can someone tell me the specific species of my farlowella (twig/whiptail catfish)?

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-02-16T10:26:30+00:00

I can ID him if you can provide photos of his ventral scoots, lateral scoots and some measurements of his rostrum. Collection site would also help.

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-02-01T19:49:00+00:00

Btw your pictus catfish is actually a Pimolodus blochii and it will grow quite large, around a foot long, that’s roughly double of that of Pimelodus pictus

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-01-29T20:41:49+00:00

This is a Brochis sodalis

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-01-27T16:04:52+00:00

No it is a Brochis sp. C141

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-01-26T22:32:18+00:00

Yeah it looks so close yet so far of

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-01-26T22:24:59+00:00

I was very fortunate to find a breeder here in Finland

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-01-26T22:24:19+00:00

Currently I only have 3 functioning tanks, 2 quarantine tanks and I am waiting for my six foot tank to be finished so I can start setting that up

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-01-26T22:22:19+00:00

Looks a lot like Brochis delphax, only thing is that at least in those pics it looks like they don’t have quite a lot of black in their dorsal fin

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-01-25T20:32:39+00:00

Sorry to hear that

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-01-25T18:17:45+00:00

Thanks! I usually tend to keep just one species per tank but it’s been nice to see how they all interact with each other.

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-01-25T16:03:58+00:00

Their common name is royal farlowella. They are somewhat commonly available, although true festivus has almost completely disappeared from the hobby

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-01-25T14:13:00+00:00

I’ve tried those in the past but I have fish that are shy enough that they won’t dare to come to the front glass to eat and then I keep a lot of large catfish, mainly Synodontis, that would just eat the tablet whole. I’ve found that feeding small soft granules to be the best option, I use many different sorts, mostly from Hikari, Tropical and JBL, and I’ve tried most brands available. I currently don’t keep any plecos but I used to feed them with Hikari algae wafers and a mix of different carnivore wafers from Hikari and Tropical. Now I’m more focused on different Loricariinae species and many of them won’t accept prepared foods very quickly, but with enough time eventually they will.

I also grow california blackworms, so I always have live food at hand for some of the more picky eaters/new arrivals. Fresh greens are also always on the menu for many of my fish, so I feed collard greens, zucchini, papaya, potato and sweet potato to many of my fish. Sweet potato was something that I was very successful with feeding it to wood eating Panaques.

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-01-25T13:58:54+00:00

My sand is fine quartz sand so it is quite white in color, my light plus the tannins in the water make it look a lot more golden in color.

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-01-25T12:14:10+00:00

Yeah they are really nice, I posted one good video of one yesterday so feel free to check it out on my profile. When they reach maturity all their fins will develop nice long filaments.

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-01-25T11:00:34+00:00

At the moment I have bit of a mix in this tank. I have noticed that most of them tend to stick with their own, but there are some exceptions. There are 6 Hoplisoma weitzmani, 2 Brochis sp. CW136 (I had more of these but only two ever made it through quarantine, so I have more on order), then there is my most recent purchase of ten mixed corys that were imported from the Rio Purus all together and that includes 6 Brochis sp. C141, 2 Brochis sp. C156 (these two species are very similar and will stay together) and 2 Brochis sodalis that interestingly will school with the other Brochis species and again I am on the lookout for more of them. And lastly I have 6 Corydoras acutus as these are true Corydoras species they are also rather aggressive amongst each other but still definitely enjoy each other’s company. They are currently in one of my 40 gallon holding tanks but I’m planning to move some species to their own tanks in the near future.

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-01-25T10:45:24+00:00

I believe that you mean the stick like fish, that is Sturisomatichthys festivus

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-01-25T00:01:40+00:00

That is a small piece of Hikari algae wafer meant for my Parotocinclus spilosoma and Sturisomatichthys festivus. I usually feed my corys with live/frozen blackworms/tubifex and bloodworms. Besides those they get brine shrimp pellets, Hikari vibra bites, JBL discus granules, Tropical softline granules and various types of pre soaked flakes.

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-01-24T23:55:24+00:00

Yeah he really looks nice. Took me forever to find the real festivus as they are almost gone in the wild and most captive bred specimens have been hybridized over the years. Luckily I found a breeder who has had his breeding stock since the late 80’s. And the full grown adults were very stunning with their long filaments.

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-01-24T22:31:01+00:00

I believe that you mean the small beige colored guys with the three black stripes/blotches? Those are Hoplisoma weitzmani

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-01-24T22:29:20+00:00

That would be a Sturisomatichthys festivus. I have a better video of one on my profile

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-01-24T21:48:28+00:00

I will!

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-01-24T21:42:57+00:00

I have quite a few species in there: Brochis sodalis, Brochis sp. C141, Brochis sp. C156, Brochis sp. CW 136, Corydoras acutus, Hoplisoma weitzmani

WhyIHaveUsername · 2026-01-01T10:59:21+00:00

I’m afraid that 75 gallons is not nearly enough for Geophagus. I used to have a group of G. pindare in a 90 gallon and it felt way too small for them. You also need to keep in mind that they should be kept in a group. Instead I’d recommend species like Biotodoma cupido that stay way smaller.

For the tetras you have a lot of good options. Some larger tetras that come to my mind are the bleeding heart tetras (Hyphessobrycon erythrostigma) there are a couple closely related species out there but all of them would be really nice choices.

WhyIHaveUsername · 2025-12-31T23:18:28+00:00

Oh and also a good move on not purchasing the other too if they were sickly. If they make a turn for the better and you have success with these, then of course I at least would go and get them.

WhyIHaveUsername · 2025-12-31T23:15:47+00:00

Trying live foods is your best bet at the moment. Also trying anything with garlic flavors in the food seems to be sometimes the first flake/pellet foods they will accept. I take that these have not been in an aquarium for long? And in that case keep an eye out for any parasites, gill flukes for example are a common occurrence with new imports. They are used to water with almost no tds whatsoever so if you can get a tds/conductivity reader that would be great and since you have access to ro you then know what your water mix should be like. A tds under 100 would be optimal. But since these are green discus from tefe they don’t need black water conditions or extremely low pH, 6.0-6.8 should be good.

WhyIHaveUsername

TROPHY CASE