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I have been a hobbyist for a long time though I have not done serious breeding in several years. I am setting up my first S. Multipunctatus tank and I am looking for people who have had a lot of experience with them.

The tank will be a standard four foot 75 gallon, back and bottom painted black on exteriors, and bare bottomed (I know they like to sift, but I never use substrate unless absolutely necessary). I will use a few Hydro Sponge Fives, air driven, with my usual weekly water changes. The colony will be 15 to 17, S. Multipunctata (I can get a good price [14 a piece]). Water parameters will be standard for the species: I am lucky where I am because the water is like liquid rocks out of the tap (hard, hard, hard).

I might include some mid water cichlids, but it is not essential. I have a lot of experience with Africans, and lots of other stuff, but I have never kept these amazing fish. Their diet will be high quality with regular feeding of Hikari frozen foods and a good staple.

Does anyone with experience see any issue here. Can anyone advise a very high quality staple pellet for them. If I get a mid water it will likely be A. Calvus. Breeding will be my ultimate goal (I'll use the inverted pot trick).

Any comments are welcome. I am coming from this as an experienced guy, but I do not know everything.

[Mod edit: remove extra large text making it harder to read. --Mats]

Syno Multipunctata are primarily a cuckoo spawner with a mouthbrooding cichlid as a host.

They do occasionally scatter but the inverted pot is the method really for syno lucipinnis (unless i've misinterpreted here)

For best breeding success a cuckoo host is neccessary & this is covered in many threads on PC

as i undertand it, a lot of people will use malawi cichlids as opposed to tangs as the cichlids seem to be less aware of the intentions of the synos which gives better breeding sucess - at least in the short term until the cichlids learn what is going on.I have spoken with a number of people who (by less effective planning) have had good success with Acei as a host although i seem to recall C. Horai (a tang sp) is regarded as one of the best hosts (although this is an aggressive sp).

You should have reasonable success as long as you have mature male & female synos that are the same species ie both multis or both grandiops & proven mouthbrooding cichlids

In my limited experience with breeding synos, they need to be pretty mature to spawn. My lucipinnis just started spawning regularly at 5-6 years old and my wildcaught multipunctatus group had two previous owners (over 7 years) with no spawns...it took another year with me before they spawned. I have only mbuna by the way, and the Demasoni are the ones that spawn the most. Since their first spawn with me I get a single multi fry about every year or two.

Hey Guys,

Thanks for all the great responses (AWESOME HELP). I am going to look at the fish that were recommended. If spawning takes a while, it is OK, I like the multi's even if I have to wait.

This is a great forum!!!!!!!

Though it may be a month yet, I promise to post photos.