Petricola Cave Preferences
Posted: 29 Jan 2006, 01:54
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.
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.
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 
They are still juvie's so it will be a while before they are too large to fit inside the openings.