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I don't know what to do. I have like 25 petricola dwarfs that I have had for 1.5-2 years and i got them when they were 1-1.25". I figure they are 2.5 years old if not older and am assuming breeding size now.

I put 8 or so in a 20g and I am wondering if they would do better with more or less for breeding. I have a few bowls with the marbles and clay pots going. I have had the 8 in the 20g for few weeks now. They get alone good so far. I am not sure on the ratio that I have picked out. I picked out 5 that were the largest with really fat bellies and 3 that were smaller. Larger ones are 3" and smaller ones are 2-2.5".

I know that I should just experiment and see what happens but I figured I might as well ask the question.

Chris

Synodontis petricola as you have already sorted out are egg scatters. They weakly pair off to a degree prior to spawning, but the actual spawn is a bit more mob-like than many other Synodontis.

Given that they are spawning over marbles to exclude additional non-spawning fish from snacking on the eggs I'd say the more the merrier. Two breeders I know of that are producing large numbers of these fish have them in large (20+ fish) spawning colonies.

So long as your exclusion methods are sufficient, you should soon be gathering more eggs than you know what to do with...

I like that reply. Thanks for the answer.

I think 25 petros in a small tank will be really interesting and hopefully I will get some fry out of them

Chris

I just added the rest of my petros to the 20g high. I think there is a total of 33 or 34 in there that are between 1.5-3". Lots of activity. I will probably move them to a 30g breeder soon

IMHO: This is clearly too many fish for that size tank! Even in a 30B your going to be a bit too cramped...

Do you have anything bigger for them? Say a 55 or 75 gallon? I'd think that would be a bit more appropriate.

Then again, I tend to stock lightly. It's always safer to err on the side of caution than to regret it later.

I breed Petricola. They have used my my cichlids as hosts twice, but have scattered there eggs way more times. I have about 15 in a 75 with mbuna.