Lovely fish! I haven't kept farlos but friends do, so I'll just enjoy theirs & yours. Nice pics too
Off Camera flash is your friend.when I tried with digital cameras only got clear shots with the flash, which in turn cause problems with reflections and colors.
Thats the generic name. Their family name is farlowella. And each species of farlowella has its own name... but not common names (example: paleatus corydoras is peppered corydoras). So to differentiate them, i call them by their species names. And farlowella are not actually in the same family as the "royal farlowella" which is in the sturisoma family, or whiptails...Aren't they just twig catfish?
Unfortunately both of mine are two different species! One is farlowella vittata and the other is farlowella platorynchus (identified by incomplete median row of schutes). Unsure if they could even hybridize, not that id encourage it, but theyre both separate species. My platorynchus is female, still unsure on the vittata as its young still.If you have both sexes of the same species, they might spawn for you.
Hijack away! I love seeing photos and reading other's experiences with these neat fish. Not too many people keep these guys or really know much about them.Again, apologies to Noodle. I did not mean to hijack your thread. Hopefully this stuff will inspire you to try for a couple of both sexes. I can also tell folks that farlowella fry are the hardest offspring I have ever tried to raise. Along the way I lost a lot of them. I should also say that I bought three originally with no clue to sex. I was lucky since after the first few spawns I losyt one. The thrid was the right sex so I did get a few more spawns.
A few comments of spawning these guys. I had always seen wigglers with my corys and plecos, so I expected the same from the farlos. They do not turn to wigglers. The baby develops cured up inside the egg. This is how the eggs looked the morning after they were deposited:
The eggs get darker and darker as the fry develops inside. What makes it even more surprising is the eggs do not hatch all in a bunch, they hatched over about a day and a half. The result was my first spawn was mostly lunch for the other inhabitants. The second spawn I tried to pull the eggs close to hatching time. I must have gotten it right as soon after I began moving the eggs to the trap, they began to hatch;
They mostly hatched out and I decided to feed a tiny piece of an Hikari Algae wafer. Here they are after a bit of growth.
There are so many amazing things to see and do in this hobby. When I set up my first tank I swore I could not care less about any of my fish breeding. Since then it has become one of my favorite parts of the hobby. I am still hoping before I retire from fish keeping to have a tank with splash tetra (Copella arnoldi). If you do not know this fish and how it spawns: