Petricola Cave Preferences

All posts regarding the care and breeding of catfishes from Africa.
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DJRansome
Posts: 117
Joined: 22 Jan 2006, 02:15
Location 1: NJ
Location 2: US

Petricola Cave Preferences

Post by DJRansome »

I have three different types of caves in my tank (all buried in rocks), which will the Petricola prefer?
1. Upside-down flower pots, cut-out doorways
2. Cichlid breeding caves, flat bottoms and wide openings
3. Ceramic "apartments" thrown by Rosenthal, like upside down terra cotta ashtrays w/archways

Two caves open onto a rock ledge which is above the substrate...will they stick to the bottom?

It's a mbuna tank, but the mbuna haven't moved in yet as they are still in quarantine. The Petricola's currently share with 4 Buenos Aires tetras. No one really owns a particular cave, the Petricolas are all over everything in the tank.
toddnbecka
Posts: 133
Joined: 26 Oct 2004, 08:49
My cats species list: 1 (i:0, k:0)
Location 1: Cumberland, MD
Interests: Synodontis

Post by toddnbecka »

They will probably prefer whichever caves the mbuna don't kick them out of :) For breeding purposes, one with an open bottom over a tray of marbles is best. You may want to set one up like that for them, so that when they start spawning, thay will be accustomed to the territory. I have 9 in a 55 with 3 yellow Lab's and 3 transcriptus gombe. They move around the whole setup pretty freely. I have a few barnacle clusters in the tank, they find those quite fascinating. I occaisonally swap the clusters between 2 tanks, the other 55 has no catfish, and they spend hours cleaning every inch of the "new" clusters :P They are still juvie's so it will be a while before they are too large to fit inside the openings.
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