Farlowella Catfish

What is a Farlowella Catfish?

"What's new?" I asked my local fish shop keeper.

"Oh, I just got in some really nice Farlowellas!" She replied.

She lifted up a fake plant and unceremoniously shook it until the little stick-like catfish abandoned their hiding place. Well I had to have one.

The Farlowella Catfish is also known as the Twig Catfish, resembling a piece of twig or a stick. They have a suckermouth and are fairly good at attacking your algae. There are several types of Farlowella: The most common are the Farlowella Acus and the Royal Farlowella. I have a Farlowella Acus.

Farlowella on Wikipedia

Farlowella has a unique body shape that resembles of a thin stick of wood. The body is slender and elongate, often with a pronounced rostrum and a brownish color with two lateral dark stripes beginning at the tip of the rostrum, passing over the eyes and ending at the tail, which are periodically interrupted on the caudal peduncle. Sexual dimorphism includes hypertrophied odontodes along the sides of the rostrum or the head in species with a short rostrum.

There are only slight differences between the different types which sometimes lead to confusion. A very important identification is the presence of ventral scutes on these species which differentiates them from each other. Twig catfishes grow between 10 centimetres (4 in) SL in F. smithi and 26.5 cm (10.4 in) SL in F. nattereri.

Farlowella is a genus of catfish (order Siluriformes) of the family Loricariidae. These fish resemble twigs or sticks, hence the common names twig catfish or stick catfish. They may also sometimes be referred to as whiptail catfish. Twig catfishes are natives of South America.

read the rest of the Wikipedia article

Farlowella Video

curated content from YouTube

Caring For Your Farlowella

Not for the Novice or Beginner

Your Farlowella is primarily an algae eater. But don't depend on it eating nothing but algae. In fact, many Farlowellas don't make it in the novice tank if not fed a proper diet. Try feeding your Farlowella at night, as they tend to be shy and they do not compete with other fish for the food. Offer your Farlowella peas, a slice of cucumber or zuchinni, lettuce, spinach or
algae wafers.

You can buy a littleveggie clip at your local fish shop that you can clip the veggies to and the attach to the inside of the tank with a suction cup.

Farlowellas will sometimes eat the flake food that reaches the bottom and some frozen foods such as bloodworms. But this is not the best diet for them. Remember to not leave uneaten food in your tank as it will spoil and mess us your water chemical balance.

Your tank should have some
natural driftwood in it, as the Farlowella will "graze" upon the wood to help with it's digestion. Having some live plants will be beneficial as well. Farlowellas like some water movement in tank. Do not get a Farlowella for tanks less than 30 gallons.

These fish are sensitive to water conditions and do not do well with large and sudden water changes. A well filtered and mature tank is necessary to successfully keep this type of fish. They prefer a pH of 7 9neutral) or as close as you can get to that and a water temperature between 72 to 78 degrees F.

Here is my Farlowella "hanging around" on the back wall of the tank:

farlowella

Farlowella and Bristlenose Pleco sharing a spot on the driftwood:

farlowella and bristlenose pleco

Buy a Farlowella Catfish:

Royal Farlowella

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Lensmaster

JaguarJulie wrote...

I think my hubby would know about them -- I think I've seen them, but never heard that name before. Interesting! I love Basa catfish.

Posted October 23, 2008