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this is my first time owning these, about 3 weeks ago i purchased a wild caught male & female, she was pregnant when i bought her. i moved them into my 125g. all male cichlid tank, the male catfish has no problems, the female however has been attacking the male catfish since day one, coming out to deliberately attack him. about 3 days ago she started to try & push her way into one of my cichlids territory, which he was not happy. sunday during feeding my cichlid did not come out & i found him outside of his territory with his eye injured, the female catfish was in his spot, so i know she caused it. so my questions are is this normal, because she has no one to swap her eggs with, & will she calm down when she is not pregnant, or will this be a continuing cycle of her being pregnant then very aggressive? i tried posting this on a cichlid site, but was not getting the info i wanted, here are the catfish & my tank. thanks.

This sounds very untypical behaviour for synos mixed with cichlids. Quite the reverse almost.

Most often the male syno will pursue & almost harrass females & cichlids tend to be the aggressors - not on the receiving end!

There looks top be plenty of territory but my only observation would be that 2 is always a bad number for synos - multis would definately benefit from being in a group as any aggression will be spread & the interaction between individuals become a bit more natural

Yes, I agree with Richard. I do not like to keep any spices of fish at just 2, any other group size but 2.

The only time that I have seen any aggression from female syo. multipuncatus is when there was no cichlids spawning at the same time.

LeeRoy

thank you, i was sure i needed a group of them, i was thinking that too, that her agression may be coming from not having any spawning cichlids, i was so surprised that the female was this aggressive, i expected it from the male.

Another question does it matter what the new group consist of as far as male or females?

Multis have on occasion been known to scatter when the cuckoo option is not available.

I do not feel the mix of sexes is particularly important when increasing group size

thank you, i will get right on getting some more!

it's an odd tank, but the Syno's will like it

don't be shy when it comes to numbers!
of all Tanganyikan Synodontis this is the one that truly occurs in great shoals.

it's not a bad idea of keeping 10 or 15 together.......if the tank can handle it, why not?

keeping them like that makes them very visible, although adding cichlids as dithers is a very good method too

if you like to breed them, some peaceful Malawian mouthbreeder might be best, BUT if you do that, you should overhaul the tank big time

as it is now, it's not suitable for those Malawians

if you just want to keep them however, you can combine them with Tanganyikan cichlids

I recommend a free-spawning species and a shoaler as well;
Cyprichromis or Paracyprichromis are both genera that behave like characins and combine very well with catfishes.

they too should be kept in groups of at least 10, but bigger is better.

thanks for the info! yeah the tank is setup for my cichlids, i added the catfish to help with cleanup during the week, i vacuum it on the weekends. i'd rather they don't breed, that is why i seperated my cichlids, too many babies & nowhere to put them! i just want the catfish i have to be happy!

I like the tank. It's unique. Sure functional but has something else about it too. I've never seen a tank with so many hiding places before - it's an equivalent of a high-rise apartment building

I am not seeing many cichlids. Is it scarcely populated? It looks big.

thanks! yeah it was, it took awhile to find reputable sellers, here are some of the fish:

Yes!! Very nice group of male african cichlids. I would think that a group of Syo. Multi's would fill the tank.

Maybe a couple more of the vineing planst would soften the lines up little.

LeeRoy

thanks, i have some more i could put in, they work great for making hiding spots but does not look cramped!

actually now that I see the tank, it's totally unsuitable for Malawian cichlids, especially those that can be used as breedsing hosts

because of that substrate. the best hosts are Placidochromis, Otopharynx, Aulonocara, Nimbochromis etc

ALL of wich are earth eaters to a certain degree.

we don't keep Silurian earth eaters on coarse gravel; fish like Auchenoglanis or Pseudohemiodon.
and for cichlids it's the same; they too should be kept on a sand substrate.

this isn't a good substrate at all; it can damage whiskers and it also hides a lot of dirt.

yeah, seashells can be sharp; they also can slowly dissolve and form very thin and sharp edges. i cannot quite make out if the substrate is all seashells or if there are some (coarse?) nuggets/gravel too. the water must be pretty alkaline, right?

on the upside, the substrate probably houses a ton of good bacteria because it is relatively open for water flow but still has lots and lots of surface area...

i keep my giraffe (Auchenoglanis) cats over smooth gravel substrate - not ideal, I've been told before - but they have thrived so far (these are community tanks so I cannot have the right substrate for each cat, albeit I hope to, eventually)

the only thing I was going to mention also is the substrate. looks mighty rough. all my tanks are sand, its wonderful, not a problem at all. Just do not go too deep.

i've had the shells for over a year never any issues, i vacuum weekly, the substrate helps to keep their water conditioned, i'm new to these catfish not cichlids. i've also had synodontis hybrid catfish in there since its been setup, they have never had an issue with their whiskers, & from what i see these two are not having issues. thanks for the input.

The point about the substrate is that the fish that are BEST suited as hosts for S. multipunctata are those that Sidguppy suggested, and they like to take a mouthful of substrate and sift through it for edible bits. This natural behaviour will obviously not work if the substrate is coarse and sharp. It is not the substrate as such that is bad - it's just not ideal if you want to keep the Synos in a way that they can breed - and don't worry about being flooded by the fry - they aren't nearly as "productive" as Cichlids.

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Mats

ok, i think i may have made the wrong choice for catfish, since my tank is all males, i may look into some other catfish, i don't think in the long run these guys will be happy in my tank. the current is very strong in my tank that i why i no longer have snad in it. they are great little cleaners, though!