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I imported these little fish from Peru (despite that not being their known collection area) and just wanted to share and see if anyone else has much experience breeding them. I find them to be much more outgoing and visible than other Centromochlus I have kept, and am really enjoying them. I hope to get some video soon, as they hand feed. Right now I have about 100 of them in a 75g tank, with sponge filtration and two powerheads. There is some driftwood and low light rhizome plants in the tank. They are being fed live daphnia, and frozen foods as well. They are very often at the water's surface, as well as eating both midwater and at the surfacce. When I feed them frozen foods, there are generally 15-20 at any given time swimming in my hand to eat- a very neat sight for a catfish that is supposedly considered shy! They are often visible at all times of the day, though much more active after lights out. Any suggestions on set up for breeding would be appreciated.

Is it true they need soft water to spawn? I remember Larry (plecobreeder) once mentioning that some of his oil cats needed mosquito larvae to get in the mood...

Do you still have some of these guys for sale?

Yes, they are for sale. I plan to keep a dozen or so for a breeding project, but the rest will have to find forever homes. My water here is sort of interesting. I have well water, tds below 150, gh 6, kh 7, pH moderate range at about 7.3. For all intents and purposes it is relatively soft, despite the pH reading. I have only had these cats a month, still fattening them up, though they are getting some dimorphic body shape differences- I need to pull them into a container to try and definitively sex by their modified fin shape. I have noticed some getting much more abdominal largesse (pardon the lack of appropriate term).

In all reality, I had very little to go on to know how to keep them and am winging it- but they seem to be thriving thus far. Hoping for some suggestions for more success. I also have a cf. macranthus species (over twice the size of these and much more typically shy that I would like to breed.

All of my adult woodcats love mosquito larvae but I also feed them brine shrimp, whiteworms and pellet foods. My reticulatus have been eating mostly the frozen foods. My woodcat fry (Tatia intermedia and Centromochlus perugiae) get powdered foods to start and then baby brine.

Jeremy

I've bred and I keep C. reticulatus (which, BTW, are identical to those you show). All I did with the former was water not far off yours (pH ~6.5 but soft), big water change and floating plants / java moss. In fact, I had the breeding tank stuffed with plastic plant bits and live plants. Food was frozen bloodworm and flake.

There is more detail in the CotM.

Hope that helps,

Jools

Thank you! SOunds like I am on the right track, just need to let them mature I am absolutely enamored with these, even more so than the macranthus I also go.

I have to agree with msjinkzd's sentiment. I got some from her and they have become some of my favorite fish! Watching them swarm out out of the driftwood together is quite a sight to see.

msjinkzd wrote:They are very often at the water's surface, as well as eating both midwater and at the surfacce. When I feed them frozen foods, there are generally 15-20 at any given time swimming in my hand to eat- a very neat sight for a catfish that is supposedly considered shy! They are often visible at all times of the day, though much more active after lights out.

These are great observations! Ime this species was one of the most bottom orientated centromochlins I've ever kept and I never saw them with lights on. Mine were kept in a tank crawling with other smaller auchenipterids and I also had only 2 specimens...... could that be the difference?
Anyway, well done!

Wrt food all you need to know has already been said by others. Wrt breeding I can tell you from experience that they will not eat their own eggs, so keeping them in a species tank is a good idea (but avoid Helena assasin snails!). Once the eggs hatch, the young are constantly in danger, as the adults will consider them as food. Good luck on your breeding attempts.

handfeeding:


pardon the algae- they share a tank with nerite snails so I do not scrape it.

May I enquire as to the temperature these are kept at?

I am keeping them around 72 (this time of year), I don't generally use heaters unless absolutely required as my ambient water temp in the fishroom does not get any colder than this even in winter. I am not honestly sure what is ideal for these fish. They are obviously eating well and active.

Interesting that. I've wanted Centromochlus of one sort or another for a while, but was under the impression they needed 26C (79F) or a tad more.

Thank you.

