S.petricola attacking my tuqoise peacock??

jaymz · Post by **jaymz** » 13 Feb 2004, 02:46

my turqoise peacock ( about 2" long) is in a 10g with 3 VERY smal(like a tenth of the peacocks size!)l s.petricolas, the peacock has had some white stuff on him for a week or so now with very frequent water changes seems to be getting better, (dont want to medicate for fear of hurting the cats....).. but now one of the catfish keeps like eating off him... to the point of the cat like taking him down to the gravel and having his way with him.... i dont know how to take this!!! thes cats are going into a 150 malawi tank when they get bigger, but i wasnt expecting them to eat my africans!!! maybe the cat is trying to be helpful???? please any help would be great

jttt678 · Post by **jttt678** » 13 Feb 2004, 03:24

I had this same problem. The tank is probably to small for the fish you have in there. I had a SYNODONTIS CAT that attacked everything in my 15 gallon tank. When I moved it to my 90 gallon tank it quit attacking other fish. JT

spikythefish · Post by **spikythefish** » 14 Feb 2004, 15:41

if i read right you have a dyed cichlid!!

bad person buying dyed fish

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 14 Feb 2004, 22:09

petricola's are cleaners!
but a fish already suffering from bad skin condition, might get cleaned "too much"......

btw a 10G tank isn't suitable for neither of your fish!
It's more like a jar, or possibly a glass bucket.
useful for tiny fry but not for real fish.

jaymz · Post by **jaymz** » 15 Feb 2004, 12:50

ok lets clear some things up-
sidguppy----
i said i have a *** 150 GAL *** lake malawi tank.... the 10 is a hospital tank the turqoise peacock had a pectoral fin bit off, that is why he is in the ten ( he was geting beat up in the 150) the peacock is only 1.5-2 in's and the cats are only about .5, so before you bi@^h about my tank size realize its either throw the cats to the wolfs in the 150 or try to build up some size in the 10.

i tryed the cats in a bagie in the 150 my blue zebra was on it like flies on sh#t he would have eaten good that day if i would have put them in there.. and at 21.00 a fish i wasnt havin it....

i didnt think one 1.5 peacock and ( 3 ) .5in cats were too much for the 10 gal i mean give me a brake...
spikythefish---
my next thing is WHAT IS A DYED CICHLID??? if i made a mistak buying him im soooo sorry

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 15 Feb 2004, 13:16

BUT
you got any hideouts in that 150G?
what kind of fish are in it??

A single Pseudotropheus shouldn't be able to kill off petricola's, NOT if they know the tank and have plenty hideouts.

BTW a 10G still IS too small, for those fish. And how did that peacock get beaten-up?
maybe you should think about kicking the evil ones out of there instead of attempting something that won't work....

Post by **Barbie** » 15 Feb 2004, 18:16

Hi Jaymz,

I personally think your tank is going to work fine for quarantining the fish as you are doing. I am actually not sure what on earth has happened in this thread, truth be known. I WOULD appreciate it if you would complain to the admins if you feel you've been slighted, rather than curse your way around the censor that is obviously there for a reason.

Petricolas can grow a bit slowly, the ten gallon should be quite adequate with regular maintenance. The peacock sounds like it would benefit from being netted and having iodine swabbed on those wounds that are fungusing. It would give the petricolas less to try to "clean" and potentially damage on him and let him heal without being stressed. I'm sure you're doing frequent water changes on the tank with it being so small, but it bears mentioning that the petricolas will grow at their fullest potential in cleaner water. I agree that they'll need to grow a bit more before they would be safe in the malawi tank.

Good luck!

Barbie

*SIDE NOTE*Spikythefish/Jon/whateveryournameistoday PLEASE keep in mind you've had one username banned for this same type of idiocy. If you aren't informed on the subject, do NOT insult users with comments like this.

jaymz · Post by **jaymz** » 15 Feb 2004, 20:53

BARBIE- i would like to thankyou for giving me some advice i can use, and not riping on me like the others... i would also like to apologise for the cursing.. it was out of line.. i get a little personal when it comes to how i take care of them and it got to me when people stated things the way they did..

as far as maintinance, the ten- im doing a water change weekly, i dont know about doing the iodine thing, it seems to be clearing up but if it gets worse maybe i will try it.. as far as the petricolas they seem to be growing well and are content in the 10, but i cant wait to get them in the 150

