Will S. multipunctatus eat fry like petricola?

toddnbecka · Post by **toddnbecka** » 21 Mar 2006, 06:57

I know petricola's have a reputation for eating eggs and fry of substrate-spawners. Do multi's have the same bad habits? I have a 55 containing Paracyprichromis nigripinnis and Lamprologus` multifasciatus. The tank could use some cats to clean up leftovers; which would be better?

davidkozak · Post by **davidkozak** » 21 Mar 2006, 09:02

multi fry, IME, will eat anything that they can catch and fit in their mouths, including each other, if one starts to get bigger than his tankmates..D.

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 21 Mar 2006, 10:55

better stick to petricola, these are the least bad Tanganyikan catfishes when it comes to feeding on fry.

petricola only accidentically eat fry, but bigger syno's (like he multipunctatus) and non-Syno's from Tanganyika actively hunt and eat fry, and also female lamprologus multifasciatus (after all, these arely pass 2,5 cm/1" in length

)

maybe S "polli White" from Zambia is also suitable; this is a particular peaceful species, a slowgrowing shoaler that's for sale as juveniles.
usually in the trade as "synodontis polli" although the real polli is a very different fish, rarely in the trade and alwaus (sub)adult and wildcaught.

true S polli can and do eat fish right up to the size of baby Tropheus

, I've seen extremely well-fed polli's don't pass up the chance to get at them

if you want the fry to live (if it's a breeding tank, not a showtank), just add a juvenile Bristlenose and no other catfish! BN's don't at Blue Neon- or Multi-fry.

toddnbecka · Post by **toddnbecka** » 21 Mar 2006, 18:38

I tried a couple 1"+ albino BN in my other 55 community tank, but they disappeared after a few days. An adult brown that formerly resided in the 29 was moved in to clean up the algae, with no problems. I read somewhere that juveniles don't adapt as well to the water chemistry, and adults are almost impossible to find for sale locally. Consequently, the one I have will be moved back to the 29 soon, since it's in need of another pleco-cleaning. Would apple snails be suitable for the paracyp's and multi's? The tank is in the basement, and doesn't receive enough light to support algae growth.
I do have 4 3cm petricola, recently added to the school of 9 2-3x larger ones in the 55 community tank. A few of the larger ones appear to be gravid, at long last. The 38 that was originally intended for a breeding tank for them now contains gracilis, 3 adults, and ~75 fry from several spawns. Switch the adult gracilis with the larger petricola?
Move the plagiostoma eels from the 29, and use it for the petricola? I'm concerned that the eels would eat eggs/fry with the paracyp's/multi's. I suppose the simple solution would be to set up another tank for the petricola to spawn in. Would a 40 breeder with sponge filters be good?

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 22 Mar 2006, 11:20

If they are 1"+, they should adapt to water parameter changes quite well - as long as you don't try to get them all the way from super-soft/pH 4.5 to liquid concrete/pH 8.5 in one half hour bag-transfer, of course.

Obviously, depending on what your inhabitants in the bigger tank are, you may find that 1" isn't big enough to avoid being eaten/killed by some of the inhabitants.

--
Mats