PlanetCatfish.com

2016 EDIT:
I unfortunately lost my females (one once mature turned out to be a male anyways), so until I can acquire some more I won't be able to try anything I researched.

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What started as an interest in catfish, and turned very quickly into an absolute love of the order, began when I brought home my first catfish, a male . And through all my research afterwards, few species have caught my attention as well as this one. They are probably my favorite cat.

So when I found in their Cat-E-Log entry that the species had yet to be successfully intentionally bred in home aquaria, I got it in my head that I had to give it a shot.

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I have since been researching and reading every little bit of information I could find on the species. In my reading, I have not found much of anything in the way of other people's attempts to breed P. siamensis. I've read the Shane's World article as well as the attempt documented on ScottCat. The only other mentions I've found of people attempting to breed this species give little to no useful information.

What I have found particularly helpful is the data collected by the Mekong River Commission. In particular, pages 106 - 108 of this pdf they published have provided quite a bit of useful information that I am largely basing my ideas about breeding and husbandry for this species on.

Given that this species has not yet been successfully intentionally bred in home aquaria, I plan to try to use every viable method I've found to simulate the correct spawning conditions. Ideally, if I have success, I can then try less involved methods and see where they get me.

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I know that it is not at all a conventional way to breed fish, but my attempt will take place in the 150g planted tank (with 40g sump) that will be their permanent home. As this tank is also going to be a display tank, they will not be housed alone.

In addition to my original male, I have recently acquired two female P. siamensis to make up the rest of my breeding group. Given the territorial nature of the species, I would like to give them enough space that they will not be distracted from spawning attempts by territorial disputes.

Tankmates will include:
- Denison Barbs, Puntius denisonii
- Tiger Barbs, Puntius tetrazona
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Following the reading I've done on the many ways to induce spawning in fish, I may also try to get the tiger barbs to breed so that the hormone release in the water might contribute to signaling to the P. siamensis that it is spawning season.

The tank will be fairly heavily planted, with slate caves and driftwood available to hide in. My water tends to be higher in pH than what the species is naturally found in, so after initial tank set up and introduction, I will be working on very gradually lowering my pH to their natural range. (They are already acclimated to my water conditions, but are not all housed together at the moment, so it would be easier for me to get them adjusted all at once in the tank they will be sharing, rather than trying to match water in multiple tanks.)

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In this tank, I will be attempting to simulate the Mekong River's wet and dry seasons.

The dry season will consist of:
- fewer, smaller water changes
- less food
- higher ratio of vegetable-based foods to meaty foods
- warmer water temperature
- regular plant lighting
- regular filter outflow

My dry season will last from March to the middle of May, at which point I will start the slow transition to the wet season, which should be in full swing at the beginning of June.

The wet season will consist of:
- frequent cool, soft water changes
- abundance of food
- higher ratio meaty foods to vegetable-based foods
- live foods
- DIY "rainbar" outflow
- cooler water temperature
- addition of airstones for higher dissolved oxygen
- addition of egg traps for spawning fishes
- LED thunderstorm effects (I don't know if the fish will much care, but they're fun.)

My wet season will last from June to mid-October. From October to March will be a period that will very slowly transition to dry season conditions, but will continue the rain and cooler temperatures through to February to mimic winter in the Mekong River.

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Based on my research, P. siamensis reach breeding maturity at 5" + and will spawn at the onset of the rainy season. They are noted to lay eggs in roots, so I will have driftwood, live plants, and breeding traps available for spawning sites. Females are observed to have developed eggs in February, and young are present in the river in August. Eggs have been found to be present in females as late as July and August. P. siamensis are paternal egg guarders, so I plan to leave my first batch of eggs with my male to see how they fare, though I will remove them and hatch them myself if he abandons them or I find anyone eating them.

If I have success, fry will be moved to a "refugium" area in the tank's sump. I will be using Ecosystem's "Miracle Mud II" in my sump, as well as some sand to provide an easier planting substrate. Spare plants will be grown in the sump, as well as several types of live food that the young cats will be able to hunt and feed on as they grow. In their early stages, I plan to hatch baby brine shrimp and potentially supplement other food cultures as well to make sure there is a sufficient supply of microfauna to feed them. I am considering building something based on a combination of the ideas of sumps and diy trickle filters as a way to separate fry at different sizes and life stages without moving them to separate tanks. If I do so, only the older fry would be loose in the "refuigium" and the rest would be sorted by size into the drawers of a modified one of these. (I'd be happy to explain my idea for this if anyone is interested. It wouldn't surprise me if someone's come up with it before, but I thought it was a decent idea.)

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I am in the process of getting the 150g tank set up and should have it up and running in the coming months. My females are still fairly young and small (last measured at 8cm and 9cm TL), so they'll need to grow out a bit before I can expect to see spawning behavior. Still, I would like to get them used to my version of their natural climate changes early so that I might see a spawning attempt in the next year, when they should be mature.

Big wall of text, but I've done a lot of research on this project and really hope to make some notable progress with this species, even if it is just a step in the right direction. Does anyone have any otherwise undocumented insights on breeding this species or advice on my current plan? This will be a big endeavor, but I am very excited to give it a try.

EDIT: Duh, pictures!
Here is a recent picture of the ladies, from shortly after I obtained them:

And a picture of the male from last year when he moved into my 55g:

I will take updated pictures and measurements when I get everyone moved into the 150g!

