Any help with S. petricola?

[BigA]

Just wondering if anyone has ever kept S. petricola. Especially very young ones. I picked on up the other day, about 1" long. Owner of the LFS said it was about 4 months old. It's in a 29G with 2 P. pulcher, 3 albino sword, and 2 platies. Water is ph 7.5, 0 ammo, 0 nitrite, 5 nitrate. Any special recommendations? Tried searching several websites and didn't get very much info.

Thanks for the help.

Aaron

[Rhonda]

don't know if this will help but is this the one you are talking about ...sorry i am new to aquarium keeping.

http://www.ohiexchange.com/armke/synodontis_petricola.html

[Vallisneria]

I have 8 Syno. petricola in with my africans. I got most of them when they were around 1". I just have them in tap water(pj around 7.8 I think).

They like being in groups, so adding a few more might be a good idea(if your tank has room).

Not sure what else to tell you about them. They are great little catfish and definately one of my favorites.

[BigA]

Not sure if the tank can support it. I don't want to overload it. Any advice? Would the tank be too fishy (lol) if I added another petricola??

[Oxquo]

The key to a healthy aquarium is cosistant water changes. Most people will suggest overstocking an african tank just to spread out aggression. Filtration, feeding and waterchanges. Filtering a tank up to 10 times the water volume is what I go on unless using canister or wet dry. I also prefer mechanical filtration on a heavy stocked tank. Aqua clear is a big hit in this department. Feeding, feeding quality foods that get consumed helps with water quality and nutrients that fish absorb rather than just make bottom waste with. Water Changes, there can be too much but seldomly ever to many. One is adding crucial minerals and necessities to the fish's overall growth and health. Within time a fish will use all of these crucial compounds leaving the water lifeless. The trick is not to do such big water changes that Your fish suffer from a lack of anerobic bacteria that breaks down waste in the tank causing nitrates to explode as with new tank syndrome. If one did a 2 gallon a day water change on their 55 gallon tank is changing is changing 21 gallons weekly yet this is much safer than changing 21 gallons once a week. Small fluctuations in tap water are always harmless in small doses hardly effecting the tank at all, yet changing 50% of the water at once of much different properties can have an ill effect on fish Much like when we release them into our tanks. Doing small frequent waterchanges also adds small trace elements to the tank as they deplete, where as weekly, bi-weekly and monthly changes as some people do means they are only replenishing these much needed compounds long after the fish have gone without for some time. I had raised two identical sets of fry, 10 in a 10 gallon and 10 in a 30 gallon. The food was the same, the water changes were different. The 10 gallons got 1 gallon fresh water a day and the 30 gallon got 6 gallons per week. the fry in the 30 gallon had way more space but grew at half the pace nearly. In one month the fry in the 10 gallon were still growing well but were very overstocked. they looked like two generations. Simply put, more fish, more maintenance. 1" of fish per gallon of water is only a basic rule of thumb.would You put a 10" red devil in a 10 gallon tank? Often grouping shoaling fish together relaxes them and they do better just for that purpose, it would be much more beneficial to all to do maintenance on a larger tank more often but in this case, more fish is less stressful, less stress equals health and less chance of disease. Do water changes more often, feed less more often and filter more water. Syno's are fairly undemanding fish, I find that even though they come out for food during the day, nothing helps more than an after lights out feeding as they often can't compete for food with surface fish. Food would have to be lead based to get to the bottom past livebearers so the cats could eat. they will get a little during regular feeding but often not enough for good growth in a community tank. Adding ramshorn snails could help here as I have seen My multis consume little snails off the glass as they go crazy at night or pellets to big for the livebearers to eat such as shrimp pellets to make sure the food hits the bottom. Once on the bottom the cats will ravage the food eagerly. Hopefully something here helps You, this is just based on My experience with them. 5-6 syno petricola would be the minimum I'd stock, if you feel it may be too much, maybe You could trade it for something less social. I have My syno multi's 6 at 1 1/2" in a 30 gallon with 4 S. Fryeri about 4" they get night feedings and twice daily as well as snails. I change 3 gallons every two days vaccuming the bottom well. I filter with 2 filters an AC 300 and an AC 200. All is very good and growth is amazing. the goal is to spawn them so I use only enough sand to cover the bottom for ease of cleaning.

[jvision]

I was going to share my experience, but it's pretty much exactly the same as John's! :thumbs:

[BigA]

Thanks for the info all. I'm going to pick up another as soon as I can.