And thanks kymmie. B.

Fish are spawning all over the place. This week an Emperor Tetra fry appeared in a tank in which there have never been Emperor tetra. Wonder who can figure that out? [There's a reason, my fish are not flying from tank to tank--at least I don't think they are:shock:].

And the Bolivians are preparing to try again, after something (I suspect one of the nocturnal catfish) got the first batch of eggs on the second night. And the Hemigrammus pulcher were scattering eggs earlier this week, all I'm sure eagerly devoured by the rummynose that were sitting patiently below the plants waiting.
 
#37 ·
Yes, either the egg or a fry were moved either in plants or in wood. I had pulled the 70g apart and set it up with new gravel and rocks and new wood. I moved over a few plants from the 33g, and the Emperors had been in there about 6 weeks prior. When I noticed the 3/8 inch fry for the first time, 3 weeks later still, it was an hour after I moved a piece of wood from the 33g. So it could have been a fry in a tunnel in the wood.

I also have 5 Emperors that "appeared" in the 90g about 3 months after the Emperors had been removed from that tank. And 3 of these appeared first, about 3/8 inch long; some 5 weeks later two more 3/8 inch fry appeared, by which time the first 3 were 3/4 inch long. That seems a long time for eggs to be sitting so I am assuming the first fry spawned.

I seem to have a glut of Emperors.
 
#39 ·
According to published information, the fry take 5 days to absorb the yolk sac before they become free swimming. Yesterday was day 5 post-hatching, and when I checked this morning a few minutes ago after the lights came on, I see that the 7 fry are spread out around the tank whereas for the past 5 days they have remained basically in one corner (5 of them, the other 2 I could never see). So they are obviously moving around the tank today. They still appear to be rather motionless, but if I sit and observe them for a longer period I should see them "swimming". They are about 1/2 inch in length now, very thin of course, and hanging on plant leaves or the glass.

I've let the direct daylight and sunlight hit this tank for the past couple of days to encourage algae, as they require soft green foods at first. Feeding the fry initially is said to be the trickiest part of the whole process. I can't see there is any need for me to start polluting the tank with decomposing spinach or something, there is a lot of natural algae which is after all what they would eat in nature.

Byron.
 
#40 ·
Wow ive seen these in my LFS, but they dont look nearly as happy, and full of colour as yours.
 
#41 ·
Update, new photos of fry "swimming" (sort of)

Fry are now free swimming, which for Farlowella means hanging on the glass or plants grazing algae. And the 7 (they are all there) are now doing this. Here's a photo of two of them, best I can do with my cheap camera.

They are about half an inch long, and perfect miniature relicas of the adults, in appearance and habits. I did the water changes earlier today, and when this tank was being drained they kept moving down the glass with the water. I'm keeping the blinds open with afternoon sun on the tank to keep algae growing fast. They certainly seem to be grazing it, so hopefully they will get enough nourishment to grow.
 

Attachments

#43 ·
Let's wait and see how many make it:). But seriously, if they all do, I would like to trade some for credit on fish with a local store. I know the owners personally of 3 good local fish retailers and I think they would each readily accept some Farlowella. These fish sell for around $15 here.

And I still have the last batch of eggs in the 90g that haven't hatched yet; if I am as successful moving those when they do I might have even more.
 
#44 ·
Very cool! I would think that if they came this far, they will grow up nicely but what do I know. It just seems that at that size, they should already be a bit safer in the tank. They sure are cute little guys.

I wish I had a few fish people here that I felt so confident in. There is one store that sells a larger variety of fresh water fish and the guy claims to have over 20 years of experience but he has also told me things that I know for a fact are not true. The tanks in that store are full of algae which I know isn't a crisis but seems odd to me for a shop to have their display tanks full of algae. That is where I got the Java Moss with the brush algae on it.

The other store the guy seems a bit arrogant and the cost of fish there is just way out of hand. Petsmart will have a fish listed for $5.00 and I go there see a fish of the same size and species and he will have it listed for $35.00. I know sometimes you pay for the knowledge and sometimes, it is worth that but in this case, I am not sure it is. His tanks however, are amazing. Clean and well set up, from what I can see.
 
#46 ·
Great update, Byron. Nice pictures. This makes me want to get one or two more Farlowella myself. I actually saw two in the LFS, but they were so small I was concerned that they might not make it with the larger one I already have. Plus, they didn't look quite like the one I already have (beasides size of course), as I assume there are many species of Farlowella. Do you think different species will get along okay? We both love our Farlowella and find him quite entertaining.
 