[For those interested, here are some of the other sources I've been using, in addition to the Cat-E-Log and those already linked above:
Seriously Fish
Fishbase, 2
ScottCat
iNaturalist (Not a site I was familiar with, but it gave much more information than most random fish sites.)
And a forum mention of someone who knew someone supposedly breeding them successfully. (No real info, but more confirmation that it can be done.)
Most of my resources I came across combing through pages and pages of google searches.]

It looks like a good planning - but I would try to get the seasons right. That is - start the wet season when the musson normally hits

Another thing is - the musson normally does hit, it does not just occur. I would end the dry season with an extreme dry season - water a degree warmer, no watere changes, food fully vegetable - for a week, perhaps even more. Water levels could sink too

Then, I would let the musson hit - that is, fill the tank with cold soft water, resulting in a temperature drop of at least 3 degrees C, ideally with turbid water, and then feeding meaty food.

I think a big contrast would be better than a small contrast.

The dry season, on the other hand, would best start slowly, as it happens in nature

Narelle,
Great job on all your research and I suspect you are on the correct path.

Unfortunately, the "fatal flaw" is the tankmates. The barbs will undoubtedly eat any eggs laid by the catfish long before they could hatch. Any chance you could use the sump for a spawning tank?

Again great job on the research and I am happy there is another "bagridiot" like me out there.

-Shane

Thank you both for the replies! Feels great to get responses and feedback on this so quickly, I've been working on it for a long time now.

Bas Pels wrote:It looks like a good planning - but I would try to get the seasons right. That is - start the wet season when the musson normally hits

Another thing is - the musson normally does hit, it does not just occur. I would end the dry season with an extreme dry season - water a degree warmer, no watere changes, food fully vegetable - for a week, perhaps even more. Water levels could sink too

Then, I would let the musson hit - that is, fill the tank with cold soft water, resulting in a temperature drop of at least 3 degrees C, ideally with turbid water, and then feeding meaty food.

I think a big contrast would be better than a small contrast.

The dry season, on the other hand, would best start slowly, as it happens in nature

I guess I also forgot this link, but I was basing the timing for my seasonal changes on the chart found on this page of the Mekong River Commission's website. It divides the months in two different ways, denoting both when particular monsoons start and end as well as what season that would put the region in. I was trying to balance those two when I chose my timing.

My concerns with what you're suggesting is that I might over do the dramatic water parameter change and send my fish into shock (I've had it happen before, and lost fish over it, so I tend to be a little overly cautious) and that if I completely weed out the meaty foods in their diet, they might not be getting the proper nutrition (though now I do notice that you are only suggesting that for the very end of the season, which would be plenty manageable). They are omnivores, but seem to lean heavily towards meaty foods. It seems like they are more omnivorous out of necessity, because they can't get enough meaty foods in the dry season to survive on those alone.
I'm not opposed to trying the extremes, but I'd have to make absolutely sure that it would still be completely healthy conditions for my fish. I am planning to put a lot into this breeding attempt, but they are my pets first. (Not to say you are suggesting anything bad for them, just explaining my extra caution.)

Lowered water levels, unfortunately, I cannot do. Since the tank will have a sump, lowering the water would mean no water to the overflow and no filtration.

Shane wrote:Narelle,
Great job on all your research and I suspect you are on the correct path.

Unfortunately, the "fatal flaw" is the tankmates. The barbs will undoubtedly eat any eggs laid by the catfish long before they could hatch. Any chance you could use the sump for a spawning tank?

Again great job on the research and I am happy there is another "bagridiot" like me out there.

-Shane

Bagrids are definitely my favorites by far, I can't wait to have a fishroom full of them.

That is a shame with the barbs. My male currently shares a tank with the tigers, and they have been made very aware that it is best to give him his space, so I was hoping that his guarding the eggs would keep them from being a problem.

I suppose I could try to spawn the cats in the sump, but that would mean I would need to furnish it as well. I've planned this tank around my Pseudomystus and my plants, so the tank itself would already be as ideal of a spawning ground as I can think to make it. But I could try to throw some extra things together to give them some more natural spawning sites. It is also a fairly small space for them - the sump is a 40g long tank, so pretty narrow, and the space they would be in would be, at most, a little over 2 ft wide. It would have the bonus of the eggs/fry already being where I'd like to raise them, though. No snorkeling in a big tall tank to try to fish out tiny fry.

Another option, though, would be to move the tankmates while the fish are in their spawning season. I have plans for the 55g that they are moving up from, but I suppose I could delay that to have space to house my other fish and give my Pseudomystus plenty of space to themselves.
Or if it is just the tiger barbs that you are concerned about, perhaps they could spend some time in the sump while the Pseudomystus are breeding? Then, if they were also triggered to spawn, I would have the added benefit of natural spawning hormones in the water.

Narelle wrote:Or if it is just the tiger barbs that you are concerned about, perhaps they could spend some time in the sump while the Pseudomystus are breeding?

I have seen S.denisonii 'slurp' down even Hara jerdoni and Erethistes pussilus in a friends tank, so it would be best to shift them out as well.

Looks like you have done some thorough research. As I am a 'bagridiot' (nice one Shane!) as well, I will be following this thread with great interest.

This is a very good project, I can't wait to see how it turns out! I'm also going to be attempting to spawn a difficult (to spawn) cat soon, being an Amblydoras sp.