Spawning petricola?

[Manofsnow]

I have been noticing that my petricola males will do this "gliding love dance" next to the females. Since I cannot find any any information on exactly what they do when they breed I thought I would ask. The fish are in a community tank with several other tanganyikans and they seem to be doing this in pvc elbows, under rocks, and in the wide open. They are also only 2-3" max! Is that breedable size? Any info on what this could be would be appreciated.

While I'm on that note, the petricola are always out searching for food and running about. My mulipunctatus don't seem to ever come out, they are in the same sized tank with similair setup and they hide until the lights go out. That normal?


Thanks!

[Rickzfish]

While my male Petricola does kind of try to coax the female into the cave to breed by gently rubbing up against her as you call glidding, it eventually turns into him chasing the heck out of her, then back to coaxing, and so on, until she finally goes into the cave. They then swim in circles inside the cave depositing eggs and milt.
As far as what you need to do, is collect the eggs for hatching, as otherwise they are sure to get eaten, esp. in a community tank. As for their size, I do not think 2" cats are mature enough to breed, but 3" should be, as they usually only get to 4" in size.
In response to them always searching for food, mine do the same thing, and my Multi's hide alot more too.

[Manofsnow]

So this is most likely breeding behavior? The do go in circles together so maybe it is time to move them into their own tank with some pots and marbles huh? I also just watched a video of two of them spawning and that is just about exactly what they were doing. Would I be able to see the eggs? I know the fry are tiny but are the eggs easily visible to the naked eye?

[Rickzfish]

I do use the pot and marble set up. The eggs are very small and almost clear, so very difficult to see. Once you have found a few, it gets easier. Use dark marbles, it helps greatly in seeing the eggs stuck to them. I am using dark brown, tried pure black, but they must be use to the brown as they would not spawn over the black ones. It took me forever to find the solid black ones, and they do not like them, go figure! I am going to try them with a different group of cats though just to be sure.

[Manofsnow]

Then do you just rinse the marbles over a strainer into a seperate "holding" tank to raise the fry? I thought my miltes were going to be hard!

[poosa]

I remove all the marbles and leave the eggs in the same container, add a drop of M.blue.The eggs hatch in about 36 to 48 hours. That is the easy part. Raising the fry without mortalities is another matter.