What to do now that i have a tiny Sturisomatichthys aureus

anewbie · Aug 5, 2026

So i now have at least two tiny s. aureus which is a first for myself.

From what i read do not feed for 5 days as they consume egg sack. Ok that part is easy - then what ? My thought was tiny disolved fluval flakes (the green ones which are a mix of greens and insects) for a week and then maybe some bbs ? Not sure how many will hatch as quite a few the eggs i stole saturday fungused but at least 2 have hatched as of this morning and I suspect 3 to 6 more will make it (btw after water change the male took over fanning the ones i left in the tank and a lot of those might hatch at least when i looked over there at least 1/2 looked still healthy).

If my plan is an awful one please correct myself by saturday (first feeding).

Then in 6 months - well we shall wait to see if they make it that far.

GaryE · Aug 5, 2026

I managed to raise one when they bred here. If I had a do over, I would use zucchini rounds, blanched romaine and decor from other tanks cycled through.

anewbie · Aug 5, 2026

At what point in their life cycle - i'm most concern about the first 4 weeks. If i just drop in zucchini rounds at day 5 they will be fine ? As for decor - i can cycle in sponge filters from different aquariums which should be quite mature and very dirty since i never clean them in the past 3 years.

GaryE · Aug 5, 2026

MIne liked to be on wood, and solid surfaces with no give. I don't think sponges would offer much. I started zucchini rounds (frozen to break them) in the first week, and monitored how they settled on them.

anewbie · Aug 5, 2026

GaryE said:
MIne liked to be on wood, and solid surfaces with no give. I don't think sponges would offer much. I started zucchini rounds (frozen to break them) in the first week, and monitored how they settled on them.

Would raw zuc cut in thin slices work? I'm not sure if that is the same thing as zucchini rounds - as for hard surface i have some older pieces of drift wood that has splinted off small bits so i can add those.

GaryE · Aug 5, 2026

Not raw. You can blanch or freeze them, as the fibre must be broken for the fish to get to it immediately. Freezing fractures it and makes it available. Thin coins are what you want.

anewbie · Aug 5, 2026

GaryE said:
Not raw. You can blanch or freeze them, as the fibre must be broken for the fish to get to it immediately. Freezing fractures it and makes it available. Thin coins are what you want.

got it - buy raw zuc - cut it in very very thin slices - put in bag and freeze and then put in container on saturday and watch little fishes grow.

Thanks !

anewbie · Aug 5, 2026

A few pictures - for now i'm using the marina breeder box - they come in 3 sizes and this picture failed to show the top which is important:

I'll get another picture tomorrow - the top has an input with water flowing in and then it flows out - at the bottom it has a little piece of plastic that you can rotate to set the angle which controls how high the water will get - the large airstone in the middle is not part of the kit and when they get older i'll remove it. This picture shows the full box:

https://www.amazon.com/Marina-Hang-On-Breeding-Box-Large/dp/B005QRDCP2?tag=fishforums-20

--
Unfortunately some of my parts are scattered from my last move and the box i'm using i think is the medium. It works well i guess - i checked the main tank and there are still a bunch of unhatched eggs so if they are there tomorrow i'll try to snag 4 or 5 more if the male will let me. I'm worry they are so close to hatching that i'll damage them. Then again they might have hatched by morning. The ones in the 100 guarded by the male look to be in excellent condition.
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Another breeder box i have is made by ziss:

https://amazon.com/Breeding-Incubator-Transparent-Isolation-Clownfish/dp/B0BSGG72X5/?tag=fishforums-20

Don't buy the one i linked as you can get them for much less - kensfish is a good source or ebay - they work well but are a pain when doing water change since they fit in the aquarium and you have to lower them.... but they work well esp for a lot of frys.

Here is a poor close up of the egg sack:

anewbie · Aug 6, 2026

Something really odd happen this morning. I grabbed a cluster of eggs that were left (most have hatched and a saw a few young ones in there); but i wasn't sure how many (they sort of just stick together). But in the 10 or 30 seconds it took to take the cup downstairs I looked in it and could only find one egg - all the others vanished - like magic:

Oh well - i dug out the large marina box i had transfer everything to it and added a ceramic cave i found in one of hte tanks - it looks like it takes a lot of space but remember it is hollow:

Small box showing another egg had hatched.

big box with everything in it (it is approx twice as long so more volume) and top down picture:

The frogbit came from one of my extremely soft very acidic aquarium that gets virtually no nutrient so it is a big sickly and pale - it was in there by accident because it is next to the 20 long with the large group of frogbit but it has spread across the top in its sickly fashion. Anyway tomorrow i will get some zuc and friday evening after it freezes i will hang a piece in (i read on planetcatfish one guy said it worked a lot better to hang it) saturday i will add a tiny bit of organic made for people organic spirulina powder that doesn't list any additives:

https://amazon.com/dp/B09HLDRNVB?tag=fishforums-20

And we will see how it works out.

