Over the past few years catfish have been becomingmore and more popular. One of the reasons is there ismore information being released on spawning thesewonderful creatures. There are thousands of differentspecies available throughout the hobby. Some of themore popular types come from Africa.
Synodontis
isone that is found in lakes and slow moving streams.Some
Synodontis
reach only a few inches in length,while others can exceed several feet. They aredistinguished from each other by the shape of theirmouth, the number of fin rays (anal and pectoral),teeth, eyes, color and so on.
Synodontis
are omnivorous creatures. They feed on allsorts of meaty food as well as plant material. All of the
Synodontis
I have had readily accepted the frozen foodI offered. I also feed them some sort of spirulina oralgae flake. Almost all of the species are said to benocturnal. They hide by day and search for food atnight. The ones I have will come out at daytime butany sudden movement and they will dart into aflowerpot or anything to hide under.These particular catfish are very hardy. They canwithstand a wide range of water chemistry, just as longas extremes are avoided. Some species can live in apH level of 6.5 to 7.5, while the Rift Lake catfish needa pH level of 8.0 to 8.5. Temperature could bebetween 21 to 29 C. There are no special requirementsfor filtration. As long as you do your water changes,
Synodontis
are fairly easy to keep. Make sure you havea tank sizeable for the species you want to keep.
Synodontis multipunctatus
are also known as CuckooCatfish. They received this name when it wasdiscovered that they use mouthbrooding cichlids as ahost for their eggs to hatch.
S. multipunctatus
are fairlyeasy to spawn. It is hard to find fully mature adults.We were able to acquire a trio of multis from ChadChristen. He has been spawning them for a while now.Between reading different books, articles and pickingChad's brain, we also have been able to spawn them.Once we received our trio, we placed them into a 90-gallon tank. We used
Haplochromis sauvaei
as the hostfish. The tank set-up was simple. We put three terracotta caves in the tank. The catfish took to them ratherquickly. After a couple of weeks the fish becameaccustomed to their new home. We fed them heavydoses of meaty foods to condition the females to spawn.This also helps out the host fish. Without a good hostfish, you will not get babies.The time was close as we noticed that the male
Haplochromis sauvagei
was trying to entice his femalesto breed. Once this happens, the male
S. multi
will patrolaround and investigate the breeding attempts of theHaps. If it appears it is going to happen, the male willthen go and get his female. At this time the female willexit her cave to take a quick look for herself. If she doesnot feel it is going to happen, she will go back into hercave to hide. If she feels like it is going to happen, themale will chase her around the tank until the host fishstarts the spawning process. Just as the host female laysher eggs, the multis will rush in, often eating the Hap.eggs and at the same time releasing their eggs while themale fertilizes them. When this is done the female hostwill think it is her eggs, so she will pick them up tomouthbreed. This whole process can be lengthy becausewhen the catfish come in the host male will often try tochase them away.The
S. multipunctatus
eggs will begin to hatch in about48 to 72 hours. The multi eggs develop quicker thanthose of the
Haplochromis
. After 72 hours, the Synosare ready to eat. They will start eating the undeveloped
Haplochromis
eggs one by one. If they are not strippedby this point, some will even turn on themselves.Our first spawn produced 14 multi fry. We fed them awide variety of frozen brine shrimp. We started withbaby brine but after a month we started to feed adultbrine and some chopped up bloodworms. They seem toalways be hungry. Several feedings a day may berequired to meet their needs. With a good diet and waterchanges our newly hatched
Synodontis
reached ½ inchin about 2 months. At this rate it won't be long beforethese guys are producing young for themselves.
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