In Regina's COTM article: http://www.planetcatfish.com/cotm/cotm.php

She kept them low 70s and had that species breed at 74. Based on that, and no real contrary information, and their seemingly normal behavior, I have not altered their temperature. As the seasons shift, their tank should be up to the high 70s by end of summer. It will be interesting to see if/how their behavior changes.

Very good read, Regina's article. I'll be watching this thread with interest, thank you.

They are variable. Some species like it warm, most do not.

Jools

I took a minute today when doing maintenance to snap pics of the two genders of this fish:

Superb pictures!

Thanks! I am working on improving my photography. Hopefully a camera upgrade is in my near future

I just cannot get over how much I love these fish. Their handfeeding is such fun behavior for such a small fish. They are clearly eating well! I think you can almost see eggs in the females, so I am hopeful I will have a spawn soon. I am going to add a bunch of smaller driftwood into their tank to encourage them. Right now, it just has a half dozen or so small pieces, some coconut huts, a bunch of anubias, and pennywort as well as floaters.

Oh man, these guys look awesome! I'm a big fan of little catfish, guess it's time for new tank. Do you still have some available?

oops! Sorry fro the delayed response. I have pulled them off my list because I am absolutely infatuated with them. I have them set up in a couple different tanks trying to get them to breed. Once I am successful, I will keep a small group and then sell off the remaining.

Every single person who got some has come back for more because they are such neat crittesr.

Hi Rachel - I sent you an email through your site but wasn't sure if it went through (silly iPad). If you have anything like a wait list I'd like to be on it for some of these guys. Hope the breeding goes well!

afaik, i did not get an email! Feel free to pester me, I have many females looking more than a bit rotund, and have set up a few tanks with ddifferent setups to play around with breeding. Fingers crossed!

Excellent, thanks! I'll keep in touch.

As an aside, I had them in a relatively large tank- 75g, they were very active, but I noticed some were looking a bit more thin than I would like. I moved them into a 20 Long and all have noticeably plumped up with no different treatment. I think the space was just too vast for them to feed well. They have a directional powerhead, lots of floating pennywort, rotala indica surrounded by stacked wood, and several tube like round pleco caves. They still seem to prefer to hang out at the surface behind the powerhead, but to watch them swarm during feeding time is a true joy. This little fish has quickly stolen my heart and is almost about to usurp my big primitive fishes (I collect gar and polypterus for pets) as my fish room favorites.

I sold the last that I was willing to part with to Regina Spotti. Hoping she has luck breeding them. She gave me some pointers; keep the lights out, feed less "shelly" foods (i.e. not too much daphnia, stick to worms), and stop doing water changes. I have noticed that since i changed my feeding, lighting, and water change routine they act more like typical wood cats- hiding most of the time except during feeding. They are getting FAT though, so i am hopeful.

Any update on the breeding project? Sending good thoughts your way!

Great looking pics and the pattern on these fish is really cool.

oops, just saw this as I was coming to update

I have eggs!
At the advice of Regina Spotti (she came by and purchased some as well), I stopped doing water changes and removed the light from the tank. It has been about a month or so, and today I found about a dozen eggs scattered around the driftwood. I have four or five females that are just rotund, so I expect more. I have been feeding a mix of flake and frozen (mainly cyclops) and some live white worms.

There are a dozen or so small pieces of wood in the tank, some moss, a few ceramic caves, and a mat of rotala indica floating at the surface. The temp is ambient, so about 74. Gh 6, kh 7, tds around 180.

I also managed to get some eggs!

I originally found around 10 on the substrate:


I thought that the location of these eggs were odd because the Centromochlus prefer driftwood and upper water.

I then discovered what I can only assume is the original lay site among some Anubias near the surface:


There were many more eggs nestled in the Anubias than are visible in the photo. I harvested the eggs today and I estimate that there are around 80 eggs. They have been placed into the "hatchery":

Well, I had a few days of panic after finding that all the eggs had hatched but seeing no fry. Tonight, I discovered that my "hatchery" was swarming with fry! Very exciting!

Sorry about the horrifically bad photos, but they're the best I can do at the moment with my little camera at night. They are really quick little things.