Page 1 of 1

Catfish

Posted: 23 Apr 2006, 00:02
by mattd
Hi,

I currently have a 75G Mbuna tank with 2 Synodontis Njassae, but I never get to see them as they hide all day and only come out at night.

I would like to know if there are any other suitable catfish for this setup which are active during the day?

Thanks

Posted: 23 Apr 2006, 03:09
by DJRansome
S. Petricola, if you have room for at least 6 of them, are reported to frolic all day. I have 3 at the moment and see them cruising the substrate and rock surfaces occasionally during the day. However, with only 3 they do spend much of their time behind the rockpiles. In fact, since I had not been able to see all 3 simultaneously for a while, I was convinced one had died and recently removed all but the bottom layer of the rockpile to verify his/her presence (he/she was fine).

Posted: 26 Apr 2006, 20:06
by sidguppy
75G would be close to 300 liters or so.

but Mbuna must mean you have to feed a fairly veggie diet to keep those healthy and also, Mbuna are boisterous and often agressive.

true njassae wouldn't like a tank like that, but unfortunately -given the sheer rarity of true njassae- I can safely assume you have either S occelifer or so, or a hybrid.

added Syno's should cope with the above (green diet, agressive boisterous cichlids). two species from Tanganyika are highly suitable, and both are shoalers. wich means 5 or so makes a nice group; 5 of the same species.
more is better, but with a total of 7 Syno's it's nicely filled.

the 2 species are
Synodontis petricola, wich has a lake-wide distribution and comes in at least 3 varieties (the very common Zambian "dwarf" wich is bred in captivity in huge numbers; the rare true petricola from Burundi ea and the huge and expensive "petricola sp Giant" from Tanzania)
and
Synodontis sp "polli White", wich originates in Zambia and is also bred in captivity; mostly sold as "Synodontis polli". the true S polli is a big brownish spotted beast with a huge, wide mouth, not a pretty contrasting black and white fishy.

both these are quite omnivorous and hence, cope with veggie food like OSI spirulina flake or Wardley's for example. good Mbuna flakes 8)

Also, all Tanganyikan Syno's are -of course- used to dense cichlid populations.