#47 ·
Great update, Byron. Nice pictures. This makes me want to get one or two more Farlowella myself. I actually saw two in the LFS, but they were so small I was concerned that they might not make it with the larger one I already have. Plus, they didn't look quite like the one I already have (beasides size of course), as I assume there are many species of Farlowella. Do you think different species will get along okay? We both love our Farlowella and find him quite entertaining.
Lisa, check our profile of this fish. There is a diagram of the two commonly-seen species, and as it mentions there are some 30 known species, only two of which are regularly imported.

You have ot be careful, there is a very similar-looking fish called a royal farlowella (common name, useless of course but sometimes used) that gets large, too large. Sturisoma is the genus. The smaller species (5-6 inches max) are the best.
 
#49 ·
Yikes, that's scary. I hope I got the right species with my first one. I'd say he's about 6" right now and hasn't grown since I got him. Actually, I just looked at the profile and he looks like the Farlowella Acus. The one's I saw at the LFS were small; about 2"-3".
 
#50 ·
Yikes, that's scary. I hope I got the right species with my first one. I'd say he's about 6" right now and hasn't grown since I got him. Actually, I just looked at the profile and he looks like the Farlowella Acus. The one's I saw at the LFS were small; about 2"-3".
The rostrum (snout) on the Royal is curved upward more, at least to my eyes. And these fish are usually seen larger, say 6+ inches in the store, at least that's how I've always noticed them. That is not a reliable guide though. If I look at the fish in the store for a minute, I can tell which it is. It's just something about it...:roll:

Ask the store to see the scientific name on the inventory sheet from the supplier. That can be incorrect of course, I have seen fish labelled one name that were different...but if it said a genus other than Farlowella, it probably is.
 
#52 ·
update photos

Day 6. Here are photos of a couple of the fry this morning. Just like the adults, these are busy little beavers, grazing plant leaves continually for algae.

On another note, the last batch of eggs that must have been on the point of hatching disappeared overnight, and this morning 35 new eggs have been laid and are being guarded by the male. These fish are certainly dedicated; the male has been guarding eggs now for 6 continuous weeks non-stop, this is now the fourth (I think) spawning from these 3 fish (two females, one male).
 

Attachments

#58 ·
I was thinking that, and tried getting some photos yesterday when I was photographing the Echinodorus flowers, but my camera wouldn't co-operate. But I can still update.

I now have close to 50 fry in that 10g. The original fish, in the earlier photos, are doing very well, they are about an inch long now, very thin as this species is so they don't look "large" as most other fish would at this stage. There were 7 from the initial spawning, and I think most are still there--with all those plants and bunch of moss it's hard to tell. Then there were the four from the second spawning.

Last week, the male was guarding about 35 eggs in the 90g from the latest spawning (the fourth) and rather than wait for the eggs to hatch before moving them and risk losing the fry (they are easy targets once they hatch out) I decided to move them. I carefully scraped them off the glass (they were truly stuck) and put them inside one of those fry nets and hung it inside the 10g; I figured the eggs just sitting on the bottom would be too tempting for the pygmy corys. Late last week, the eggs hatched; the fry take 5 days to absorb the yolk sack before they start "swimming" so I left them until yesterday when I did the water changes. I could see they were beginning to move around, so I dumped them out of the fry net into the 10g. There were almost 40 of them.

I added a sponge filter last week to move the water around a bit. The pygmy corys have been a bit more active since. I may try later after the lights come on to photograph some of the older fry. They have their brown colouration and pattern which is much clearer now.

Byron.
 
#59 ·
Wow Bryon thats alot of baby fish. I wish I could find some of them around here I would like a few to put in my 55 gallon. I saw them once at a LFS before I had the 55 but they have not had any there since then.
 
#62 ·
Amanda, these are one of my absolute favourite fish. Not to everyone's taste of course--their almost total lack of "activity" makes them boring to many. But they have a prehistoric oddity and combined with their incredible peacefulness it makes them very suitable for any soft water community aquarium of quiet fish.
 
#60 ·
Wow, very exciting! Thanks for the update. I recently added two more to my 120g tank. I'm hoping all goes well, but I don't think they will be territorial, especially with a 6 foot tank. At what point will you sell them to the LFS? I assume they should be a couple inches first?
 
#61 ·
Wow, very exciting! Thanks for the update. I recently added two more to my 120g tank. I'm hoping all goes well, but I don't think they will be territorial, especially with a 6 foot tank. At what point will you sell them to the LFS? I assume they should be a couple inches first?
Yes, these fish are sensitive to water conditions so I am not going to send them to an early grave.

You'll have no territorial issues, males might poke each other now and then, but no damage will result.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top