Synodontis decorus advice appreciated

[N0body Of The Goat]

Well this afternoon, I came home with the last specimen from Southampton's Aquajardin, after it had been there for the best part of a year. In the shop it has always been very docile, but then again it was in a cramped ~60cm tank at ~26C (bit warm) with little water movement i.e. not exactly Zaire River-esque.

After acclimitising the catfish for ~60 minutes, the transformation was incredible in my 5-footer (FX5 and APS2000EF filters, 22C)...


I honesty think it used more energy today than it has done for the last few months, exploring every nook and cranny of the tank before then introducing itself to most of its tankmates, very quickly appearing to want to be "king/queen of the tank." Despite its gorgeous looks, I was wary of mixing Synodontis species, but reading over the past week gave the overall impression that most S. decoras are "gentle giants."

So far, I'm only aware of it meeting one of the two Synodontis brichardi in the tank and it was not a pretty sight for about ten seconds, lots of thrashing around under the central bogwood island, until they went their seperate ways! The decorus is fractionally bigger than both brichardi, approximately 15cm SL versus 12cm SL (and I do wonder if any of them will ever reach their full potential, due to the length of time they were all at the shop).

I'd really appreciate any advice anyone can give me on how far to let these inter-Synodontis fights go, before I should interveen, if they happen again? I really hope all three will meet and then keep out of each other's way, although I've no idea what will happen overnight when the other brichardi comes out of its home and meets the decorus in the dark!
Is it just the spiny fin rays of the decorus that will do any damage, or is the mouth capable of inflciting damage too?

[MatsP]

I have a group of four S. decora in my 400 liter tank. I don't have any other synos in this tank, but they are not particularly aggressive towards each other. I don't know what the behaviour of S. brichardi is, but I would expect the S. decora to not cause a problem, as long as they have somewhere to hide.

--
Mats

[Viktor Jarikov]

All my synos, ~20, are in one 55 US gal tank (they are a bit cramped for now, awaiting my move). ~8 hybrids of various sizes 3"-7" TL, 1 big decora, ~6" TL, 2 big euptera, 1 big Ocellifer, ~10", 1 big notata, ~10", small multi ~3", nigriventus 4", 2 alberti, soloni, batensoda, etc.

Have been together in a 120 gal for a long time. Total peace in both tanks, at least I've never seen them fight at all and neither any damage on any.

My opinion does not weigh much, but I think and hope that was just a brief, one-time, intro bout that you saw.

[Birger]

It is fairly standard for syno's to wander the tank for a day or two seemingly disorientated after first being introduced. Sounds like you did not mix things up a bit before putting in this new fish, so the others already have established territories and pecking order which they are trying to keep in place.
Your fish should find its place in a night or two.

Birger

[N0body Of The Goat]

Thanks for the responses so far.

I did not change the decor layout before adding the decora, must admit it never even crossed my mind. One of my brichardi can always be found without fail in the rightmost artificial plant and its stripey tail can be spotted in the video clip. It was the other brichardi that seems to constantly change its daytime roost which had the short scrap with the decora.

Like you said, Birger, the decora may be still in a state of excitement from the move but it was great to see it wandering around again this morning. I wish my brichardi would be more active and it makes me think I should get my other APS2000EF installed down there for extra current, as they are supposed to be diurnal synos.

Something I did not mention yesterday was the shocking amount sand sifting it was doing, litterally rescaping the sand dunes while spraying out particles out of its gills!

[MatsP]

Yes, mine does a huge amount of sand-sifting, so that's normal behaviour.

None of my synos are particularly active during the day.

--
Mats

[Viktor Jarikov]

neither mine are active during the day apart from occasional reshuffling in between the decor pieces; the big ones are more prone to taking a leisurely swim in the open during the day but it is not regular

I've never had sand substrate in any of my tanks, just gravel of various sizes.

[N0body Of The Goat]

I'm probably worrying over nothing, but how on earth does an ~8" TL fish become invisible in a 5x2x2 tank?

I came back from work 30 minutes ago (I'm a postie) and I cannot see any beige/black pokadots or the long stripey tail, even after adding the inhabitant's first meal of the day... Seems so odd after seeing this syno cruising around everytime I went down to the garage.

No doubt its just snuggled into a tight spot somewhere in the bogwood islands or in the large artificial plants, but I might have to satisfy my paranoid side in an hour and check it has not jumped out of the water through one of the corner galss rim openings and onto the condensation trays...

[exasperatus2002]

Now you see me ....& now you dont. Amazing how well they do that.

[MatsP]

My first one disappeared immediately after introducing it to the tank, and my tank is only a tiny bit smaller than yours. I have four in my tank, and I know where to look these days. But they aren't exactly "visible" in my setup (lots of plants, caves and such).

--
Mats

[N0body Of The Goat]

Minor panick over... Found it in the usual roost of the predictable brichardi, which explains why said brichardi was still on that same plant but fully visible this afternoon, while I gave the glass a scrub to remove most of the algae (mainly done through guilt after watching my posted video clip, but I left the front left corner alone so there is something for the omnivores to graze).

