Breeding sturisoma

[susankat]

Been working on these for a few months and finally got them to breed and now a few babies.

The Parents


Eggs


One of the babies

[MatsP]

Excellent. The hardest part is to keep the fry alive for the first couple of weeks. I found that grinding algae wafers work well - I rub a Hikari wafer against a coarse sand-paper to create "Hikari flour" that mixes with the water and spreads all over the place. Fry aren't particularly keen on moving to find food, so you must get the food to the fry, and powdered wafer works well for this.

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Mats

[susankat]

Thanks for the info. I have also been letting the algae build up on the sides of the tank and they seem to working well with that.

[MatsP]

Thanks for the info. I have also been letting the algae build up on the sides of the tank and they seem to working well with that.

Yes, if you get enough algae that are edible by small fry, then that's fine. Supplementing with a bit of powdered algae wafer wouldn't hurt tho'.

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Mats

[susankat]

Doing that also. I was also told to add a leaf of kale to the tank and they should eat on that also.

[L number Banana]

Wow, susankat, they're amazing! We don't see these often in my area.
Nice work and feel free to post more pics! Thank you

[susankat]

Finally got one on the front glass so here is a clearer pic of one of the fry. Tank is scratched so forgive that.

[MatsP]

L number banana: I don't see them often here either - they had four in my shop some two years ago or so, and I bought the lot. I've since lost two - one very early on in a Ich outbreak in their first home, and then a second when a filter clogged up - after I had moved one male and the remaining female to another tank for "see if they will breed". I have sold about 25 of them to my LFS, Richard B and Martin S.

They are bred commercially, so it should be possible to get your LFS to order some in - but what they are sold as may vary. Or maybe you can get susankat to ship you some/go pick them up (yes, Oklahoma is a long distance from Ontario, but still the same continent, so at least it's POSSIBLE to for example drive there}.

I still have a few saleable size if anyone is interested, and more to come later on.

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Mats

[Martin S]

I have sold about 25 of them to my LFS, Richard B and Martin S.

And doing very nicely they are too They are always active, either feeding on the side/back glass, or wandering over and around the plants, and they seem to be growing at a manageable rate. Mine are probably about 2.5" SL, with lovely tail extensions.
if anyone wanted these, and was able to get them from Mats, I'd strongly recommend his over those from a LFS.
Martin

[apistomaster]

Congratulations on your success in getting your Sturisoma to spawn.
I have raised a lot of Sturisoma aureum all the way to adult which breed regularly for me now.
I found that some of the methods many recommend did not square with my experience. I also have an experienced fish breeding friend from Venezuela who provided me with much useful information from his experiences collecting them in the field which helped shape my approach to keeping and especially raising their fry which was very helpful. Sturisoma are called "Policias" in Venezuela because they stiffly stand at attention on their spawning sites. He found them in the shallow riffles of smaller streams in water often no deeper than 12 inches. I began with wild caught fish. They are feeding on earth worm sticks which turn to mush within a few minutes of being placed in the food containers. I used the media bag for the most part. They suck the mushed food through the mesh of the bags.

Sturisoma fry will gather around their food from all over the tank. It just has to be a food they like/need. Here are a couple of poor photos I took of 5-7 day post hatch fry which were in a 35 gal tank. These photos prove that they will gather around their food. They need almost constant access to food.



I raise the fry on a diet of only Earth worm sticks and Spirulina Sticks. Sturisoma fry need a high protein diet and I consider feeding them garden vegetable to be unsuitable for their needs. Just gives them empty calories that they only eat because they are starving.
I found that if the fry are left in a large tank with water over 8 inches deep the majority will starve within a month.
The first few months are going to determine the growth and survival rates of the fry.
The fry need highly oxygenated water and a brisk current. I use a sponge filter with a power head attached to provide the current and filtration and an added air stone to help keep a high dissolved O2 level. Since the water is so shallow this means the filter must be laid on it's side and the water jet parallel to the bottom as if they were in a stream. I use the Azoo pedestal sponge filter that is comparable to the HydroSponge IV. The fry are well adapted to swift currents so while in the 10 gal tanks use a small power head on the sponge filter, one that is moving about 70-80 gph is about right. Always provide them with pieces of wood they can latch on to and hang in the currents. The wood should be shaped so there are some areas that are out of the direct current. I recommend keeping the fry in a couple 10 gal tanks with only 8 inches of water until they reach at least 2 inches. After that, I raise them in 20 Longs unitil they are about 3 inches. At that point, they are raised to adults in 16 inch high 40 gal breeder tanks.
I have some F1 pairs available but will need to save some spawns if I am to continue keeping them going. My groups spawn frequently so it is only a matter of taking the time. They are only about 18 months old so I figure I have plenty of time.
I continue to primarily feed the Sturisoma the foods they are started as their staple diet but as they grow they love frozen blood worms and live black worms.
Hope this helps. I arrived at a productive method of raising them only with some trial and errors along the way. Shallow water and high protein foods are very important lessons I learned about raising them.

