Sturisoma aurem spawn

[tjudy]

I have a royal farlowella guarding eggs that are developing nicely. Here is my log on them:

http://www.tedsfishroom.com/sturisomalog.html

I have scoured this site for breeding accounts. I have kept and bred this species before (many years ago). I want to possibly try a few different techniques with these eggs/fry, because I never had a lot of success raising the fry (usually less than 10% survival rates). Here are some options I have come up with, what is your opinion of them?

1) The fish did not spawn on the wall of the tank. The spawning site is on a terra cotta pot under another pot. This provides the opportunity to pull the whole clutch on day six or seven and let them hatch (usually starting day in a much smaller rearing tank. Good idea?

2) I suspect that the problem with raising the fry is keeping the balance between enough food and good water quality. So I am thinking GREEN WATER. I have a green water culture that is so dense you cannot see the back of the 20H it is in after 'cooking' for a few days. (I harvest green water weekly for daphnia and moina cultures). 30% daily changes with green water to provide a constant food supply.

3) Island in a sea of gunk... I have a very dense mass of green algae in my daphnia culture that I am sure is teeming with all sorts of tasty morsels (from snail excrement to some actual living vegetable matter). I am thinking of using this like a substrate in the ten gallon rearing tank. I would also place a medium-large piece of driftwood that is heavily planted with anubias and bolbitus fern. The plants have a healthy growth of green algae on them too. This island would give the fry a place to rise out of the gunk on the bottom.

I think that if I can get the fry through two weeks of this constant nutrient bath I could start cleaning the tank up a bit. By then they should be large enough to be better at seeking relatively remote feeding locations. My impression from keeping them years ago is that they are practically immobile for a week or so after hatching, and if they do not literally land on food (or food land on them) they will not seek it out to eat.

Good plans? Stupid plans?

[fishfarmer]

Ted, congratulations on the spawn. I have worked with these guys and other loricaridaes in the last couple of years and have some experience that I hope will help. On my web page I documented an article on breeding royal farlowellas and later another article on a fry raising tank that allows you to keep food in front of the fry while still keeping the water from going foul. I found a guy that sells plexiglass stuff on aquabid to make the tanks and he still sells them there. The info is in the article.

http://cinci-fishfarmer.com/reports/Roy ... llaBR.html

http://cinci-fishfarmer.com/reports/Lor ... eport.html

Good luck

Steve

[prairieguy]

Hey Steve--
Thanks for the link to your fry raising technique. I had read Greg Rau's techniques elsewhere, but this is the first time I've seen your hatchery design. It looks great! I'll definitely give it a try.
Scott

[aquaholic]

Steve,
Excellent tip. I have used a sponge filter to add water into a smaller tank, but was just letting it overflow back. I can see the sponge at the bottom will concentrate the food and provide a constant known food location for these lazy fish. Previously I would add food in small amounts as frequently as possible over a constant airstone so fish could work out which water current had best food.

Thanks once again.