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Managed to get them to lay a few whilst I was away. There was me setting the alarm to get up at all times of the night to check what they were doing and they get busy whilst I'm away. I think these are about to hatch any moment. Now for the hard part in raising the fry according to what I read on the forums here.

I'll let you know how I get on.

I have had reasonable success in raising sturisoma fry by grinding algae wafer on a piece of sand-paper. That makes a fine powder that goes all over in the water. The problem with Loricarinae fry is that they tend to sit and way for the food to come to the fry, rather than the Ancistrinae fry which go searching for food pretty much as soon as dad lets them go.

Other than that trick, I don't do anything [other than make sure there are no fry-predators in the tank, as the fry are very small and fragile when they are first free-swimming].

--
Mats

Success!!
Keep the pics coming if you can. The eggs are beautiful!

So I've now got 11 fry out of 11 eggs, most about three days old.



MatsP I've taken your advice and shaved a fine powder from my algae wafers and added it to my homemade floating fry saver. It has a solid base to allow the food to collect and good flow through via the flyscreen sides. I gently nudged the fish onto the food to ensure they find it and they haven't moved so far which is good.

Wow, they're so beautiful Wishing you all the best of luck!

From your first picture, I'm pretty sure mine aren't mature enough, those nose bristles are definitely not on mine. Maybe I DO have two females
Please keep us posted, this is very helpful (and hopeful)

I remember from one of your other posts that you have a couple that are similar in size to a couple of my males. The bristles are clear (not as big as the ones in the pic though) on my 12cm male with absolutley no hint of any on my 12 cm female.

As you know there's not too much by way of Farlowella stuff unfortunately so I'll keep the updates coming

Congrats! I had a farlowella, too. Great fish.

Ok so here's the latest update. Day 12 for the majority of these little guys.



They have been happily feeding on algae wafer powder, haven't been anywhere near any veggies, just not interested. At this age I'm not prepared to take away the powder to see if they move to veg. They are about 10mm and look pretty cool. The fry saver is working a treat to ensure that they are in effect 'sitting' in food at all times - no need to go looking for it. I syphon out and re-feed twice a day to keep everything clean and tidy. Growth rate seems pretty good, still have 11 out of 11, they've come on a lot since the last photo.

In case anyone wants to know I use a craft knife (take care kids!) to shave a fine powder off Hikari Algae Wafers and Tetramin tablets, mix this with tankwater in a syringe and use this to add a fine layer of the mix to the fry saver. It's important to clean the old food out regularly.

The female who I suspect laid these is fattening up again and getting feisty so I may need to make another fry saver.

Wow, they're so perfect little reproductions of the adults! Nice job and keep the pictures coming, they're beautiful

great job!

I think you would find that the Spirulina Sticks sold by aquaculture supply houses would be a better food. They require no prep work because the become very soft within minutes and become a soft mush which even these small fry can easily eat. They do not seem to spoil quickly. These and some earth worm sticks would be good. they may need a little more animal protein when they are very young.
I would only use garden veggies as supplements. The aquaculture foods are based on much more broadly based studies of the nutritional requirements of fish than most foods. I have been able to raise Loricaridae fry and condition my breeders on little else. I have even found that the tiny Parotocinclus cf epplyei do well on these foods. They are a delicate species with a generally poor record of doing well in aquariums. I'm sure they will gather around the softened foods, at least if they are anything at all like Sturisoma. Sturisoma are more carnivorous than Farlowella are.

Keeping them confined is wise. I would continue to do so until they are at least 2 inches TL. After that, I would be sure to keep them in shallow water no more than 10 inches deep until they have reached at least 3-1/2 inches. They will remain very delicate for the next 3 months. One thing I was very surprised to discover from raising Sturisoma and the early difficulties with raising their fry was that they reach sexual maturity within one year. Once they reached 2-3/4 inches their grow rate exploded.
It is a striking contrast compared to the Hypancistrus or Peckoltia species which have easy to raise fry but take 3 or so years to reach reproductive age.
I think this is related to the Twig type or Loricaria types having shorter life spans of maybe about 7 years or so while the little pleco spp seem to be capable of living twice that age.
Congratulations on your success so far. I do have some idea how hard they are to get to even the point your little guys are now.

Thanks everyone and for those thoughts Apistomaster, I'm glad you mention veg as purely a supplement, maybe that's where people have gone wrong in the past, what with everything you read talking about zucchini etc. I reckon if I had tried to feed mine just veg they would be gonners by now. From what I have read people do struggle some times, that might be why. I'd like to get hold of some worm sticks I reckon they would be ideal but have never seen them here, maybe they aren't available. I'll have a looksee in a few shops for some Spirulina Stick type things this weekend. Now they are starting to grow a little bigger, more solid food might be the go.

So on a good feeding regime with good foods, how long to get to a saleable size? Or what length would you expect after six months, any ideas?

By the way living in Australia when most people are in the UK or USA doesn't exactly make for rapid fire responses when it comes to posting.

great pictures. They are looking like needels.

I think it will take them about 6 months to reach 2-1/2 to maybe 3 inches. Growth begins very evenly but that will change over time.
The newly hatched fry almost double their size every 2 weeks then at 6 weeks they slow way, way down. Impossible to raise them at a profit, that's for sure but proof that your skills are high. These are a fish to be very proud of if they reach maturity under your care.

You should have more spawns to practice on over the next several months. 11 is far fewer eggs than they can produce but they often have some problems with their first spawn but become better at it with experience and so will you.

I don't happen to believe any garden vegetables are adequate for raising these fry.
Any decent brand of Spirulina Sticks provide a much more nutritionally complete diet. All brands also contain some shrimp or other animal protein in addition to the high protein Spirulina and have more broadly based trace minerals, vitamins and omega-3 supplements.