1 kinds · tap one for a closer look
Peaceful and slow; needs well-oxygenated, stable water and algae to graze on.
321 species in our list are a good match.
Peaceful and slow; needs well-oxygenated, stable water and algae to graze on.
Sinking algae wafers, blanched vegetables, bloodworms, and plenty of leaf litter or wood to graze on.
Tap a food to see what it is.
Mature males have a broader snout (rostrum) that grows rows of bristle-like odontodes along its sides; females lack them.
Common problems. Tap one to see the signs. This is a guide, not a diagnosis.
Cave spawner · Hard
Lays eggs on a vertical surface, very often the tank glass; the male stays with them and fans them until they hatch.
Keep 2-3 males with several females; the male guards the eggs.
80-100 L tank with sand, smooth bamboo or pipe caves, and cool, well-oxygenated water.
A cool water change and good flow often triggers spawning.
Eggs are laid on an open vertical surface, very often the tank glass, not in a cave, and hatch in about 6-10 days under the male's care.
Fry are tiny; feed biofilm, crushed spirulina flake, and microworms. Keep the water very clean.
A very thin, twig-like suckermouth catfish from the Orinoco basin of Colombia and Venezuela that lives among submerged plants, leaves, sticks and roots. Most sold as 'Farlowella acus' are really F. vittata; the true F. acus is threatened and almost never exported.
Rudolf Kner described this extremely slender catfish in 1853. Its genus, Farlowella, was later named after the American botanist William Farlow. Its twig-like body helps it hide among plants and sunken branches, where it grazes on algae.
First described by Rudolf Kner in 1853. Named for Genus named after American botanist William G. Farlow; 'acus' means needle.
17 facts checked with sources
Sold-under-the-wrong-name case. Twig catfish in shops are almost always F. vittata Myers, 1942 (or other Farlowella), not F. acus (Kner, 1853), which is threatened (IUCN Vulnerable, 2021) and hardly ever exported. Older books call the trade fish F. acus. All husbandry values in this file are for F. vittata; keep 'Farlowella acus' as an other name.
Seriously Fish: Farlowella vittata · Wikipedia: Farlowella acus (cites IUCN Red List, Rodríguez-Olarte et al. 2021)Legacy had no family; value is new. Subfamily Loricariinae; applies to the whole genus.
Wikipedia: Farlowella acus (cites Catalog of Fishes)All SL (standard length; the long tail filament is extra). FishBase gives a maximum of 22.5 cm SL for F. vittata; Seriously Fish gives 15 cm SL; F. acus is 16 cm SL. Per the rule, FishBase is preferred for size, so the recorded maximum is 22.5 cm SL; most aquarium fish stay nearer 15 cm. Legacy 20 cm sits between.
Seriously Fish: Farlowella vittata · Wikipedia: Farlowella acus (cites FishBase) · FishBase: Farlowella vittataSmall change to the upper limit.
Seriously Fish: Farlowella vittataLegacy had no hardness; value is new.
Seriously Fish: Farlowella vittata90 x 30 x 30 cm = 81 L (page states ~81 L / 21 US gal). Legacy 100 L is more generous.
Seriously Fish: Farlowella vittataNo minimum given. Several can be kept together; for breeding Seriously Fish suggests starting with 6 or more juveniles to get a pair. Second pass (2026-10-16): re-searched; still no reliable source.
Seriously Fish: Farlowella vittataSeriously Fish gives only an upper figure ('believed', up to 15 years), longer than the legacy 5-10. Recorded as text in the legacy format; no lower bound is sourced.
Seriously Fish: Farlowella vittataPeaceful, but shy and easily outcompeted for food; avoid boisterous tankmates.
Seriously Fish: Farlowella vittataNow supported by FishBase for F. vittata (demersal = bottom-living). In practice it clings to wood, plant stems and glass at any height.
Wikipedia: Farlowella acus (cites Practical Fishkeeping, Hulme 2004) · FishBase: Farlowella vittataSeriously Fish's rating box says 'Easy', but its text says it is only for the dedicated hobbyist, is very sensitive to poor water quality and needs well-oxygenated water with some current. The two conflict, so left unknown; the text supports the legacy 'advanced' more than the box does.
Seriously Fish: Farlowella vittataLegacy had no native range; value is new and is for F. vittata. True F. acus has a split range in Colombia and Venezuela including the Lake Valencia basin (IUCN via Wikipedia). FishBase confirms the Orinoco basin. IUCN Least Concern (2020) for F. vittata per FishBase.
Seriously Fish: Farlowella vittata · FishBase: Farlowella vittataBroader head and bristles confirmed; the source places them on the snout rather than the pectoral spines.
Seriously Fish: Farlowella vittataLegacy breeding.type 'cave spawner' is wrong: eggs go on open vertical surfaces.
Seriously Fish: Farlowella vittataHatch time roughly agrees ('around a week'); egg placement corrected. No egg count found.
Seriously Fish: Farlowella vittataCore claims hold; added the naming warning.
Seriously Fish: Farlowella vittata