Syno Petricola - the more the merrier?

[I Prefer Dogs]

I have had a small group of Petricola in my Malawi Tank now for just over 6 months. I have decided that I love these things so much that I am going to sell the vast majority of my Cichlids and convert to a Petricola only tank (with 1 or 2 choice Cichlids included to fill the upper parts of the tank).

Question: Is it a case of the more the merrier in terms of keeping Petricola? People always suggest groups of 5-6 but this seems to be when they are part of a larger community and because true Petricola are slightly prohibitive cost wise.

Tank is 390L.

[Richard B]

My personal opinion is yes.

I would firstly like to know if they are Petricola or Lucipinnis (formerly called dwarf petricola & still called petricola by 99% of people) - do you know which they are? (a pic would help us to ID for you if you are unsure)

For Lucipinnis, definately the more the merrier, for Petricola, yes but they can be quarrelsome at times & need better territories for adults in groups

[I Prefer Dogs]

Hi Richard,

I have tead the Planet Catfish article and 1 thing doesn't add up.

My Synos have:

Small and numerous spots on the head with distinct edges - like Petricola
Black fin WITHOUT the triangle mentioned - like Petricola

However, the main spots on the body appear more irregular than they should be on a Petricola, makes me think Lucipinnis

I must also add that I got these from a highly reputable breeder/importer (all be it of Cichlids though) who had the wild parents of my fish and he says Petricola, but from what I understand, many people (even reputable guys) say Lucipinnis = Petricola. They were however, sold as F1 Petricola.

Either way I'm not to bothered but would be nice to be sure. I'm leaning towards Lucipinnis now though I think.

I tried to take a few pics but as you can see, not very well (I put in a pellet to get them at the front...well, until they scrambled it back).

[Richard B]

pics are not showing for me (blocked by work system)

90% of fish sold as petricola (even by reliable breeders) are Lucipinnis - particularly if they are t/b

[Scleropages]

Are those pics all of one specimen? Those are some VERY irregular blotches on the caudad-ward sides. Almost reminds me of the pattern of S. robertsi, just more distinct. I think you have either S. lucipinnis or some sort of S. lucipinnis hybrid.

[Scleropages]

The morphology looks very similar to S. lucipinnis. I just think the markings look a little off. Could be a subspecies/racial variant, though.

[I Prefer Dogs]

Here is a clearer pic, they all look the same apart from stomach size (some are plumper), which I believe indicates male/female?

[Richard B]

These are Lucipinnis

[andywoolloo]

what are those squares at the bottom of your sand?

yup, look like my lucipinnis. I have 12 in a 75 gal. thet are awesome!

[Richard B]

what are those squares at the bottom of your sand?

It looks like some robust plastic crate/mesh, which people use for a variety of uses - partial dividers for cichlid breeding, protection of tank bases from heavy rock etc

[I Prefer Dogs]

what are those squares at the bottom of your sand?

yup, look like my lucipinnis. I have 12 in a 75 gal. thet are awesome!

Yeah, as Richard said, it is egg crate, used (in my case) to disperse the huge weight of the rocks required in a Malawi setup.

Just so happened I got a pic of the cat in the one place it was showing Damn Cichlids digging.

[Scleropages]

To answer the question in the title of the thread: yes! They seem to do very well in large-ish groups. I have had 18 S. lucipinnis in a 90gal (48"x18"x24") mbuna tank for about six months now. Sheesh! Has it been that long already? I have Richard to thank for implanting the idea to get them in my mind. I saw that petricola eggspray video on youtube (which actually shows S. lucipinnis spawning) and I thought, "Hot damn! I've got to get me a bunch of those and get them to do that (spawn)." They are growing steadily on a diet made purely of spirulina flake, pellet, and wafer. I used to have a colony of Tropheus moorii ikola in there but the last one died last week--it was over 6 years old. I now have around 30 Pseudotropheus zebra (red & cobalt blue) and Labidochromis caeruleus. I was thinking of picking up some Tropheus duboisi--I saw some for a good price. But, not sure if I really want to add any more biomass to that particular tank.

Anyway, I'm not sure the exact dimensions of your tank, but if it has something like a 48"x18" footprint and you have adequate biological filtration, water movement, and aeration, you can probably get away with up to 20 S. lucipinnis--maybe a little less when they get bigger.

[I Prefer Dogs]

Sounds great scleropages. Do you have any pictures or videos of the cats? I want to see how they look in a big group before I make a decision on whether this is the way I want to go.

My tank has a good volume of 390L but a slightly smaller footprint by 4" (it is 30" tall) - though I will be selling nearly all my Malawis. Having the Malawis I went fot the biggest cannister (at a reasonable price) I could find for bio (the Eheim 2080) - that has huge bio capacity. Water movement is done by a dual 12,000 LPH wavemaker and I have a 400 LPH air pump on there as well. It's all way to much for the tank but I believe that you can't have enough filtration.

[Scleropages]

Let me see what I can do. Once it gets dark here, I'll see what types of movies and/or images I can capture. I'll try to take a movie during feeding time.

[Scleropages]

Here is a video of one corner of the tank just after feeding. You can see how the synos go in and out of the rocks. As you will see, you can't see all 18. I don't think I've seen all of them at once since I put them in the tank.
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[I Prefer Dogs]

Aw mate, that's brilliant, I appreciate your time and effort. Looks amazing.

[andywoolloo]

how are they going to get the food out of the rocks?

Cool video tho.

Mine are on sand.

[Scleropages]

Andy, I'm not sure I understand your question. Can you ask it differently?

[Scleropages]

Here's another video of the same tank taken right after I fed the fish. I normally don't feed them quite this much at once. However, all the food was gone in about 5 minutes and all the fish had huge bellies.
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[andywoolloo]

how do the synos get the food bits out of between the rocks, pebbles, substrate? for that matter how do the fish? are you finding it difficult to clean?

Just wondering as I have all my cats on sand. not that that means everyone should. I am just wondering how goes it with that?

[Scleropages]

Not too much food gets caught in the pebbles on the bottom of the tank. Hardly any flake food makes it to the bottom. The pellets and wafers usually sit on top of the pebbles or maybe fall into little nooks and crannies between pebbles. But, it's no problem at all for any of the fish to get at it and eat it. I do use undergravel filters with power heads and yet it doesn't suck much of the food into the substrate. I do a 25% water change once every other week using the python siphoning system and this tank's substrate is usually pretty clean.

In my 55gal tank which has several royal plecos and one L-204, the pebble substrate becomes much dirtier. But this is mainly due to the plecos habit of eating the driftwood. Makes the substrate very dirty. Water changes produce brown/black water taken from the tank.

[DJRansome]

andyw, you can also blast water through the rock piles at water change time with a turkey baster and siphon any debris. And when refilling with the python, run the water through the rockpiles so the filters can pick up anything left over.

My fish usually get the food before it even hits the rocks, LOL.

[andywoolloo]

lol true, i was thinking most probably gets consumed before can find it's way down.

[cpfc]

My experience of owning eight Petricolas is that they are very social and the more the merrier. I saw that in the breeder's tanks as well.

When I water change I siphon what I can and tip the buckets so water rushes through the stone work. I have an air stone and filter moving water in the dead spots. It will be time soon for a rescape and will ruffle all the sand after that to ensure I have no dead spots in the substrate.