Farlowella anyone? Experience IDing? Show your TWIG CATS (several genera)

[FJB]

Back in late November I got a single Farlowella twig catfish. It is still in quarantine because it has been sharing a QT tank with a couple of awesome little angelfish purchased at the same time and which unfortunately I found to be riddled with internal parasites. Thus, everybody in the tank is still in QT.

The specimen is immature, about 4 inches long. Based on the length of the 'nose' and the 2 whips on the tail, plus what I can see of coloration (thus far), I believe it may be the Common Twig Catfish, Farlowella acus. The coloration in particularly seem to lack the solid black stripes, but all of this may be due to being immature, not very happy, or gender differences.
Thus, I am not certain of the id. If it is F. acus, It is supposed to grow to ~6 inches. Other species such as vittata and amazona grow to over 1 foot (!!!!), and there are at least 3 other species that stay in the 6 inch range. Of course, the source locality is unknown, not even a country.
Would like to compare with other specimens from distinguished folks here, even though the pictures I have so far are not very good. Will try to get more detailed ones. Unfortunately, the QT tank (a pentagonal 44g) sucks for taking pictures!

Would you post pictures of your Farlowella twig cats? Or just share pictures of other twig-like cats (Sturisoma, Rhineloricaria, etc.)?
Cheers!

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

I am not a twig catfish expert so I can't provide an ID, but you may want to share this with Planet Catfish as well.

 

[FJB]

Thanks. I will.

 

[Fishman Dave]

Would be surprised if it’s not acus or vittata which are in my opinion the more common two of this colour/ shape. Wouldn’t expect to see vittata bigger than 8-9”

 

[FJB]

Thanks. That is good information.

 

[Andyroo]

Sorry to rekindle at a tangent:
What's the recommended population for unspecified "twig" catfish?
The internet isn't clear - a single or >5? How social?

Also, flow rates are unclear - still/pond or riverine with refugia?

Tank (eventual) will be 100gal, plenty of bamboo & timber.

 

[duanes]

I have kept 3 Sturisomatichthys (5¨to 7¨) in a 150 gal tank, along with a few smaller Chaetostoma .

 

[Conchonius]

My understanding is that both 1 and 5+ are fine, depending on what you want out of the fish.

Some people want a charismatic display fish for their community tank, and unlike most other plecos that tend to hide in driftwood all day, Farlowella, Sturisoma, Rineloricaria etc. rely on their camouflage and will tolerate human presence without dashing to safety. So they get one as a conversation starter. Others want to try out a breeding project, and the best way to go about that is by starting with a group, so they get 5+ to grow out and see if they're interested in breeding.

The animal does not care too much, either way. It's neither territorial towards conspecifics, nor social enough that it absolutely requires them around.

As for flow, this thesis calls Farlowella a slow-water species lacking adaptations found in other suckermouth cats for resisting strong flows, which probably applies to other twig catfish as well. After all, mimicking a twig is hardly useful if the water's flowing too fast for twigs to collect at the bottom. But aquarium flow rates are modest at best compared to the wild, so I think it should do fine with some level of flow.

 

[duanes]

My only experience with them, is that with the Panamanians I net, riverine flows have been quite strong, and water highly oxygenated.

 

[bkfamus]

Sorry to rekindle at a tangent:
What's the recommended population for unspecified "twig" catfish?
The internet isn't clear - a single or >5? How social?

Also, flow rates are unclear - still/pond or riverine with refugia?

Tank (eventual) will be 100gal, plenty of bamboo & timber.

I've had a couple groups of Farlowella acus in 75 gallon SA community tanks for the past year. I run 2 AC110 filters on each tank. No issues with them so far.

The tanks also include groups of Sturisomatichthys, Lamontichthys, Parotocinclus, Otocinclus, Rineloricaria, and Oxyropsis. All are active all the time but except for the Otos, dont really socialize.. so far only the Sturisomatichthys have bred.

Here's a few pics.. may need to zoom in to see all in the pic..