anewbie · Aug 9, 2026

Just a brief update - most if not all the ones i stole are alive but it is too early to say much since at this point they have exhausted their egg sack but it will be the next week before I know if i am providing them food they can eat. A few things i've noticed:

At least so far they have no interest in zuc which does not surprise me since the parents would never touch the stuff - what they do seem to like is grazing on vals leaves that are floating on the top and i've started dipping leaves in spriulina powder to give them a bit more nutrient. I have no clue if the are eating the stuff or if they are getting any biofilm off the leaves. The other area is the plastic container - a lot of them will suck on it like most algae based catfish suck on glass container again i don't know if they are getting enough food but this time next week i will know

The idea of the vals leaves occurred after i observe some of the ones i left in the main aquarium spending time at the top on the leaves and my guess that is a decent place for them to get adequate nutrients even without the spirulina powder being added.

I did see one or two maybe sucking on the ceramic cave i put in there so it is not a hot spot for them but maybe it is providing something (that cave is like 5 years old in aquarium water never cleaned other than perhaps kribs grazing on it.
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I did add 5 more eggs and like the last time the minute i snatch the eggs they hatched which i find both scary and neat - hopefully they don't suffer from long term ptsd

Magnum Man · Aug 9, 2026

had you looked at planet catfish???

PlanetCatfish.com - Sturisomatichthys aureus (LORICARIIDAE) Cat-eLog

Images are copyright and may not be reproduced without permission of the copyright holder.

www.planetcatfish.com

https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/my_fbws_species_detail.php?mode=blog&species_id=1167

TwoTankAmin · Aug 9, 2026

I can offer two suggestions. The first it that I had farlowellas spawn. They probably have a similar diet too ypur fry. I moved the fry and the unhatched eggs to a net breeder box I put into the tank the tank, I was feeding them broken bits of Hiakri Algae wafers.

I have mostly worked with the B&W Hypancistrus plecos. My experiences with feeding the fry is that anything which gets soft they can eat. So, most of the sinking foods I used for adults that were sinking wafers etc. which would get soft after a bit of time was easy for the newly free swimming fry to eat.

My next suggestion is that you read the following two articles from Shanes World - Reproduction on Planetcatfish.
Note that Planet-catfish lists the following information on the page for Sturisomatichthys aureus

Synonym(s)

Loricaria aurea, Sturisoma aureum

Spawning, Embryo & Fry Development in Sturisoma aureum
Article © Bruce Brethauer, uploaded 1st Jan 02.
https://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworld/shanesworld.php?article_id=247

and

Raising Sturisoma
Article © Larry Waybright, uploaded 19th Sep 09.
https://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworld/shanesworld.php?article_id=412

Good luck with them. I found the Farlo fry to be the most difficult fry I have gotten and tried to raise. I could not get them beyond a few months. I gave some of them to Rachel O'Leary and she had the same problem.

ps. In 2010 I bought what I was told were a pair of Sturisomatichthys leightoni. They spawned and I got green eggs. I posted about it on Planetcatfish and was told they were not leightoni but were actually a pair of Rineloricaria parva.

The eggs were gone after a day or two.
What do Sturisomatichthys leightoni eggs look like?

anewbie · Aug 10, 2026

TwoTankAmin said:
I can offer two suggestions. The first it that I had farlowellas spawn. They probably have a similar diet too ypur fry. I moved the fry and the unhatched eggs to a net breeder box I put into the tank the tank, I was feeding them broken bits of Hiakri Algae wafers.

I have mostly worked with the B&W Hypancistrus plecos. My experiences with feeding the fry is that anything which gets soft they can eat. So, most of the sinking foods I used for adults that were sinking wafers etc. which would get soft after a bit of time was easy for the newly free swimming fry to eat.

My next suggestion is that you read the following two articles from Shanes World - Reproduction on Planetcatfish.
Note that Planet-catfish lists the following information on the page for Sturisomatichthys aureus

Synonym(s) Loricaria aurea, Sturisoma aureum

Spawning, Embryo & Fry Development in Sturisoma aureum
Article © Bruce Brethauer, uploaded 1st Jan 02.
https://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworld/shanesworld.php?article_id=247

and

Raising Sturisoma
Article © Larry Waybright, uploaded 19th Sep 09.
https://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworld/shanesworld.php?article_id=412

Good luck with them. I found the Farlo fry to be the most difficult fry I have gotten and tried to raise. I could not get them beyond a few months. I gave some of them to Rachel O'Leary and she had the same problem.

ps. In 2010 I bought what I was told were a pair of Sturisomatichthys leightoni. They spawned and I got green eggs. I posted about it on Planetcatfish and was told they were not leightoni but were actually a pair of Rineloricaria parva.

The eggs were gone after a day or two.
What do Sturisomatichthys leightoni eggs look like?

I did read planetcatfish which was one of the reasons i purchase spritunla and tried hanging the zuc (one of the breeding report said they would only eat the food if high). Hum. Sounds like in a week if they live things will get a lot worse.