PlanetCatfish.com

I've recently purchased a breeding pair of petro's from a lfs (I know the owner quite well and they've bred a couple times for him before deciding to get rid of them, as well as once in the shop with gourami's in the tank). I've got them setup in a 25g by themselves with a few rocks, some floating hornwort, and the flowerpot and marbles setup (without the catching cage setup). I'm new to breeding catfish but have extensive cichild experience. Have tried doing water changes with cold water (rainy season effect?), but no luck. The female is large and presumably ripe (not due to overfeeding), but I haven't seen much luck. Any help or advice would be much appreciated. I do have other tanks that they could go in, (55g with only 3 other cichlids, a pleco, and raphael, 77 Tang community, or 37 with 6 cichilds), but I thought I'd try giving them their own tank first. Thanks in advance for any help!

No rainy season in L. Tanganyika so cold water changes won't help. Two words: live worms + patience. I guess that's three words.

This is assuming you have "dwarf" so-called "petricola". I'm not aware of the real S. petricola being bred in an aquarium.

Dinyar

There is a rainy season in Lake Tanganyika, but the size of the lake precludes any significant changes in water chemistry.

Malawi is the only rift lake far enough from the Equator to have pronounced seasons.

Dinyar

Add guppies!!

Synodontis petricola (dwarfs that is) breed much faster if the water "smells like teenspirit" if you get my drift.

or add water to the tank, that comes from a tank where either livebearers or feisty cichlids have been doing their thing.

another hint is: separate the female from the male for a week or so; feed both black mosquitolarvae (not overly) or mysis, and put them together again.

Or get a second male! Syno-males are notoriously lazy and the presence of a rival seems to trigger things (as in: ïf I don't get her, he will"...)

I've found ANOTHER baby petricola! must have been hiding for months; the parents are gone from the showtank (that contains mostly vegetarian cichlids) for months now.
They must have been triggered by the Tropheus spawning antics, they definitely pestered those; probably to eat eggs or so.
Ditto too, I've seen Tropheus, Trigs and Cyps seen "waiting in line" like cars to be washed near a spawning pair or trio of S petricola dwarfs.....

I always figured that the rainy season in the rift lakes was probably more pronounced at the inlets where more fresh water would come pouring into the lake. Hence any fish that preferred the inlet area to live/hunt would certainly find a trigger in a *freshening* of the water...