F1 Sturisoma aureum spawns

[apistomaster]

Just a progress report.
Last Fall, I had some wild S. aureum spawning regularly until my only female died. I had about 150 fry but 11 months later, only about 40 survive but those fish have begun spawning.
They are still far short of their maximum adult size of ~7 inches, most are 4-1/2 to 5 inches in TL not counting tail filaments which are very long but they have begun spawning.
I was a little surprised that they could begin breeding at this age. Compared to Hypancistrus or Peckoltia spp which appear to take ~3 years to reach sexual maturity. It's actually encouraging to see they can begin spawning so soon. I don't think their normal life span is more than 7 years or ~1/2 as long as Hypancistrus spp seem capable of living.
Hopefully, I have learned a few things about the best way to raise their fry after my experience raising this current generation. They were not all that easy to get to 3 inches. All my losses occurred over the first 4 months. Hardly any fry died during their first 4-5 weeks but after that there was a steady attrition rate.
I know these are commercially raised in other parts of the world and many claim high survival rates but fewer aquarists in the USA raise this species and most of us have to start with wild fish. I suspect that those that come from aquarium strains show the effects of natural selection; those that survived always ended up becoming the future breeders and such selection over 15 or more years may have made the aquarium strains easier to raise. If not, then maybe practice made perfect. I am sure I will have better success just based on the experiences I have had raising my current group. One nice thing is that I know exactly how old my fish are unlike their large wild parents so I will be able to learn what their normal aquarium lifespan should be.
The breeders were one male and two females. I have read posts by other that they sometimes spawn with more than one female but until now, I did not have spare females. There were a dozen Sturisoma in the 40 gal breeder spawning tank and like many brooding fish do with their first spawn, the eggs were eaten by the next day. I'm sure this will resolve itself with practice and fewer non-participating Sturisoma present.
Here is a photo of a pair making preparations to spawn. This photo was taken about 2 months ago. It looks to me like if I were really trying, I could have had a spawn even sooner. To me it is good news to learn they may spawn at such a young age.

Group photo.

[Fantasticfins]

I'm anxious to see your progress Larry. I'm at my third spawn and I think they've quit for a while for me. It's been 4 weeks since my last spawn and I have a reverse trio. I think if we continue to share info, we can make raising Sturisoma aureum easier for others. Keep us posted on your methods. I'm at about a 50% success rate for raising them, so I can use all the info you have to share.

[apistomaster]

Hi Fantastic,
While I still had the wild breeders, 1 F and 3 M's, one dominant male seem to monopolize the only available female so I essentially had a breeding pair. They would spawn pretty regularly every 16 days or so but they would also take a break lasting about a month after a series of spawns so your's may be just recharging their batteries. Brooding males do feed but not nearly as much as when not brooding and 10 days of guarding eggs must use up some of a male's reserves.

How old is your first batch? I rarely lost any during the first month but a few faded away over the subsequent months until they got some size to them. I had enough fry to try a variety of rearing conditions and made some interesting observations. Most broods numbered about 80 fry that made it to the feeding stage, a day or two after hatching.
1. I tried raising one brood by giving it a 55 gal tank, well planted with potted plants and filtered by 2 sponge filters. One sponge filter was run in airlift mode ; the other with a MaxiJet 600 power head. This is my standard set up for tanks 20L to 40 gal breeders. The fry all stayed near the waterline and were reluctant to dive deeper for sinking foods. This group starved to death.
2. I tried 12 in a 4.5 gal tank with a Marineland Duetto 100 Internal Power filter with a screened inlet. That group did extremely well.
3. Expanding on the experience with the small group, I began using 20 L with the dual sponge filters set up as described above plus an air stone.
I tip the power head/sponge filters on their sides so the flows are directed across the bottom like the flow of a stream.
This seemed to work well for the larger groups of one brood. Once they were about 2 to 2-1/2 inches long, I moved them to 40 gal breeders to finish growing them out. 20-24 fish per tank. What I tried to do is simulate a shallow fast moving stream as best I can. My Venezuelan friend, Ed Ruiz, told me that that was the type of habitat they always could count on collecting good numbers wild Sturisoma. In aquariums, they are always attracted to the outlet of power filters or power heads. Ed tells me that their name for Sturisoma in Venezuela is "Policias", because they seem to stand guard at attention. I think that is a pretty good nickname.
I feed them earth worm sticks as their primary food from the time they are newly hatched on through the rest of their life, including my breeding stock. They also get regular feedings of live black worms, frozen blood worms and Tetra Color Bits. Once in awhile an algae wafer.
Their tanks are usually swarming with Cherry Shrimp. They have become established in most of my tanks lacking a predator or wet/dry filter overflow siphon. I tried establishing cherry shrimp in my Heckel Discus tank and while the Discus ate a few shrimp, the overflow siphon accounted for most of the lost shrimp. I mention the shrimp because they seem to be a big help in keeping rearing tanks cleaner than tanks without them. I have even used them in my wild Betta breeding tanks and they never harm even fry as small as wild bubble nesting Betta spp.