Update 2006-06-24: OUT: Sy. Petricola; IN: Sy. Pleurops

BrownBullhead · Post by **BrownBullhead** » 25 Jun 2006, 02:34

Update 2006-06-24: OUT: Sy. Petricola; IN: Sy. Pleurops

In an effort to reduce the overall "load" in my 150-gallon aquarium, I traded the following speciments into local shop "X" on Saturday, June 24, 2006...

1. ALL 21 of my 2.5" (F? "Tank Raised") Synodontis Petricola - $300 ($270 USA) store credit; and
2. ALL 28 of my 1.5" (F? "Asia Fish Farms?") - 2.0" Botia Macracanthus - $171 CA ($154 USA) store credit.

I didn't "profit" per se on these as I came out about maybe $20 above what they costed me, minus all the food they've consumed over the last 12 months.

BUT... sometimes a change is good and it's nice to not "give away" the fish, if you know what I mean?

However, prior to executing my trades, as this hobby goes, I saw something at local shop "Y" on Friday, June 23, 2006, that I decided would fit nicely into my setup: 4 x Synodontis Pleurops, a.k.a. ("F0" i.e. "Wild Caught"). These catfish ranged from about 6.0" to 7.5" were going for $70 ($63 USA) / 1 fish, $178 ($160 USA) / 3 fish, or $315 ($284 US) / 6 fish. Only 4 specimens remained in the shop, so the store was gracious enough to prorate the "6 fish" price ($53 ($48 US) per fish) across the 4 remaining specimens. So in the end, my total, including 7% provincial and 7 % federal sales taxes, was $240 ($216 US).

N.B. A beautiful group (15 - 18 fish) of Haplotaxodon Microlepsis "F0" were in the same tank, but no setup to handle those at this time. I really need a higher paying job.

So in the last two days, I charged $240 ($216 US) to credit card, and received $471 CA ($424 US) in store credits at "X". I am going to tuck this credit note away and see if I can convince my beautiful wife to "allow" another aquarium into the house. At "X", I've got my eye on a 110-gallon (60" L x 18" W x 24" H) with black frames, two glass "flip lids," 60" light hood (2 x 48" T8 ballast) and good quality black finish pine wood stand, for $800 ($720 US) plus the usual taxes (see above). I think this tank would be nice in the living room... maybe setup as more of a Tanganyikan community... or... she tends to like the Malawi (more colours, cheaper prices) which I suppose would be nice too.

I'm a bit of a Tanganyika snob.

Here's my 150-gallon (48" L x 24" W x 30" H) stock as of today:

F1 / F2: 30 x Tropheus Moorii "Nkonde" (12 adults + 18 (approx.) offspring, 1 - 3 months of age);
.....F0: _5 x Eretmodus Cyanostictus sp North "Makombe"
.....F0: _4 x Synodontis Pleurops
.....F?: _2 x Neolamprologus Brichardi
.....F0: _2 x Typhlonectes Natans (South American 100% aquatic AMPHIBIAN)

Post by **Silurus** » 25 Jun 2006, 02:53

I hope you realize that S. pleurops, being riverine species, are not going to be kept in optimal conditions in a Tanganyika setup.

redzebra24 · Post by **redzebra24** » 25 Jun 2006, 03:56

y would u sell those synos they look so cool in big groups

Reginator · Post by **Reginator** » 25 Jun 2006, 10:49

The only syno that thrives in my tanganyika tank is my angelicus. Any others that have lived there needed to be moved as they were not so happy and healthy. Thats not to say that you'll find the same of course...

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 25 Jun 2006, 22:12

Typhlonectes is another very BAD choice for a Riftlake setup; it's a fragile aquatic amphibian that needs soft water and gentle tankmates and it has NO business whatsoever in a Riftlake-setup.

even if the pH or the cichlids don't rip em up, you have some serious food issues here:
-Tropheus cannot be fed with proteinrich food; stuff like bloodworms, artemia, mosquitolarvae, tubifex and the like all cause BLOAT and kill Tropheus in short time. Tropheus should be fed a strictly veggie diet, best is to find a good brand of spirulina-flakes (OSI, Wardley's, HIKARI etc) and feed that, and once in a while a wee bit of cyclops; nothing else.
-Typhlonectes lives almost exclusively on unfrozen or live foods and does not survive (often does not accept!) flake....it lives on tubifex, earthworms, bloodworms, tiny crustaceans, mosquitolarvae......it's nearly blind and very suspective to foodcompetitors; in a densely crowded cichlidtank Typhlonectes slowly starves to death!

