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hello all,

i would like to try to spawn this catfish. i know that there is no spawning reports out there, so i am asking the hobbiest of pc what they think should be done. please commit with anything that may be of help in this venture. i currently have 5 males and 5 females. i have only 1 real idea and that is that they are haram spawners. outside of that i need all the help i can get.

ken

The closely related P. debauwi appears to be a rainy season spawner.

years ago I had a shoal of these and they spawned on a regular base.
unfortunately i had no way whatsoever of setting up separate tanks back then, so the other fish made a good meal of the eggs.

they spawn most of the times during our spring (march/april to june), wich was a surprise to me; I was used to South American catfish, wich usually spawn during our fall (september-december).

the males'upper barbels get "thicker" during that time (the ones on the nostrils), and he carries them in a "weird upward pointing" way; continuing following the female, swimming with his nose against her belly (although I've seen "confused" males pushing noses against dorsal fins, gills, flanks, whatever mating frenzy?).

Once the female slows down a bit (better said, stops speeding just a bit; they're formula1 cats when in heat) he wraps himself around her, like Anabantoids do.

The eggs look like fine sand made of glass; colorless and minute; I've never seen any fish-egg that small, with the exception of some Anabantoids and Barbs that also have very tiny eggs.

Waterparameters at that time:
23-25'C
GH11
KH3-5
pH about 7 or so
the tank was the 500 liter tank (wich now is the Tangtank), with lots and lots of live plants, lots of bogwood (yellowish water, lowered KH due to bogwood and plants); other inhabitants were 2 Synodontis flavitaeniatus, 2 Calamoichthys calabaricus, 3 Xenomystus nigri, 3 Ctenopoma acutirostre, 5 Mochokiella paynee, 2 Parauchenoglanis panterinus, 10 Barilius christyi, 8 Physailia and 8 of those "pangasiuslike" little Bagrid/Schilbeids from Asia (whatever those are called)
I had 8 adult Pareutropius buffei; 3 females, 5 males. The biggest were about 8 cm or so (females).

sidguppy

thanks for the detailed information. i will copy it down and use this as my initial model.

ken walker

sidguppy wrote:the males'upper barbels get "thicker" during that time (the ones on the nostrils), and he carries them in a "weird upward pointing" way;

Remarkable analogy to the Auchenipteridae! Could it even be homologous? HH?

haven't spawned any Auchenipterids, but know a few breeding recipes; pix and all.
it isn't THAT obvious, but I found it quite weird, mostly because I didn't expect it with Schilbeids!

btw had Schilbe mystus (if it's still called that) doing exactly the same; even in subadults and immatures it's possible to spot sexes by comparing length and thickness of nostril-barbs.....

I could get a 100% aim at sexing them at a length of 4" wich in Schilbe is about 1/3 adult length.....

just picked the ones with "thicker and longer" nostril barbs wich all turned out to be males. The ones with thin, short nostril whiskers all turned out to be females....

so just you know.

maybe it was overlooked? like the black (males) and white (females) bellies in Platydoras costatus and Orinocodoras eigenmanni??

Could it even be homologous?

Nah, don't think so. The barbels are not even the same (nasal vs. maxillary). Barbel dimorphism between sexes is fairly well-documented, and occurs in a fairly disparate group of catfishes, e.g. in the Siluridae (Hemisilurus) and the Bagridae (Bagrichthys).