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I have five fully grown (15 cm) T. taeniatus. They live in a 210 litre tank with two banjo cats and two Pseudohemiodon laticeps.
Tonight I saw two of them outside the cave, clinging together side by side. They looked like they were glued together.
The photo op was gone before I had fetched the camera.
Could they have been spawning?
If so - what happens next?

Looks like they have been mating.
As Auchenipteridae have internal fertilization, the next thing you may expect is that the female will search a spot to lay her eggs, probably 2 to 4 weeks after the mating. Little is known of their parental care, but it is said that some Auchenipterids in any case do not eat their eggs.
So what should you do? You could set up a separate tank for that female. In that case she could lay her eggs without disturbances of the others.
If that isn't possible: watch carefully, learn and keep us posted

Thanks!
2-4 weeks is more than I expected, and that gives me time to set up a tank for the female. The Tatias will have to wait for their new home.
Has anyone been successful in breeding T. taeniatus?

No. Have a look at this:
; References; CotM 2006 April (the direct link doesn't work at the moment).

Marc van Arc wrote:No. Have a look at this:

Trachelyopterichthys taeniatus

; References; CotM 2006 April (the direct link doesn't work at the moment).

Ahhh... I read the article but didn't notice that it was written so recently.

It won't be too early to start setting up an artemia egg hatchery (don't start hatching eggs yet!)
and maybe checking if you can get your hands on food like paramecium and microworms.

because if they lay eggs it would be a really big bummer if you haven't got micro-food up & running......

I don't think fishlarvae like these will accept "dead food"; if you have your "live food" up and running by the time the eggs appear you might very well be the first who will breed any Aucheipterids apart from Tatia perugiae......

sidguppy wrote:It won't be too early to start setting up an artemia egg hatchery (don't start hatching eggs yet!)
and maybe checking if you can get your hands on food like paramecium and microworms.

because if they lay eggs it would be a really big bummer if you haven't got micro-food up & running......

I don't think fishlarvae like these will accept "dead food"; if you have your "live food" up and running by the time the eggs appear you might very well be the first who will breed any Aucheipterids apart from Tatia perugiae......

Thanks for your advice. A guy who runs a LFS i Stockholm is an expert on live foods. Because of him, my fish can eat live moina every day. And artemia won't be a problem.
I hope the striped woodcats will set an example for their smaller relatives (Tatia perugiae, intermedia & aulopygia).

It's good that you have a supplier of live foods. However, I'm quite confident that you could also raise the fry with very small flakes (used to be called Tetra MicroMin) and chopped frozen foods. See also the article on (references).

Quote from the article on breeding Tatia:

I start feeding them with Artemia naupli and microworms (Panagrellus redivivus)

live foods! it's almost always this way with babt carnivores, you need to "jumpstart" them into eating with live food and once they eat you can switch (gradually! mix foods) to 'dead' food after a week or so.

Even baby Corydoras and baby Synodontis petricola for example feed faster and don't have a "growth stop" if you start with live food and gradually add artificial food.
I did the same thing with Lophiobagrus, Phyllonemus, Hoplosternum panamense and a few others.

I tried with some batches from several egglaying species to skip the live food altogether and the number of fry surviving was noticably lower than usual, some bathches of fry even died completely.

As Daniel60 does have a supplier of live foods, the whole discussion becomes academic.
I was merely expressing my opinion that - given the fact that no live foods are available - I believe baby Auchenipterids could survive on a diet of dry and frozen foods.
I'm definitely not suggesting to skip the live food in favour of dry or frozen foods.

Daniel60, have you any other species of Auchenipterids at the moment, besides the ones you've already mentioned?

Marc van Arc wrote:Daniel60, have you any other species of Auchenipterids at the moment, besides the ones you've already mentioned?

No, but I'm always looking for others, especially larger ones (despite your experiences of Trachycorystes).
Some of my fish are shown here. No pics of T. intermedia or aulopygia yet.

You're right, there is little wrong with T. trachycorystes as long as you can put it in a separate tank. Otherwise it will "house" your current Auchenipterids in a most unwanted way
I believe someone from Sweden got hold of some Auchenipterus species as well some months ago. So there are imports of this genus. Did it take you long to collect the species you have at the moment? In the Netherlands it's quite a difficult genus to get hold of, mainly because people overhere don't like fishes that can hardly be seen. Imo this is a non-argument, but of course I'm prejudiced
Nice pix btw.

Marc van Arc wrote:Did it take you long to collect the species you have at the moment? In the Netherlands it's quite a difficult genus to get hold of, mainly because people overhere don't like fishes that can hardly be seen. Imo this is a non-argument, but of course I'm prejudiced

I bought my first Auchenipterids (T. perugiae) last summer and instantly got hooked, especially when I discovered fry in their tank. In March I won(!) three T. intermedia at a Catfish meeting (all the other lottery winners went for the fancy L-numbers...) and bought the T. taeniatus shortly thereafter. This summer I ordered six T. aulopygia from Germany.
I've met the guy with Auchenipterus ambyiacus. He lives in western Sweden, where life is easier for a fish geek, and has got an impressive collection of strange creatures.

Marc van Arc wrote:Nice pix btw.

Thanks! Btw, here's a video of my less cryptic catfish (Cetopsis coecutiens) having dinner.

Any news lately? My T. galeatus are mating as well

Marc van Arc wrote:Any news lately? My T. galeatus are mating as well

Exciting - it seems to be mating season for Auchenipterids!
No news about the T. taeniatus yet.

Hooray, very exciting, any luck yet? give us the parameters in your tank! did you do anything different that triggered the spawnig?