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Now this is how I like my weekends to start! My Royal Farlowellas spawned, here is Dad tending his new, soon to be babies!!
Best, Barb

sweet pic and good luck with the children!

Congrats! Your tank looks very clean so i am sure that has done alot to get these lovely fish to spawn!

Ben

congrat's and good luck with the kid's

Kev

Fantastic news Barb. Good luck with bringing the young ones up...

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Mats

Wowzers and congrats!!!!!!! Please keep us posted on the progress. Lovely pic.

congratulations, can i ask? were you trying to breed them or did it just happen?

Either way well done

eupterus wrote:congratulations, can i ask? were you trying to breed them or did it just happen?

Either way well done

Trying to breed them I was lucky, as I bought them as a "Proven Pair", and obviously, he wasn't kidding!!
Barb

Here is a PIC of the developing embryos, this is day 3. I can see little fishys forming!!
Barb

Just a few more days and the fry will be all over the glass at the surface. It usually takes a few days from when the 1st egg hatches until the last one.

Cool Stuff

Are you sure those aren't Sturisomatichthys instead of Sturisoma?

Of the three species of Sturisoma I have bred, all took 9-11 days to hatch, your eggs seem aweful far along!

Sturisomatichthys however usually hatch in 5-7 days. (I have bred two species of these)

There are a lot more characteristics to look at to determine which Genera your fish belong in, but I think it might merit a second look anyway...

Got any full view pics of the fish?

Feel up to selling me any of the fry? ;)

Barbie Wrote:

I've found tank temp can also drastically impact the speed of development for the eggs. What was your tank temperature Barb?

Yeah it does, but not nearly as much as this. The eggs pictured looked to be a day or two away from hatching.

In the species I have worked with the shortest incubation for a true Sturisoma was a pair I loosely ided as S. nigrorostrum from Peru. At 82-84F, they hatched in 9 days.

Either way, they merit another look.

Is the tank next to a window? I did that once as an unknowing newby and had a pea soup tank within a month! If that is a window there, it would seem the eggs are near it. Does this species enjoy light more than other pl*cos? Please forgive me if it sounds like a silly question. I have next to no experience with L's.

These fish are predominantly herbivourous, however if you want to see them feeding aggressively (and prime the female for spawning) try a couple mussles or clams on the half-shell. My Sturisomines attack this with more vigor than just about any other fish I have.

Bronzefry: As for the location of the nest; Sturisomines invariably nest in location where the current (O2) is greatest. If you use a typical (hang on the back) powerfilter, they'll almost always spawn on the front glass. You can almost dictate the spawning surface and 9 out of 10 times they'll comply.

In a community tank setting a friend of mine used to set a powerhead blowing water up above the water surface and falling down the front face of a large piece of slate. The fish would spawn on this face of the slate where the eggs could easily be removed prior to hatching.

Nice bit of common-sense engineering.

So how many days after hatching before the fry are interested in eating?

'bout five days. Again, this depends on temperature as well.

As for feeding them, this get's tricky. Several years ago I wrote an article on Keeping and Breeding Sturisomatichthys. It's in the Shane's World section of this site.

In it I described the methods I still use for raising Sturisomine fry. IMO it's still the best method I've tried thus far.

Ah, thank you. I have had other Farlowella fry in the past, and getting them to eat has always been a huge challenge. Your article was very well written.

Kirk

pturley wrote:Are you sure those aren't Sturisomatichthys instead of Sturisoma?

Of the three species of Sturisoma I have bred, all took 9-11 days to hatch, your eggs seem aweful far along!

Sturisomatichthys however usually hatch in 5-7 days. (I have bred two species of these)

There are a lot more characteristics to look at to determine which Genera your fish belong in, but I think it might merit a second look anyway...

Got any full view pics of the fish?

Here is a PIC I just took, and the eggs have hatched (pictures to follow). They started to hatch late evening of April 21st, and were all hatched by late evening, April 22nd. Eggs were laid on April 15th, which puts hatching time at 6-7 days at a water temp of 80 degrees.
Any thoughts on what fish I have here?
Best, Barb

Bronzefry wrote:Is the tank next to a window? I did that once as an unknowing newby and had a pea soup tank within a month! If that is a window there, it would seem the eggs are near it. Does this species enjoy light more than other pl*cos? Please forgive me if it sounds like a silly question. I have next to no experience with L's.

Yep, this tank is directly in front of a window, and the sun comes up right on the tank
Barb

Jon wrote:Feel up to selling me any of the fry? ;)

Possibly Let me see how well I do raising them, LOL!!
Barb

Barbie wrote:I've found tank temp can also drastically impact the speed of development for the eggs. What was your tank temperature Barb? It's been just days since we had a picture.... It's nice to be able to bug someone else for them, they're right! ;)

Barbie

LOL!! I love your fish pictures, happy I can return some your way for once, big grin!! Tank temp is 80 degrees.
These were all taken on the evening of April 21st, as the eggs were starting to hatch.
Best, Barb

He looks mad in there, LOL!!