PlanetCatfish.com

Beersnob wrote:Is there any special requirements for breeding S. Petricola?

Did you even read up on them yet?

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/mo ... /103_f.php

update:
I've put my entire group of 7 adult S petricola Burundi's in a 200+ liter tank for some weeks now; their company is a pair of big "monsterous looking" Ancistrus sp and a shoal of Limia nigrofasciata (to do the guppy-thing ).

for weeks nothing happened; but last weekend I finally noticed chasing and fooling around in the marble-setups.

yesterday evening me and 2 friends dismanteled those and LO! and BEHOLD! we found a few baby petricola's......

tiny tiny tiny.
about cyclops-size that is.
so they're well and settled; now I'll do regular checkups to "harvest" more F1 Burundi's

hopefully I'll manage to cram live artemia in these; they must have the most flexible mouths on any fry I know to eat that; but many people I know raise their petri-dwarf-fry on that, so.....

If I pull it off; I'll crack my teeth on another Synodontis-species

one hint: a bigger one!

Picture included for Worton...respone to his reply in October.

My syno petricola "dwarfs" (I am assuming). I have yet to see a comparison picture of the "dwarf" vs a "burundi" non dwarf petricola. SidGuppy, maybe you could enlighten us.

My adults, I use a group of 6 for breeding.


Youngsters at 5-7 months of age.

I have yet to see a comparison picture of the "dwarf" vs a "burundi" non dwarf petricola. SidGuppy, maybe you could enlighten us

reading.....
check the first page of this post, see the pics and compare those to the adult just above; you'll see!

Sorry, missed your pictures SidGuppy, and I included quotes from you below....

....."quite different from the irregular spotted rounded dwarf, aren't they? "

....."I have EVERY reason to assume, this is another fish than the dwarf. I've kept and bred dwarves for years (syno's that is ), and if you look real close you spot the differences. for example, the pattern. dwarfs have small and big spots in an irregular pattern. and the shape, dwarfs are smaller and stockier too. Burundi's "swim different", more "snake-like".

I agree and now clearly see the difference. Thanks.


Burundi Petricola

I tried to post a picture from page 1 here, unfortunately I was unable to link it. It would help to make the difference a bit more obvious.

"Dwarf" Petricola = small and large dots in an irregular pattern.

They're spawning EN MASSE
and I had the canon ready


BUT this hosting stuff and all the crap assorted with it, is really getting on my nerves, so....

who's willing to post a few pics of new proof?
like eggs between the marbles and the humptydumpty-activities of 2 Syno's in the Marble-castle?


I'll need a proper mailbox and I'll send them to whoever volunteers.

sidguppy wrote:They're spawning EN MASSE
and I had the canon ready


BUT this hosting stuff and all the crap assorted with it, is really getting on my nerves, so....

who's willing to post a few pics of new proof?
like eggs between the marbles and the humptydumpty-activities of 2 Syno's in the Marble-castle?


I'll need a proper mailbox and I'll send them to whoever volunteers.

I'll post em. Send them to flyfish25@charter.net

friend of mine beat you to it!
thanx, still.

work in progress


eggnogg


at close-up it's clearly no sand!

SG

Wow glorious photos!
So maybe the same thing is for other synos. They do spawn sometimes in our tanks but they have so small eggs that we are unable to see them before other tankmates eat them.
What about Troi and his decorus/eupterus things? Any news?

Sid where abouts in the wonderfull land of australia are you going to,I am an australian it is a top place to live,only problem is the shortage of catfish.
Are you intersted in colecting australian cats?.
I am in Brisbare .
Regards Bob

Hi Bob.

I've been there and gone.....back to work as they say.
I was in Queensland the whole month of August and some.
wonderful place, and definitely a reason to go back; esp Magnetic Island. got my diving papers there, and now the hobby has a completely new level


really great place, but didn't see any catfish, except for a bunch of big Ariids in the river near the Koala sanctuary.

Eggs are hatching so it's getting busy here; hope they do well in the fry tank.

#$@#@$@$%%@$%^$#^$#

all is dead
#$%$%$#^#^#$^#$^@#$^
BL**dy fungus

Been there plenty of times....with the dwarfs that is.....gotta keep up the water flow and keep em clean....sorry to hear about your loss...try adding a drop of antifungal to the eggs. I remove the eggs from the marbles within 24-36 hours. Also, try this setup....

