My group of 10 were very diurnally active from March to June last year, before a distressing period of several months which whittled the group down to one female, who I literally saw scouring the bogwood as I read your post. Their orignal 48x12x15 140l tank had a decent flow from an All Pond Solutions 2000EF, which had numerous clumps of bogwood in it making loads of hiding places for these tiny catfish. They were absolute current junkies, surfing most of the day amongst what was my original teenage ~5cm SL Ilyodon xantusi group at the time and getting no trouble at all from my ~4cm SL Steatocranus tinanti/ultraslender duo; my group of 11 Synodontis nigriventris and an unusually diurnal ~9cm SL Synodontis congica.
In hindsight, I wish I had never moved them out of that tank, they were "happy as Larry," but for reasons that escape me now I put them in my 100l plastic tub with ~40 Ilyodon fry. Everything was fine for ~6 weeks, but then within minutes half the group were "treading water." I rescued the whole group and put them in my 54l, but despite daily water changes and Myxazin to help keep some wounds clean, the group dropped to 4 over a few days. Those 4 stayed quarantined for 6 weeks and all was well, so I put them in my 48x17x22 small/peaceful community. However, about a month later, three of the group perished.
My theory was that the numerous Ilyodon fry were bullying the catfish and outcompeting them for food, despite these same catfish having no problems from the far bigger yet vastly smaller group of Ilyodon parents. What killed off 3 of the final 4 still baffles me, especially given how one female is still going strong some four months or so since she lost her last conspecific tankmate.
Mine ate crushed Tetra Prima and Hikari algae wafers as their staple diet, with weekly treats of various defrosted critters (bloodworm; daphnia; cyclops; lobster eggs). Recently I have bought some New Era products including the small Tropical and Catfish Pellets, but I have not seen my lone female tackling them to date.
They are great little catfish with loads of energy, depending on price but more important their availability near me, I shall have another try at a group with very safe tankmates like my 6 Nannostomus beckfordi that came from Mats last May.
Good luck with your group and even more luck at getting them breeding!