Once they reach 2-1/2 inches they are as good as raised. Despite their relatively slow growth rate during their first 3 months, they can begin to mature and spawn as early as 10 months old and may reach their full adult size within 12-15 months.

[susankat]

Thank you, that is some very useful info there. I have several tanks that I can set up for them so no problem there. I have spirulina sticks, will have to pick up some of the others today when I go to the lfs to pick up some frozen foods for my other fish. Will also pick up a small power head to put into that tank.

[Shane]

Larry,
I have seen you post so much great information on raising Sturisoma fry. Will you please, please put it all into an article for me?
-Shane

[apistomaster]

I think it will surprise you how positively the fry react to and easily they handle the power head currents for such delicate looking fry.
If for some reason this batch seems to have difficulty with the current then it is likely that they are undernourished and if that is the case they would never have made it anyway. It is not easy to raise Sturisoma fry on your first time around and I don't know of many others who did not have a learning curve for raising them. They are in a different bracket from the comparatively easy to raise fry that any of the Plecos produce. The nice thing is that your breeders should produce other spawns about every 3-4 weeks pretty steadily with an occasional break. The numbers of eggs should get better with successive spawns after their first. The actual number of eggs depends on size, age and condition of the fish. Mine seem to average about 80 and nearly every one will hatch. The range I have seen from young first time breeders have been as low as 35 and as high as 110 for large breeders in prime condition.

Here are a couple bits of miscellany:
1. Never use SeaChem Excel in your Sturisoma fry/juvenile tanks. It may temporarily imbalance the O2/CO2 ratio in a negative way causing them to suffocate. Sturisoma fry need optimum dissolved O2 levels at all times.
2. Don't Keep Sturisoma with Discus. Sturisoma will relentlessly harass and suck on the sides of Discus. Big Sturisoma go after big Discus and little Sturisoma do the same to juvenile Discus. I wish they didn't do this because they look so cool together and Sturisoma are so day active unlike so many other interesting catfish.

Hi Shane,
Thank you very much for the compliment. Sure, I would be glad to write something up. I will need to think a little bit about how to present it. I know I would like to get a little more background info from Ed Ruiz about his field observations and integrate it into the breeding, raising and aquarium needs and behaviors about them. They are one of my favorite Loricaridids, although I am fast becoming fascinated with those tiny Parotocinclus cf. epplyei. I have begun a long term project with them.

[susankat]

Thanks for all that info. I am glad that I already have my fish all in species tanks. Haven't set up a display tank yet. That way I don't have to move fry or adults around to much and stress them out. I am hoping to learn to breed these and keep them alive as they are an exceptional fish to own. I have the adults in a 15 long so it won't be hard to keep the water lowered during the time that it is needed. I also have a couple more 20 longs to setup that I had picked up for added breeding and fry tanks.

[susankat]

Well it has been awhile since I updated anything on this, mainly because I had gone to hospital for 3 weeks then had a hard time getting around for awhile.

Anyway, I moved the adults to a 25 gal long tank and now have 3 seperate hatches in there. the oldest being about 4 months old. I have found that I have more success with them when I let the tank get somewhat dirty so lots of slime on the glass and only do a little substrate vac but water changes often. They enjoy the earthworm sticks and the slime on the tank more than anything. My only problem is trying to keep the snail amounts down. Wish I hadn't put the moss in the tank it was apparently full of eggs. But the fry seem to like the slime trails from them.

Will post some pics soon.

[Stuey]

Hi Guys

Well done to all for persuading the sturisoma to breed. I have a large pair of Sturisoma purchased from Neil at Pier aquatics.

I was just wondering if you used any particular trigger to induce the fish to spawn. The pair I have, have spawned once, but a rogue piebald bristlenose muscled the male from the eggs and ate them (I had been meaning to move this fish for a few days before the spawn).

The thing is, the spawn was a real suprise. I can't remember adding a power head or making a large water change before the spawn like I would do for my plecs.

I have not been able to persuade the pair to lay eggs again, but the male has shown some increased facial bristle growth over the last few weeks, so think he may be in prime condition to breed.

They are fed on courgette, bloodworm and brineshrimp. I wonder if a good cold water change when air pressure is low may help???

Cheers
Stuey

[MatsP]

I have noticed that they often breed after a water change (my water changes are always a bit "cool"), but absolutely not NECESSARY. Now, your fish are probably wild-caught, so may need a bit more effort/right conditions to breed than the average captive bred ones. But I don't think it's that much of a difference.