Flyfish and Sidguppy congrats to your breeding sucess:!: I have four WC Petricola with my fronts (in a 6'/ 180cm tank) They spawned 5-6 weeks ago. I walked by the tank with my 1 year old on my arms when I noticed two Petricola chasing each other, "hugging" (twisting around each other), vibrating and then... couple of eggs, It was pretty exciting to watch the near by frontosa went crazy for this unexpected, delicious snack. I couldn't stay and continue to watch, my lttle girl wanted to bang on the frontglass of tank ... so I (we) left. One hour later they were still doing IT. I'm pretty sure I have the "true" variant, the biggest is probably 5" (12-13CM). elongated body, small regular spots (they look like Sids) and as Sidguppy mentioned they actually swim like snakes. When I get time I'll put them in a breeding tank by them self. I thought to share this info...
Chris

sidguppy use a group of 7
flyfish25 is using a group of 6
and tangsyno is using a group of 4

But what is the sexratio? More males than females?

the best is more males; a bit of rivalry spices things up a little

but I bought a group of five imports in Germany....ALL females
a good friend who breeds both dwarfs and 'polli White' still had one Burundi petricola; a male! he gave me this fish as a present to help me along with the catfish-breedery.

my second male was a by-catch in an "unsorted Synodontis" shipment from Nyanza Lac; bought by some other friends who kept it in a big group of dwarfs (back then they didn't know about the many varieties). it definitely didn't mix well, so that one (the other male ) came over as well.

so my ratio isn't what it should be, but it works.
I recently found two beautiful male petricola's in Germany, but passed because
-their price was outrageous
-my tank is already WAY overstocked

Hi Klaus, I have 2 males and 2 females.
Chris

3m/3f

you can breed them just using one pair but I have 2 that breeds regularly

newly laid eggs the black line across the eggs is a piece of hair

5 days old compair it to the size of the daphnia this is the stage where you start feeding them and the best and hasle free food is No BS fry food by Mike Reed http://www.mreed.com/ I have produced thousands of this fish and feed them just about every food you can buy including daphnia to BBS

and here is how they look like on a feeding frenzy

If any one out there knows how to upload a video or where i can send it to, I have a short film that you might be interested to watch.

Very cool, beats images I put up a while back for sure.

Are these orange little monsters daphnia?
Best photo I've ever seen thefishdaddy :) congrats.

fishdaddy; very nice pix! you must have a really state-of-the-art camera, I assume. And I see a young multipunctatus in with the young petricola's in the bottompioc, right?

but the last posts are all about dwarfs; not true petricola's or "Burundi"; we're digressing people!

plenty of dwarf-posts.
back on topic: I made myself a few gadgets;
a plexiglass breedertank with plenty of small holes in wich the filter-outlet enpties; IN this small tank is one of those breeders made of cloth; you know the kind.

if I put in the last one without "protection" the eggs and ry will be eaten right through the floor of that tank.
yesterday evening I witnessed new spawnings, so we'll see how it goes with plenty watermovement on the eggs.
those marbletraps are working just fine!

this evening I'll start-up the artemia-hatchery; need to do that anyway, because there's a new batch of Phyllonemus typus about to get spit out by their parents.

update: I emptied the contents of my eggtrap the day before yesterday and I see tiny fry swimming!
time to feed or do they rely on their yolk for another day?


I don't want to loose them to pollution of the water, nor do I want to starve them....
they hatched today, this evening or late afternoon, no earlier.

artemia-hatchery is up and running but not yet hatched; I DO have de-shelled artemia in the fridge...give it a try?

Congrats on the fry Sid,must be something in the air this week.I have been trying to spawn the large petricolas for about 2 years and after 100+ water changes,600+ marble washes finaly got eggs today.
I am now crossing fingers to have some make it to adulthood as they are my favorite of the cats.My females are well over 4in mark and we are talking eggs here.I hope they are stronger than the dwarfs as the eggs are quite a bit larger.

Sid,
Amazing!!!!! Great job!!!

update:
I've got a bunch of at least 30 youngsters, growing, feeding; you name it.

for a few weeks pigmentation is showing up; and they're very very active.

typical to see their difference in size.....ranging from a few mm to almost or even beyond 1 cm.

they're still in a mesh-breedercontraption and it's next to impossible to take pix in there; but this weekend I'll transfer them to another tank
*keep fingers crossed as this is a very risky job!*

once in there, getting an update with pix is quite easy; it's a well-lit 60x30x30cm aquarium.

sidguppy wrote:friend of mine beat you to it!

so I'm a friend of yours? cool ;) hehehe
It's great the're doing so well, I'll see if I can make my father take some more syno's , my tanks are full

Sid,
On the net breeders, please be very cautious and get them out of there after a short time. I had a bad experience with them with Aeneus Cories. The barbels can get caught up in the mesh.

I haven't!
see.....






now, they're in a 54L tank of their own (I transferred them in 40 liters of tankwater from their original tank)

on the pics, I lured them with a spirulina-tab.

Great pics!
I hop i'll have the same result with my polli white zambia ;)