How to get Farlowellas in the mood ;)

[pleconut]

Good to hear, they seem to be eating. Keep us updated.

[PeterJ]

I hope this might help? I had a pair of F.acus. No breeding activity, until I began dosing my Amazon biotope with JBL Tropol, a good blackwater tonic. It does contain a higher concentration of iodine. (Tadpoles can't turn into frogs without it). They then bred. I lost most of the fry, saving just 7. To feed them at the next attempt, I tried an old 'trick'. I places a narrow glass sheet at the water surface at the back of the tank. This very quickly algaed up. On hatching I lowered it into tank and 'voila' they fed on that I do hope it helps. PeterJ.

[Mol_PMB]

Thanks I'll give it a go - my attempts to get repashy to stick to glass or Perspex didn't work but this sounds good.
Most of the surviving fry now seem happy to eat spinach and red pepper, and are growing Ok.
Cheers,
Paul

[pleconut]

I wasn't certain the repashy glass/perspex would work, at work this week I've been cleaning all out all the turtle tanks, and the glass in them collects tons of hair algae, you could maintain a small shallow tank, mature it and maintain it with no fish, with glass sheets as mentioned by PeterJ, but instead with a UV strip light, this is what causes the excessive algae, as mentioned before, put in some plants for good measure, then you're not encouraging excess algae blooms in your tank.

[Mol_PMB]

8 young Farlowella vittata

All the twiglets are now in the main tank. There are at least 15 (I've counted this many at once, but they're very good at hiding so there are probably more. Here's a photo which shows 8 of them together (one is very hard to spot - look for the near-vertical dark line toward the bottom left)

[pleconut]

Congrats on the 15 plus, it's not easy to spot the one bottom left so there's likely to be a few more hiding! It now seems you're becoming more successful at raising the twiglets now.

[Mol_PMB]

Thanks Hopefully I can raise most of these now; I think they're out of the danger zone.

[pleconut]

Good to hear this.

[Mol_PMB]

These clips are supposed to hold seaweed, not twiglets!

Five of them representing all three spawns tuck in to a red pepper dinner this evening
These hatched on 2/12/15, 16/12/15 and 31/12/15, so they're 1-2 months old.

I did a clean and water change (this tank is getting them twice weekly at the moment) and then tried to count them. There are still at least 15 fry, but then I could only see one of the three adults so the chances of more fry hiding is pretty high. They're enjoying pepper, spinach, spring greens, repashy 'lollipops' and a hardwood branch I've had maturing in the water-change drum for a few weeks.

[pleconut]

So that's been more than a week since your last update and they're still going strong, you have a very good reason to be pleased with the success, keep going you're obviously doing something right,

[Mol_PMB]

Thanks They all seem to be finding enough food in the tank to keep their bellies full and produce those satisfying long curly poops!
The parents haven't shown any signs of wanting to spawn again since their pre-Christmas marathon.

[Mol_PMB]

Another update (I do love my twiglets...)

There are definitely at least 19 fry - I've just seen that many all at once. They're mostly acting like a plague of caterpillars on the spring greens!

And after my comments yesterday, their parents are getting ready to spawn again...

[pleconut]

Congrats, now 19 maybe some still hiding somewhere, hope the parents do what they've been doing so well, I have just received my pleco cave delivery, I think my ABNs are about to put it to good use. Just as well it came on time.

[Mol_PMB]

Thanks! Fingers crossed for the BNs

[pleconut]

All my plecos got a large water change today, except the Mustard spots - trying to keep things as stable as possible for these. ABNs got 50% cooler water they've not been eating much lately, minds are on spawning, the last couple of days they've filled their bellies particularly the male and are getting quite active now as they did before, female is very gravid. I ordered a smaller cave put it in, they became more interested in it, and I'm now leaving them in peace for the night.

[Mol_PMB]

It's slightly disconcerting to be sitting here eating my evenng meal while two catfish have sex just two feet to my right...

[bekateen]

Think about the poor fish! They're trying to have sex, and you're sitting there eating and watching them! Where's your sense of privacy and dignity?

Besides, better that than the other way around.

[Mol_PMB]

It's definitely a game for all the family, because they're brother and sister, and their younger brother and about 20 of their previous offspring are watching too. Only grandma has the decency to keep out of the way...

[pleconut]

True, but last time they spawned I'd left them alone for 24 hrs. I'm sure I can find something else to do:-)

[NCE12940]

It's slightly disconcerting to be sitting here eating my evenng meal while two catfish have sex just two feet to my right...

Much better though than breeding purebred dogs where one usually has to get more intimately involved . Particularly Basset Hounds who're really not constructed for such activities. There's even a poem, which I can't find, about a Basset Romeo who can't get up the stairs to his Juliet

[Mol_PMB]

Haha! That's a wonderful mental image... ;)

[pleconut]

Where there's a will there's a way!

[NCE12940]

Haha! That's a wonderful mental image... ;)

Being *low slung* is definitely an impediment in this case I once took a reproduction class (pre-vet, large animal, no humans ) in college.... Lots of *interesting* stories there

[Mol_PMB]

With apologies to those from the wrong continent and/or century:

"Nine out of ten cats prefer Whiskas"

Oh, hang on, that's not Whiskas, and there's 10 cats loving it...

[pleconut]

Cool picture, and good to see theyre all doing really well.

[Mol_PMB]

Ooooh - so cute, a new baby brother or sister!

[Mol_PMB]

I think I need a family planning consultant.
Both the adults and the yearlings have been spawning recently, both pairs spawned last night only 12 days after they last spawned; the previous twiglets had only just finished hatching.

The nursery is crammed full of this Spring's crop of youngsters and there are still more roaming free in their parents' tanks. Plus I have about 15 remaining from spawns last autumn.

[bekateen]

You've created a real farlowella love nest!

Cheers, Eric