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I think I got my Sturiosoma some 5 years ago - @ 7 cm TL, zo less than 6 month of age
I did not see a single egg for the first few years, but currently? I got 1 male and 2 females, and there are more days with the male guarding eggs than without. Perhaps the other fishes in the tank help, they are combined with Xiphophorus montezumae, and lifebearers are said to release hormones to the water, promoting other fish to spawn.
But they breed like crazy. Only problem, the fry are hard to raise, but recently 3 made it - not 7 cm themselves
I know of 15 year old Hypancistrus that took 3 or more years to reach sexual maturity so when I can spawn 10 month old Sturisoma that makes me suspect they will not reach 15 years old. Only time will tell.
In general there is a relationship between earliest spawning age and maximum life span.
At the extreme opposite, some annual killies begin spawning 6 weeks after hatching, are senile by 9 months and dead before 12 months.
Thats pretty amazing that your fish spawned so soon. I dont think my fish started that early. As for age, its too bad I lost the wild adults prematurely, they would have been 12 years old by now which means we would that much closer to seeing if your estimation is correct. Totally off the subject, but the oldest fish I have are a pair of C. adolfoi (13 years!) they do go into t position once in a while, but never see eggs anymore. I believe these will spawn within the first year.
To add to this thread though, I have found that Tetra Algae Crisps make an excellent food for sturisoma fry. the babies will actually chase crumbs of this stuff, pretty amazing, being that sturisoma fry are notoriously lazy feeders.
As I showed in a couple of photos on page one, newly hatched Sturisoma fry actively congregate around food they like even in a breeding tank that was 18 inches deep. That is not a depth which many will survive for long unless they are removed to a shallow water tank soon after hatching. I use earth worm sticks in a filter media bag at first if the fry are not in a breeding net or small aquarium but in any of these different containers they seem to be attracted to the food I use.
If they are not actively seeking a food it would seem to me like that would be because the food is not something they are interested in.
Another possibility might be that the fry did not receive a suitable soon enough after complete absorption of their residual egg yolk and already began to starve and lost their ability to eat.
You have smart sturisoma! mine dont do that. I even copied your technique exactly! studied your pictures and followed your detailed musings. All of this and they did not flock to the bag of worm pellets. I've been breeding this fish for a long time and I would always lose a percentage of fry due to starvation. I would try all sorts of things, and pretty much resigned to the notion that they are lazy feeders. That is until I found my magic bullet for rearing these. Not until I started using the food I mentioned did I get to the 2 inch stage with very little to no loss. Not saying my way is better than your way, or anything like that. Sometimes thing work for some and dont for others. Just offering up another option in feeding these fish.
I always believe there are many different methods to use and end up with the desired results so I don't say my method is the best. I had many failures, then gradual improvement and finally what I considered satisfactory results raising Sturisoma fry.
I am sorry my photos are so poor of the newly feeding Sturisoma fry aggregating at and on my feed bag method before I moved them to the small and shallow tanks for their initial growth but the photos did show how fry in a 36 X 12 X 18H inch 34 gal tank found their way to the bag of earthworm sticks so that is irrefutable evidence of how my Sturisoma fry act. I did not take a photo of the 10 month old fish spawning but I did take one of a pair in their prespawning behavior and all of my fellow Sturisoma breeders will recognize what the pair are doing in this prespawn photo.
For those less familiar with them, the males become darker and the females have light colored bellies when spawning. I actually misstated the age at which they spawned. It was not 10 months. It was only 8 months. The label on the photobucket album was given at the time I shot this photo so that pushes back the earliest time mine first bred. Fish don't spawn unless they are in good condition and since these actually bred at only 8 months instead of 10 months shows what is possible, at least with Sturisoma aureum, the only Sturisoma species I have worked with. They were barely 2/3 the adult lengths they eventually reached. Based on how difficult the very small fish are to raise and relatively slow initial growth rates I was very surprised they spawned so soon after beginning to grow fast. That is what really made me suspect they were not as likely to be as long lived species as many of the Plecos.
Here is a reverse trio with two males courting the ripe female from the same brood as the first picture but at about one year old and at this point they are from 6 to 7 inches in total length. These were in a 125 gal tank where i tried for the last time to keep them with Discus, six adult wild Alenquer form, Symphysodon haraldi. I had to remove the six adult Sturisoma from the Discus tank due to the Sturisoma harassing and sucking on the sides of the Discus. I had hoped given that much room for some few fish I might get lucky and be able to keep them together. I also initially had this problem when I kept their parents with 10 adult Heckel Discus but Heckels are the most passive of the 3 wild Discus species while S. haraldi is the most assertive so I had hoped that combination might work better. it did but it was still a problem and breeding wild Discus is a higher priority for me than breeding Sturisoma.
Here is a larger view of the setting and shows the Discus and a Sturisoma on the bottom. Look closely and you will see some of my F1 Peckoltia sp L134 fry and Corydoras hastatus I put in the tank. The C. hastatus did not do well in the long run but the L134 are now 3-1/2 inches at about 2 years old.
Here is just a gratuitous photo of some of my Alenquer Discus to show off their pretty red base body color for which Alenquer Discus are well known.
hi susan,
looks nice. but dont forget...sturisoma festivum needs to be well fed until they reach over 5 to 6cm they can always die, soon as there is a lack of enough food!
make enough waterchanges as you need to feed enough so nitrate stays low and will not brake their growth...(high nitrate levels can block growth for any young fish!)
also try sushi-algae leaves...you'll get them in a asian store...place some on the bottom and put a stone on it to keep it in place so it wont drift towards the filter...make sure to keep an eye on it..maybe replace it after 2 days...of feed less of it...