[naturalart]

Interesting variety of fish in your tank. And its very active. I am sure that your S. decorus and S. brichardi are painfully aware of each other by now. And the S. decorus is the dominant. I've kept S. decorus but not brichardi. I hope your S. brichardi are agressive enough to fend for themselves during feeding time. My decorus dominated a S. alberti, some S. shoutedeni and the P. gibbiceps I had in with it at the time. I would bury food in the substrate just so the decorus could dig it out. And it seemed to relish doing it.

IMHO, I think there may be just a little too much pressure in your tank if the S. brichardi is hanging in the plants near the top of the tank. Not the normal posting place for this fish, and a little undignified for a S. brichardi if you ask me. Maybe if you constructed a couple more lower, narrower hiding caves for the brichardi using driftwood and/or slate etc.,? The caves could be constructed up against the glass wall on the darker side of the tank (the glass side acting as one of the walls in the cave). And if so you would need to make sure there was no direct or bright light shining through that glass side into the caves. then you could see your brichardi relaxing and resting in those caves during the day. The decorus might occasionally enter that cave and push out the brichardi but it wouldn't do it to often (or may tire of doing it all together) because you would have make it to tight for the decorus to get in and out of. The brichardi are more narrow and low profile physically than the decorus.

my 2 cents. good luck whatever you do.

[N0body Of The Goat]

naturalalert, a few intresting and constructive points you made there...

Some of the tank's occupants will be getting transferred to my Rio240 in the near future, once I have managed to rehome my eleven Steatocranus casuarius youngsters (now ~ 5 months old). Given the temperature that the Rio reached last summer (~27C), I'm realistically limited to moving the Leopard Bushfish; Golden Wonders; Lionhead Cichlid juveniles; possibly the Humphead Glassfish at a push inside. I've toyed with the idea of moving the Panda Garras inside too, to thin out the number of bottom dwellers in the 5-foot, not to mention 27C for a short period would not be too far off Myanmar summer temperature.

I do a feed of the tank at around 2200, immediately before turning off the lights, which spreads out Tetra Prima well and Hikari algae wafers near the front two corners of the tank. However, I don't know what is happening once I turn the lights off, before which none of the Synos come to life. I think I need to pop down after lights out tonight after a few minutes and "spy" of what is going on using the torch function of my mobile phone, just to make reassure myself all synos are feeding.

I like the idea of purposely burying some food for the S. decora, although I'm not sure how easy that will be to do, as the tank is 60cm tall and I cannot reach the tank floor while standing at ground level.

When it first started happening, it did surprise me that the two brichardi and now the decora are choosing to roost in the artificial plants, when there are numerous caves in each bogwood island. Perhaps the Weather Loaches are annoying them at ground level (and its these guys that I now wonder if I should consider rehoming, more to do with the tank bioload more than anything else)? My other thought was that maybe the Synos are trying to roost near the current from the two external filters (I have a second APS 2000EF waiting to be installed down there, to give a total of ~6000lph turnover)? I do have some slate and rocks that were given to me recently, I think the thing that most put me off installing them were the often burrowing Weather Loaches, who often hang out at the dark end of the tank (I do have an Arcadia ~70W T8 system waiting to be installed, but this was put on hold during the bitter winter while trying to maintain the water temp using various insulation methods).

[naturalart]

Thats very interesting. S. brichardi and decorus IMO are both pretty much substrate 'obligates' so for them to hang in the plants, there has to be a very good reason. I would do some research and start a moonlight or maybe a red light for a few hours after lights out. Let the fish get used to it for a couple of nights then find a night to sit up late into the evening and watch whats going on. I would be surprised if the loaches are bullying the synos. But then I've never kept synos and loaches together. I would be really interested to hear what you find out.

Other possibilities could be dissolved oxygen, temperature and/or food. Test kit for the oxygen: a good thermometer that sits in the tank on the bottom, far away from the heater (do you have a inline heater?): and observations during feeding time. Hopefully these measures will yield some answers.

I to agree with you that you have a lot of stuff going on in the lower realm of your tank. And also agree in giving the synos more space by removing some of the the other animals.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Test kit for the oxygen

I forgot who, one of the ichthyo-professionals here, said the home oxygen test kits are useless.

[naturalart]

hmmm… interesting, I wonder why? Vicktor, do you recall which thread?

[MatsP]

It was racoll, in this post here:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 0&p=210617

I think the reason is that oxygen levels are quite difficult to measure, and by the time you've mucked about with measuring into and shaken the test-tube, etc, you've probably altered the O2 level in the water anyways. And electronic meters are more accurate, but also a lot more expensive.

--
Mats

[Viktor Jarikov]

Thanks, Mats. I could not place my finger on it although it was recent.

Any idea where I can get an oxygen test for water?

Home oxygen test kits are useless. You'd do better to spend your money on a decent reef aquarium powerhead, large air pump and bubble wand.