Sturisoma preparing to spawn?

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 03 May 2007, 23:31

Hello All,

The males of the Sturisoma I have had for one year have suddenly grown "beards". This is pretty encouraging to me. I had almost given up hope but I think something is cooking. Both females appear to be filled with roe.

A trio of Albino Ancistrus sp3 have been cranking out "pinkies" like there is no tomorrow in this tank. Perhaps their urge to reproduce is having a trickle down effect?

I am uncertain which species I have because they are difficult to identify for me. I recently lost one large one from a piece of driftwood falling on it and trapping it over night so I was too late to rescue it. I am guessing I have either S. aureum or S. festivum. I think they are of Brazilian origin.
It looks like I have two pairs. The males are larger than the females, six inches SL and the females are five inches SL. They all have really nice tail fin extensions; some are as long as two inches

I will increase the water changes, that is about all the more I can do as they have already been receiving pretty good care and hope this is enough.

They are fed a lot of live blackworms, frozen bloodworms but the food they really have always eaten enthusiatically is earthworm sticks. This as been a food all my Hypancistrus, Peckoltia and L10a eat in large quantities.

sabbath · Post by **sabbath** » 04 May 2007, 03:19

I certainly wish you luck! I have had them before, but have never been able to spawn them. I like your name. I bred apistos for quite sometime before moving on to other things. Have you done the Maulbruter yet?

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 04 May 2007, 04:04

About my tag, thanks,
It is impossible to keep up with all the Apisto species and color varieties. My newest species I haven't raised before are two trio of Apistogramma baenschi Ika. They are just sexed out so it will be awhile before they will be mature enough to spawn.
I just set up another new pair of discus in their private tank today. and I have 15 new species of Killies. I have my arms wet up to my elbows in new fish projecst of all kinds.

sabbath · Post by **sabbath** » 04 May 2007, 04:10

the maulbruter is a delayed mouthbrooder (they mouthbrood the fry after the eggs hatch. Awesome little fish. My favorite to date (I have done around 15 species give or take). I wrote an article about them if you care to look: http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/bre ... ruter.html

I posted a some pics of my old pair at cichlid-forum as well.

Anyway, nice to meet you. Sorry to have hi-jacked a sturisoma thread with apisto talk! Good luck with them!

sabbath · Post by **sabbath** » 04 May 2007, 04:13

Also, a friend of mine has a log up on his Sturisoma experience here: http://www.tedsfishroom.com/sturisomalog.html

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 04 May 2007, 14:19

Thanks for the link to Ted's Sturisoma log. I have visited his fishroom website several times. We seem to share many similar interests

I have a hypothesis that Sturisoma fry need more animal protein in their diet. Although they are fine algae eaters mine have always shown a strong preference for live worms and the earthworm sticks and I see no reason why the young should be any different. Virtually all the breeding accounts describe the use of various veggies but I think they are far more omnivorous and that their need for live worms and even earthworm sticks has been largely overlooked and I suspect that it is implicated by the difficulties most accounts describe about the difficulty in acheiving higher survival rates.

The development of the males' beards was sudden within in mere days they sprouted their strong growth. They have a preference for smooth driftwood and as Ted pointed out, strong currents. I also use powerhead driven sponge filters plus and Eheim 2215 Classic Filter. They revel in the strong currents.

My fish are exactly the same species as Teds, Sturisoma aureum. I will increase the frequency of my water changes although I already routinely make two 75% changes twice a week. It may just tip the balance towards actual spawning as they show every other sign of preparing to spawn.

We can discuss Apistos all we want in the "Other Fish" topic. Obviously they are one of my favorite genera. I raise many Corys, Discus, Killies, Characins, Ancistrus sp 3. I have been trying to get any one of about eight species of Hypancistrus species and some Peckoltia to spawn since beginning to collect this group over this past year. No success yet but one year working with an entirely new group of species isn't very long.
I have spawned and raised about 2 dozen Apistogramma species. "Malbrutter" hasn't been one of them. I new at least one Apisto was a mouthbrooder but hadn't memorized which one was. It is not one of the species I've kept.

flash · Post by **flash** » 04 May 2007, 16:21

Hi all
i breed a lot of sturisoma and your right larry the fry do take frozen bloodworm and they grow much faster with a mixed diet than just flake and pellets.as for water changes i keep my main breeding trio (2 males 1 female)in a community tank in my living room.they lay eggs every 10 days or so on an internal filter .my corrys also spawn in the same tank so sometimes i cant do a water change for a few weeks but it never puts them off.i start to feed at day 3 on spirulina flake and after a few weeks i give them frozen bloodworn and they love it .and thats when they realy start to grow but it still takes 3 to 4 months to get them to a good salable size
cheersw flash

sabbath · Post by **sabbath** » 04 May 2007, 18:30

Looks like your hypothesis is correct! Has me wanting to give the guys a try again! Flash, thanks very much for your input!

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 04 May 2007, 19:42

flash wrote:Hi all
i breed a lot of sturisoma and your right larry the fry do take frozen bloodworm and they grow much faster with a mixed diet than just flake and pellets.as for water changes i keep my main breeding trio (2 males 1 female)in a community tank in my living room.they lay eggs every 10 days or so on an internal filter .my corrys also spawn in the same tank so sometimes i cant do a water change for a few weeks but it never puts them off.i start to feed at day 3 on spirulina flake and after a few weeks i give them frozen bloodworn and they love it .and thats when they realy start to grow but it still takes 3 to 4 months to get them to a good salable size
cheersw flash

Hi flash,
Thanks for the good feedback.
I would say 3-4 month to grow to saleable size is a good turn around rate for any fish. Would that they all could go out the door that fast!

I had that idea rolling around ever since I began keeping Sturisoma and began to have first hand experience on which to build on. I've had them since last July and they grew rapidly on a diet of earthworm sticks, frozen bloodworms and live blackworms. They are excellent algae eaters but still... feeding the fry smashed peas as some authors wrote they did in their attempts to raise them and my experience with such rapid growth on what I used made me think. I had to remove them, unfortunately from my planted Heckel Discus tank. As the discus grew from about 3-1/4 in to 5 and 6 inches in diameter the Sturisoma aquired a tasted for the skin slime of the discus and inflicted serious damage. Fortunately the discus quickly recovered after I removed the offending Sturisoma..
These carnivorous feeding habits I observed and those of their smaller relative, L10a Red "Rhinoloricaria" all pointed to animal protein being an important dietary requirement. My Sturisoma eat an incedidble amount of live blackworms. None escape them whereas in my Corydoras tanks many worms become established in the substrate.

As an aside, I have female Apistogramma borelli frustrated by my removal of their eggs for artificial hatching, displace their brooding instincts to patches of substrate where the red tails of the worms are thick and actively waving.
These lovelorn females stand diligent guard fanning and protecting these worms. However, they readily eat worms just squirted into the tank as they normally would.

sabbath · Post by **sabbath** » 05 May 2007, 08:44

When I began with them I of course did a bit of research. I came across this article: http://www3.sympatico.ca/tp.bridges/sturisom.htm

I used the spirulina powder and agar paste that these folks describe on baby ancistrus (I never got any sturisoma fry). Buy in the article, they do continue to suffer losses, but not enough to consider it a total loss. Initially, they were suffering high losses till they used this paste food. i never did use protiene with them, that is probably why they never spawned. I attached a few pics of the fish I had.

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 05 May 2007, 09:21

The only veggies mine are fed is whatever algae they find growing in their tak. They do love their live blackworms.