Sturisoma aureum raising

[mikevParticipant]

Does anyone here per chance has a good strategy of raising them?

This is my weak spot: despite trying different techniques, no fry survives. And I have some now…

#347460

[MattKeymaster]

What problems are you experiencing Mike? Any particular symptoms?

[mikevParticipant]

Simply that no fry survives. It may take quite a while, and they will grow meanwhile (I got some to 1.5-2″ once), but nobody makes it to the adult.

[MattKeymaster]

What are you feeding them?

Never bred these at home but it’s one we did at the shop and raised quite a few. Used to give them veggies to graze on and never really had too many problems…

[mikevParticipant]

Do you happen to remember the specifics? (Tank size/setup, which kind of vegetables, what else? How did you make sure that the tank was ultra-clean…or did you bother with this at all?)

I’ve tried various food… veggies did not seem to do much good, an older tank covered by algae worked best, but then they were catching likely bacteria diseases … seem to be totally intolerant even to small amounts of dirt in the tank.

The current approach is prepared food only (high quality algae wafers, plus new “superfood”) with daily moves to a clean container (trying to combat biofilm buildup). No losses in this group after a week, but the previous try like this resulted in a dieout after about two weeks, so some ideas at this time would be highly appreciated.

[MattKeymaster]

Yeah, the tank was only a couple of feet long, removed adults post-spawning and reduced water level to about 15 cm. Additional aeration via a couple of stones. Initial food was powdered dry stuff, followed by veggies later on (cucumber, courgette, potato). Maybe try to give them more protein in the initial period Mike – pretty sure they need more than just veg to begin with (?), and make sure the water isn’t too deep.

[ColinParticipant]

The key here is that the bottom of the tank must be spotlessly clean; the killer is the poisonous film that can grow on the bottom of the tank, where the fry sit

do a water change each day and sponge the bottom of the tank (assuming bare bottom) and syphon it out.

I’d be looking to do about 90% changes after scrubbing the bottom

cheers

[mikevParticipant]

Thanks, you two — very helpful.

The algae wafers they are getting now are 40% protein (pretty good stuff: got some of the shier hillstreams come out and fight for them). With Matt’s comment about powdered food I added Sera Micron to the mix…cannot hurt.

OK… here is the plan: follow what Colin says with one modification: I have a month old 10g tank that developed massive brown algae… I’ll clean up the bottom and let the babies have it. Fingers crossed, I’m not a pleco guy… (Please stop me if you know this is wrong… I can use a brand new tank too…)

[MattKeymaster]

QUOTE (Colin @ Mar 6 2012, 11:42 AM) < {POST_SNAPBACK}>

The key here is that the bottom of the tank must be spotlessly clean; the killer is the poisonous film that can grow on the bottom of the tank, where the fry sit

Would a thin layer of sand or something help prevent this film developing?

[ColinParticipant]

Never tried, but I would think not and might be worse if uneaten food gets into the sand and rots unseen?

worth setting up two tanks side by side though, one with sand and one without!

[MattKeymaster]

Actually, worded that badly. Meant would it perhaps keep the fish off the layer?

[mikevParticipant]

This is what I tried a while back, with ramshorn snails to address the excess food. Started well, some fish got to 1-1.5″ in size, but ultimately I could not keep any alive.

[mikevParticipant]

One thing about this algae is that it really speeds up the growth…. some are at 2cm already:

[mikevParticipant]

Well…..

Firstly, the technique you suggested seems to be working, I don’t see any bodies and some growth. I made one mistake, however: massive water changes remove Si, so the diatom algae is now gone /biggrin.gif” style=”vertical-align:middle” emoid=”:D” border=”0″ alt=”biggrin.gif” />

(Fixed ambiguity)

[ColinParticipant]

LOL yeah I think that would be my plan from now on – actually a few breeders will tell you that as soon as they can they put the young fish back into a mature tank with the adults. Seems to work well with Corys etc

well done

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