Anyone keep these?

CassCats · May 18, 2020

Wanna share some photos of these oddballs. Anyone keep farlowella twig catfish (the farlowella group particularly, but ill also count the sturistoma group AKA royal farlowella and kin)

@DwarfCichlidLvr i know you got one!

I have 2.

A female farlowella platorynchus

And a female farlowella vittata

I know theyre a difficult fish to keep, but wondering how many others keep them. I love these fish, so neat. I mean they dont do a whole lot, by day they sit on driftwood and look like a stick, but at night theyre always out cleaning my glass, hopping around from plant to plant and branch to branch. So fun trying to find them. And if they get annoyed with another fish or shrimp, they swat it with their long tails lol

DwarfCichlidLvr · May 18, 2020

Thank for sharing.
You know I cant do photos right now but I will if I ever get a chance.
Mine is blowing through my algae. I love it. So far I wouldn't consider them 'hard' right now. Mine is doing well in my hard alkaline water so far and I expect it to continue to do so.

KevinZ · May 18, 2020

At first sight I though they are crocodile. My bad :rofl:

Retired Viking · May 18, 2020

I like their camouflage color, just blend right in. :good:

CassCats · May 18, 2020

Theyre the master at planking, anywhere!

Retired Viking · May 18, 2020

Nice picture, I have auto-flash on my camera and every time I try for a close up all I get is the flash even when I try at an angle.

DwarfCichlidLvr · May 18, 2020

KevinZ said:
At first sight I though they are crocodile. My bad

Yes. She keeps crocodiles in her 46 gallon tank! lol

Retired Viking said:
Nice picture, I have auto-flash on my camera and every time I try for a close up all I get is the flash even when I try at an angle.

so you have them?

trash.binh91 · May 18, 2020

Really interesting fish!

CassCats · May 18, 2020

Retired Viking said:
Nice picture, I have auto-flash on my camera and every time I try for a close up all I get is the flash even when I try at an angle.

Can you turn the flash off?

Byron · May 18, 2020

I had Farlowella vitatta (the most commonly seen species of the smaller true Farlowella, pictured in this thread) for over ten years. I acquired a trio in 2008 and they turned out to be one male and two females. After maybe three years, spawning began, and was regular two or three times every year. The male is good at protecting the egg clutch for up to two weeks, but once the eggs hatch the fry are helpless (they just hang from some surface for five days before they are free swimming, if you can call this fish's jerky movement "swimming") and that is when they usually get eaten by other fish. I saved fry from several spawnings periodically, and gave them away.

You are correct that they are motionless for long periods. Many aquarists would consider them boring for that reason. They are incredibly thorough at eating common green algae and diatoms, but do not touch "problem" algae. I raised the fry easily with dried oak leaves. They can damage fine-leaf plants though; It took me a while to figure out why the pygmy chain swords had leaves full of holes; it was the Farlowella. I moved them into a tank with larger swords and those were not damaged, and the chain swords developed whole leaves.

Some photos of eggs/fry at various stages for those interested. First photo is of one pair spawning, female upper fish and male lower. Second photo shows two spawns; the male will spawn with multiple females and this occurred a few times. The dark eggs are about ready to hatch from the first spwaning, and the long rtow of white eggs are the second female spawn. Third photo is the newly hatched fry pre-free swimming stage. Fourth is of three fry on day 6 post-hatching. Fifth is pygmy cory parent and fry and a couple Farlowella fry lower right and mid right on leaves. Last is a bit older fry, they certainly loved those leaves.

CassCats · May 18, 2020

Byron said:
I had Farlowella vitatta (the most commonly seen species of the smaller true Farlowella, pictured in this thread) for over ten years. I acquired a trio in 2008 and they turned out to be one male and two females. After maybe three years, spawning began, and was regular two or three times every year. The male is good at protecting the egg clutch for up to two weeks, but once the eggs hatch the fry are helpless (they just hang from some surface for five days before they are free swimming, if you can call this fish's jerky movement "swimming") and that is when they usually get eaten by other fish. I saved fry from several spawnings periodically, and gave them away.

You are correct that they are motionless for long periods. Many aquarists would consider them boring for that reason. They are incredibly thorough at eating common green algae and diatoms, but do not touch "problem" algae. I raised the fry easily with dried oak leaves. They can damage fine-leaf plants though; It took me a while to figure out why the pygmy chain swords had leaves full of holes; it was the Farlowella. I moved them into a tank with larger swords and those were not damaged, and the chain swords developed whole leaves.

Some photos of eggs/fry at various stages for those interested. First photo is of one pair spawning, female upper fish and male lower. Second photo shows two spawns; the male will spawn with multiple females and this occurred a few times. The dark eggs are about ready to hatch from the first spwaning, and the long rtow of white eggs are the second female spawn. Third photo is the newly hatched fry pre-free swimming stage. Fourth is of three fry on day 6 post-hatching. Fifth is pygmy cory parent and fry and a couple Farlowella fry lower right and mid right on leaves. Last is a bit older fry, they certainly loved those leaves.

I think with farlows, leaf litter or other botanicals are essential with them. Provides a steady food source for them as they love the biofilm on them.

I love how they "swim". Definitely not swimming. A fish that legit cannot swim haha.

I dont mind their inactivity, i think theyre just really cool fish. My platorynchus is nearly full grown, stays a bit smaller than an adult vittata. My vittata though has grown bounds since ive gotten her. Shes almost as large as my platorynchus right now, at about 6 inches. She was about 3 inches when i first got her. Ive only just got her to accept shrimp pellets. Now if she would go for veggies and wafers like my platorynchus does, that'd be awesome. But shes got a porky round belly and shes always browsing biofilm, so she eats well.

Mine are kept with e. bleheri swords, they love them. Also with crypts and anacharis. But they hang out on the swords a lot. That tank has the cleanest glass of all my tanks. I dont have to clean it at all, the two of them keep it nice and clear.

Its great to know someone else whos had good success with these fish. I hear so much how they never live long and that theyre delicate and such. Ive had really good experience with them.

DwarfCichlidLvr · May 18, 2020

thanks for the read @Byron! I may try my hand at breeding them at some point.

Colin_T · May 18, 2020

DwarfCichlidLvr said:
Yes. She keeps corcodiles in her 46 gallon tank! lol

so you have them?

I'm gonna remember that and add it to my list with chocodiles.

----------------
Twig and Whiptail catfish are easy to breed. Get a group of young fish and grow them up. When they are a year old they mature and males get small bristles on the side of their nose and pectoral fins (like bristlenose catfish). They lay small clusters of eggs on the glass or broad leaf plants and guard them for a week before they hatch and the babies end up in the tank.

DwarfCichlidLvr · May 18, 2020

Colin_T said:
I'm gonna remember that and add it to my list with chocodiles.

----------------
Twig and Whiptail catfish are easy to breed. Get a group of young fish and grow them up. When they are a year old they mature and males get small bristles on the side of their nose and pectoral fins (like bristlenose catfish). They lay small clusters of eggs on the glass or broad leaf plants and guard them for a week before they hatch and the babies end up in the tank.

oops. lol I fixed it.

yes

Retired Viking · May 18, 2020

NCaquatics said:
Can you turn the flash off?

It is an automatic camera that self focus and adds flash when it thinks it is needed. I try and use my wife cell phone camera when I can.

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Anyone keep these?

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