SIDGUPPY-

- I have tons of "hide outs" but i dont think they would make it there in time... do you have africans? they can get a little roudy
- I have a total of 14 africans--- johani, red Z, blueZ, ?zebra, 2electric ahli,2ruby reds, 3 OB peacocks, 2 yellow labs, they are all small with the blue Zebra being the "king" he is about 2.3" in long it is a very "young" tank

"A single Pseudotropheus shouldn't be able to kill off petricola's"

i dont think he will "kill them off" i think he might eat them like i said they are SMALL!!! they look small enuff to swallow!!!!!

as far as the missing pec fin i dont know how he lost it maybe on a rock? i have not had any other incedent sence then and that was over a month ago.. these fish do chase each other around if they were visibly "killing" each other i would do somthing as far as i can tell from my research on africans its the nature of the beast... thats why i have a 150 with about 200lbs of rock work so i know they can get away...

PS> thanks to everyone who has replyed, and im sorry if i offended or ticked anyone off...

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 15 Feb 2004, 21:49

No offense
I've got a hide like a rhino, or better like a Pseudodoras niger, no worries.

But as soon as Syno's are no fry/larvae anymore; they cannot get swallowed, only ripped to pieces. Any fish bent on eating them, will get in serious trouble: pectoral spines, dorsal spine, lots of mucus.

your zebra might see them as snacks; there's a trick: release them at night! the cichlids are "asleep" then, quite torpid actually.

This is a neat trick: wait till the lights are off, like 1 hour or so. darken every light in the room, get a tiny flashlight (a mini-maglite or something); you can blind cichlids in the eyes, and literally pick them out by hand!!

I've done it on occasion to root out nasty buggers......

Syno's however, will be up and running. If you release your baby-petro's at night, they will know ALL the hide-outs by morning. NO WAY any cichlid's going to catch them afterwards.....
a good feeding the evening before -just for minds' ease- helps too.

JohnnyOscar · Post by **JohnnyOscar** » 16 Feb 2004, 10:33

My guess is that if you have plenty of hiding places, then the S. petricola would be fine in your 150G.

On a side note: watch out for your Melanochromis johanii once it gets sexually mature. I had to get rid of my gorgeous M. johanii the other week after he had killed two female Nimbochromis venustus (twice his size) and a female yellow lab because they wouldn't mate with him, nipped the fins of all the other Malawies, and chewed the various plecos fins right back. Beautiful fish, but lethal to his tankmates

JohnnyOscar · Post by **JohnnyOscar** » 18 Feb 2004, 15:57

Well, I've just put my money where my mouth is and added 12 S. petricola to my big bad Malawi tank. The petricola are much smaller than I had expected: the shop said they were 1", but most were barely 0.5" SL -- small enough to fit sideways in my Nimbochromis's mouth!

I threw a handful of food into the tank to make sure none of the cichlids were hungry, added some more caves in one corner of the tank, then added the petricolas one by one.

Within half an hour or so most of the petricolas had left the caves in the corner. A group of six has taken over a rockpile from a group of Labidochromis caeruleus, the two smallest ones have made there way to the opposite side of the tank and are hiding under a bit of bogwood, eating some leftover cichlid pellets, and the rest are somewhere in the main rockpile.

Some of the cichlids have had a good look at the petricolas and decided to leave them alone (I hope), but my 5" Nimbochromis venustus (a potential piscivore) looks quite interested. Hopefully the petricolas will have the sense to stay out of reach.

----

It's now been over six hours since I added the fish and they have all survived this far. The big N. venustus is still interested in the petricola, but hasn't caught one yet and hopefully never will.

jaymz · Post by **jaymz** » 18 Feb 2004, 18:02

wow you bought 12! you lucky guy i wish i could buy that many

i bought three and thought it was a pricy indevor

maybe they are cheaper over there... i cant wait to hear your updates mine are still in the little tank for now but maybe i will unleash them in the milawi tank soon.... thanks again for sharing your results

JohnnyOscar · Post by **JohnnyOscar** » 18 Feb 2004, 18:33

I paid Â£75 for 12. I'm not sure if that's a good deal or not as I don't follow the market that closely. They arrived alive, but much smaller than I was expecting. I added them to my 180G anyway. They are still all alive and kicking