The farlowella, unlike its cousins from the Sturisoma
(Royal farlowella) or Rineloricaria (whiptail) genus is
a very narrow bodied (pencil-like) fish. Although they possess the
same elongated tail and extensions, they just don’t have the
girth. They are sometimes referred to as stick catfish.
Farlowellas are neither very pretty nor exciting fish,
but they are excellent algae eaters (true to their loricarid reputation),
not particularly fussy, and very easy to get along with. My experience
with these fish has been very positive (in other words, very easy).
I happened upon my fish in a pet store in July 1991. There were
four 4” fish in the tank and I bought them all. They were
housed for a few months in a 20 gallon high tank with a group of
panda corys. The fish were then moved to a 15-gallon tank of their
own. The tank contained a light layer of gravel, the traditional
small piece of driftwood (just in case loricarids really do need
it), and a corner box filter. The tank was unheated year round.
Keeping the tank clean proved to be more work than I had planned
on so it really never was. I hate to admit this in print, but you
never know what might be relevant so here goes: The water actually
smelled bad when I changed water and a carpet of white “mold”
would grow on the gravel bed. Not only didn’t the fish mind,
but they grew and thrived and spawned in this tank. Overfeeding
at its finest!
Although I originally believed I had purchased 3 females and 1 male,
as they grew, the fish were very easy to sex and it turned out I
had 3 males and 1 female. The surest way to sex these fish is the
males have bristles (almost furlike) along the sides of their short
“snout” and the females' “snout” is longer,
thinner, bare, and has a tiny round bulb at the tip. Because the
fish is so skinny, a female with eggs is unmistakable. Lastly, in
my case, the males outgrew the female by about 2 inches. She is
only about 5 to 5.5 inches long.
Having three males in the tank proved to be no problem. They all
got along. “Got along” is probably not quite the right
expression for four fish who did absolutely nothing day in and day
out. If it weren’t for the polluted tank, the growth of the
fish, and the fact that they were occasionally in a different spot
on the glass, I wouldn’t have know they were eating, breathing,
moving, or even alive. OK, you get the point – boring fish.
Their diet consisted of basic flake and sinking pellets, as zucchini
polluted the tank even more, and they weren’t interested in
beef heart or worms. The average pH was 6.0 – 6.5 and the
temperature was room temperature (probably as low as 68 in winter
and as high as 80 in summer).
Early in May 1992, I found the female spawning on the back glass
one night. At the time I wasn’t even sure which (if any) male
was involved, because none was in the immediate vicinity. The next
day there were about 50 – 55 eggs and one of the males was
guarding them. By the second day I could see that the eggs were
indeed fertile (at least none had fungussed). They began getting
dark on the third day and although the number of eggs did dwindle
slightly each day, I saw the first fry on day 10 and by day 13,
they had all hatched and I had about 25 fry. After 3 or 4 days the
yolk sac was used up and the fry were “grazing” on the
slimy glass. I put an algae covered clay pot in the tank but the
fry seemed to prefer to rummage around the bottom of the tank and
scrape the glass sides. When the youngest (last to hatch) were about
five days and everyone’s yolk sacs were gone, I began feeding
spirulina powder every night, but I honestly believe they were feeding
on the muck and infusoria. In either case, they were eating because
they were growing.
The adults not only didn’t bother the fry, but proceeded to
spawn again (one month after the first spawning) with the fry still
in the tank. This time I witnessed some of the spawning. I couldn’t
tell which male was involved because after she would lay a few eggs,
he would come up next to her and nudge a little and fertilize the
eggs but then go off again until she laid more eggs. This time the
spawn was smaller, maybe 30 eggs, and after the same daily dwindling
I ended up with only eight fry. One month later they spawned again.
Again maybe 30 eggs, and this time no fry. The fish were moved first
to a 55-gallon tank, which was overridden with algae, and then after
about a month into two separate ten-gallon tanks (2 fish each).
The “pair” did spawn again in a few months exactly as
before. It was large spawn, which resulted in about 30 fry. Unfortunately,
I lost most of this spawn about 3 weeks or so later. The adults
appeared fine so I wasn’t (and am still not quite) sure what
the problem was, but I suspect that they may have starved. The tank
conditions were what we would consider much better than those described
previously in the old tank. Regular water changes, sponge filter,
and bare bottom, not to mention more conservative feedings were
the rule. This didn’t allow for too much grazing by the fry.
And although the adults never seemed to bother the fry, I doubt
they were very generous with sharing their rations of pellets. The
adults were then moved to a 29-gallon, clean, heated, community
tank.
The fry from the original spawn are now about 7 months old and are
about 3 inches long. The adults still do absolutely nothing. I don’t
think that they are fond of the cleanliness, the heat, or the company
in their new home, and they have not spawned since.
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