As HH pointed out; pleurops are unsuitable. they too need oxygenrich, cooler soft water with a neutral pH.

Most wildcaught riverine Syno's aren't suitable for Malawi- or Tanganyikan tanks.
they don't like the high pH, they don't like the hardiness of the water and most of all, they don't like a high density of agressive, active cichlids as tankmates.

There are a few exceptions to that rule; eupterus, nigrita, robbianus, ocellifer and angelicus are the best suited riverines.

BrownBullhead · Post by **BrownBullhead** » 26 Jun 2006, 02:10

redzebra24: My "colony" basically hid all day, and were boring inhabitants which I never saw, 99% of the time.

Reginator: I respect your neutral feedback, in that different fishkeepers will have different results.

sidguppy:

I had nothing but POSITIVE results with Typhlonectes in this setup, until the day I filled my tank at water change within 1 mm of the edge and they escaped down the back of the tank. I found them two days later in another room, dried out and crispy. Soaking did not revive them. As far as diet, they greedily eat earthworms, scallops and shrimp. Mine are fed at lights out and thrive very well. I also disagre with your generalization of them as "fragile". My original specimens survived multiple escape attempts and periods up to 24 hours out of water. I now keep the water about 1.5" below the frame of the tank.

I disagree with your Tropheus comments. I too feared the dietary concerns until I saw mine thrive on NLS, shrimp, Earthworms, etc., along with HBH veggie flakes. I think their dietary concerns are more fear-factor than anything else. My tropheus are breeding and display very well.

Re: Pleurops... I run a Power Head with external LARGE pump as the venturi... MAJOR BUBBLES and water movement from left side to ride side... I find the Pleurops have adopted the left side as their daytime territory.

They are also enjoying the NLS 1 mm pellets and soon I will begind to feed NLS H20 Stable Wafers. I acknowledge your feedback but as I said above to "Reginator," I think every fishkeeper will find exceptions to the "rules." Within 48 hours of purchase I can say that, no offense to the store where I bought them, but they are looking MUCH healthier and happy (colours, behaviour, etc.).

Post by **Birger** » 26 Jun 2006, 05:38

I agree with getting the botia out but you should have hung on a little longer with the petricola or tried multi's,there are not to many syno's more active than the ones from Tanganyika.

With that tank you have your eye on why don't you try a tank based around the pleurops and other fishes and plants from the area,such a tank takes some time and research to put together but is well worth it(at least mine are)I have groups of different kinds of syno's and it seems they would all survive in any setup(except if they are getting roughed up) but I really do notice a difference when they are in their own element health wise and very much so in their behaviour.

Just a note,I too feed NLS food,I have a group of S.nigriventris(ten years)who I never expected to meet me at the glass until I started using this food and now there they are!

Birger

Tom · Post by **Tom** » 26 Jun 2006, 13:02

What is NLS food and do they have a website?

BrownBullhead · Post by **BrownBullhead** » 26 Jun 2006, 22:07

NLS = New Life Spectrum

New Life International Inc- Fish Food, Books, Aquaculture and more!

This guy "RD" from the forums is one of the major distributors in North America: Cichlid Food Canada based out of Alberta, Canada.

grahams · Post by **grahams** » 06 Jul 2006, 17:05

I have read the debate with interest,and would have to say I have never experienced any problems with any of my Syno`s, Lophios, Phyllonemus that I have in my Tanganykan tanks ,not even fry stealing.In fact there are times when I have to foster fry out to a friends fish house for growing on.I love my cats, but I love my Tang cichlids and they have all got on fine.I have a majority of Tropheus from 8 variants and my Multipuncs and Tropheus ignore each other.I have a nice group of 7 B.Tricoti that have shared a 2m tank with a young group of Fronts, and many different cats had with no worry from any cats. They are due to be joined tomorrow by a rather niceS.Granulosus.The biggest problem I have in there, is a rather prolific pair of bristenose that may soon over run the tank.As for food, N.L.S.is new into the U.K. but my advice is to tailor daytime feeding to the Tropheus` i.e. a GOOD quality Spirulina flake with a high protein diet at night for the cats, when you tuck them all in for the night.Many of the Synos will relish Spirulina flakes as well,many eat from the aufwuchs anyway.Just one more thing, don`t mess about to much,or change Tropheus diets to quickly.make your own food for them to,spinach, peas 10% WHOLE prawns mixed with gelatin to bind it. the cats will love it to.Its cheaper than commercial stuff as well. And bloat is a killer. .

