Petricola Pickle

[660Dave]

Hi, i have 6 w/c Syno Petricola. They have been happily living in my 5ft 450L tank with my Mbuna for a while, i was thinking of moving them into their own tank. A few days ago i was catching holding mbuna and on impulse decided to transfer my 6 petricola to a newly set up (fully cycled etc) tank. The tank in question is a 30" long tank, holding around 110 litres. A little small maybe? but i thought the group of 6 may be better in this tank on their own without having to live off Mbuna scraps.
Anyway, they seem happy in their new tank, very active and all 6 swimming together which is a sight i've not seen before in the other tank.
BUT they are not eating much, the water was straight out of the big tank so there's no changes there.
I know its common for them to maybe not eat for up to a week when introduced to new surroundings but i'm going on holiday for a week on friday and i cant leave them not eating in the new tank.
So the questions are:
Is this tank big enough?
and should i move them back? Or could that do more harm than good?

Cheers.

[Richard B]

If they are indeed Petricola then hey should be ok with an occasional squabble provided there s a really good amount of rocks & caves.

If they are Lucipinnis (dwarf petricola) the this is totally fine.

A pic will help us ID for certain if you have any doubts, as most sellers still call lucipinnis 'petricola'

[660Dave]

Hi Richard, thanks for the reply. They are eating ok now and seem happy in their new tank, do you think it is large enough long term for 6 adult Petricola?
I do have bigger tanks available, but if this tank is OK i'd like to keep them as they are.

Cheers.

[Richard B]

It seems a decent sized group that will allow any aggression to be spread out, so long term possibly ok, depending on the amount of cover available. My mixed tang syno tank has the interior volume occupied maybe 40+% with pots & rockwork so masses of cover. If there is little or medium amount of cover where sight lines cannot be broken then a bigger tank could be necessary.

NHA breed these commercially using the '3 tank method'. The tanks per sex are about 3x2x2 with about 30-40 individuals in & no cover. Clearly here it is heavily stocked & aggression is not an issue as it is easily dispersd through the group & they act like a large shoal swimming in an open expanse of water, or at least around the central overflow pipe! (it's on a commercial scale centralised filtration system if anyone wonders about water quality)