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Mats

[apistomaster]

My F1 generation of Sturisoma aureum breed without any particular trigger. I think if you emphasize the frozen blood worm feedings your wild fish will soon spawn again. The loss of the male's bristles indicates to me that there was some decline in water quality or not enough animal protein in their diet.
I am not suggesting that you don't try using traditional breeding triggers as I do think providing them does help make breeding them even easier. I use nothing but earthworm sticks and frozen blood worms but when I was keeping up with weekly shipments of live black worms they bred even easier.
They love live worms. I do not offer them any vegetables although sometimes I will give them Spirulina Sticks but they contain plenty of shrimp meal.

My F1's don't always provide as good of brood care as their wild parents did.
I was keeping a couple dozen adult in a 40 gal breeder and would regularly discover large numbers of fry but wasn't paying enough attention to notice their spawns. None of the fry survived when left in the deeper water tanks.
My F1's are getting close to 3 years old and I have only kept about 2 trios for breeding so I now have them set up in a 29 H for breeding but since being moved they have not been as reliable brooders and only a few fry have managed to hatch. Not enough to take the trouble of setting up a fry tank with shallow water, My intention is to get one large batch of eggs and lower the water level down to 6 inches and remove all the adults. I am afraid if I don't save a brood soon I will not be able to keep them going with a new generation. They begin breeding as young as 10 months and I do not think their life spans are as long as most plecos. They have been relatively neglected since they are not an economically viable fish for me to breed commercially. I do have a surplus of males I use as algae eater in my L134 and L333 breeding and grow out tanks. I feed mostly earth worm sticks and frozen blood worms so they do get plenty of animal protein but they also do a good job on the algae and unlike a common Bushy Nose, I never have to worry about the Sturisoma bothering brooding male plecos since Sturisoma do not like caves.
I also kept a male in with pairs of wild Discus as algae eaters. It seems one Sturisoma will not bother Discus but when I have kept groups of Sturisoma with groups of Discus then the Sturisoma always begin bothering the Discus by constantly trying to suck on their sides. sturisoma are pretty weird fish but i really like them since they are mostly diurnal unlike plecos so they are always out and about during the day so I can enjoy watching their behavior.
PS: You might want to leave a light on during the brooding period for the male. it may help save more spawns but definitely remove any plecos from their breeding tank.

[susankat]

Here is a couple of pictures of mine. Excuse them though as I said that tank is somewhat dirty.

[MatsP]

Looks very nice.

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Mats

[apistomaster]

Here is a photo of some of my young F1 S. aureum sharing a 40 breeder with young Apistogramma cacatuoides just old enough to begin to sex. Sturisoma fry/small juveniles are very cute. they were eating frozen blood worms together.

[Jon]

"Just gives them empty calories that they only eat because they are starving."

Just out of curiosity, how do you justify this?

[apistomaster]

"Just gives them empty calories that they only eat because they are starving."

Just out of curiosity, how do you justify this?

Hi Jon,

I tried to explain my conclusions about the dietary requirement of Sturisoma and their fry here:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworl ... +Sturisoma

[susankat]

What is the easiest way to catch these babies to move to another tank? I think that 3 hatches in a 25 long tank is getting a little over crowded. I have 3 empty 15 longs that I would like to move some to.

[MatsP]

As long as they are reasonable size (1"+), you can just catch them with a net, just like any other fish. They look like they would fall apart if they are touched, but they are a lot sturdier than you'd expect. I've moved a couple of dozen in the past, and not lost any - obviously assuming the new tank is "ok" for the fry, of course.

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Mats

[susankat]

There are some that are hitting close to 2 inches, The tank has been running for awhile. Just took the cories out and put into a different tank.

[MatsP]

Sounds good. I actually keep mine WITH corys, but that's because I don't have enough tank-space to separate them... ;)

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Mats

[apistomaster]

I had to temporarily house a lot of my young fish together during the replacement of a block and board stand of 3-20H and 2-20L with a new steel stand which holds six 40 gal breeders in essentially the same footprint so I had 2 inch Sturisoma sharing tanks full of 6 week old Discus and L134 fry.
Once most have reached a good 2 inches they become much easier to care for. These little Sturisoma did attack the 1 inch Discus just like group of adults would attack adult wild Discus. Sturisoma are much more agile and quick moving than they first appear.

[susankat]

I hear what your saying, I have 31 tanks but moving the cories was to put them in a bigger tank for breeding. I already have 29 albino cories and don't know why I keep breeding for more, but I put them in a 4 foot 33 long so they have plenty of room now just getting enough plants in there is a job in itself. I've got bristlenose fry in my 220 that I have been trying to figure out how to get out of there since there is 5 young clown loaches I'm sure would enjoy them for snacks since they are so small.

[zipper]

I do not think their life spans are as long as most plecos.

I have f1 Sturisomas (aureum) that I raised from eggs that are 8 years old. They are do not look geriatric at all and are still produce viable fry.