24tropheus · Post by **24tropheus** » 16 Jul 2006, 01:07

NLS many US and now some uk Tropheus keepers have switched to this stuff. Everyone I know who has tried it thinks its great. Still old fashoned enough to prefer mainly algae/fresh sprulina and vegies prawn paste gelitin mix for them myself. But use just a pinch a day of NLS.
Do you recon petricola safe with Tropheus fry or is there a better catfish I could get?
My angelicus lives well in my Malawi set up but I suspect he hoovers fry at night. Never seen it though.

BrownBullhead · Post by **BrownBullhead** » 16 Jul 2006, 05:06

Here are 12 x 20-second video clips I shot of my Tanganyikan Rift/Community setup last night. My hardware only does 20-second clips!

I shot these with my Fuji FinePix 2650 digital still camera, so they're not the greatest quality, but anyway, it gives you an idea what my fish look like. You'll see these species:

*NEW* Synodontis Pleurops
Tropheus Moorii "Nkonde"
Eretmodus Cyanostictus sp. North "Magara"
Neolamprologus Brichardi

And a couple of stray loaches. ;)

It seems most of these pHpBB configurations are not supporting thumbnails with hyperlinks embedded anymore, included some of my older posts which were posted as such. I've seen this on 2-3 forums today.

Anyway, enjoy the videos!

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v245/ ... 1_AUTO.flv

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v245/ ... 9_AUTO.flv

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v245/ ... 3_AUTO.flv

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v245/ ... 7_AUTO.flv

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v245/ ... 5_AUTO.flv

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v245/ ... 1_AUTO.flv

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v245/ ... 3_AUTO.flv

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v245/ ... 7_AUTO.flv

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v245/ ... 5_AUTO.flv

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v245/ ... 9_AUTO.flv

grahams · Post by **grahams** » 16 Jul 2006, 10:39

I`m with you on SPIRULINA flakes and shrimp mix.I use OSI flakes for my Tropheus and mix it 50/50 for all the others,even juvenile Fronts.NLS is very new in this country,it`s being imported by N.Hardy aquatics.I am trying it out at the moment and it appears o.k. but it`s generally in granules which I don`t like giving to Tropheus,they don`t have much flake in their range, so I`ll leave it to others to experiment with their Tropheus for a bit longer.
In my opinion Petricola are just plain cute and I love them.There are no guarantees with anything, but if you want to add a catfish to a Tropheus tank or Malawi tank I don`t think you could choose better.Look out for smaller juveniles,(they should be much cheaper)and by a few of them rather than just one if you can.they should then be seen more often.They will also do well on Spirulina flake and shrimp mix.I am experimenting with Multipuncs in a Tropheus tank to try to get them to breed,no luck yet, but still plenty of 1cm.Tropheus fry about.

24tropheus · Post by **24tropheus** » 16 Jul 2006, 20:36

Thanks grahams. Recon I will try them (ed in other advice only in a tank where you dont mind losing some fry so may have to rethink) if I can afford a group of 10 or more. Holland (Vdjuns or whatever) seems good for good young ones. Would you agree? UK shops I have seen seem a bit pricy to me. Or better to join CSG and hope they are at auction? (sorry to mention the money side but things are tight (and me) for me.)
Brown Bullhead your tanks are awsome (thanks for sharing) but some of the fishes you mix? My tanks are too small 800 ltres and my out look way too cautious for this (Though your filtration systems are so much better than mine. Time for me to upgrade I think). The Gobys I realy liked what sort are they?

Update 2006-06-24: OUT: Sy. Petricola; IN: Sy. Pleurops

Update 2006-06-24: OUT: Sy. Petricola; IN: Sy. Pleurops

out with petricola in with pleurops

out with Petricola in with Pleurops