Synodontis Petricola

Perky · Post by **Perky** » 24 Jan 2004, 10:05

Would one of these be alright with 2 Upsidedown Catfish, 3 Keyhole Cichlids and 6 Swordtails?
What habits do they have?
Before anyone says they are not the impostes.

Post by **Silurus** » 24 Jan 2004, 10:56

What kind of water have you got in your tank? Sounds like it may not be suitable for a petricola.
More info about the fish here.

Perky · Post by **Perky** » 24 Jan 2004, 11:13

It is a 8 month old tank with ammonia and Nitrite 0 Nitrate>25. Ph is neutral.

Post by **Silurus** » 24 Jan 2004, 11:17

The pH is too low for S. petricola. Sorry, it won't work.

Perky · Post by **Perky** » 24 Jan 2004, 12:36

Never mind. They just look so cool and I wanted some and the profile said they would be okay at neutral. Good job I checked otherwise that would have been a waste of money

Post by **Dinyar** » 24 Jan 2004, 15:31

Actually, though they come from relatively alkaline waters, they will do just fine and can even be bred at a neutral pH. See the CotM on Synodontis cf. petricola. Just don't let the pH drop below 6.5 or so.

Dinyar

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 25 Jan 2004, 00:16

And they definitely do best in a group.
a single petricola is one sorry fish.....

Perky · Post by **Perky** » 25 Jan 2004, 07:56

So I could get them and I would have to buy three?

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 25 Jan 2004, 11:55

a few more details such as tanksize and presence or no of bogwood might come in handy here.

The 'petricola' Dinyar refers to, is the easily available "petricola dwarf" from Zambia, but usually this fish is just labelled "petricola" in the shop.

do NOT buy any other petricola, those are wildcaughts an NOT suited for a community tank, except one with Tanganyikan waterparameters.....

dwarfs are easy and fun to have, but if your tank is up to it, I advice you get 5 or so.

and avoid any attempts to filter on peatgranules and the like....!

Perky · Post by **Perky** » 25 Jan 2004, 13:04

I have a 15 Gallon with 3 Keyhole Cichlids, 2 Upsidedown and 6 Swordtails that I will be getting rid of. I can get some tank breed Petricola that grow to 4-5 inches and are the ones on the profile here on Planet Catfish. The tank has one piece of bogwood, a cave that nobody uses and some plants. It has been set-up for 6-7months and Ammonia and Nitrite are nil, nitrate is >25. Ph is neutral.
I like these Synodontis Petricola and was tempted to buy. I decided to check first so I posted this. What do you think?

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 25 Jan 2004, 14:17

15 gallons?
if US gallons, that would be less than 60 liters....
that's a very small tank! keyholes -Aequidens maronii- grows to 12 cm and although a very peaceful fish, is too big to keep in there properly.

I definitely wouldn't do it.
a bit of bogwood in a 50+G tank won't hurt your petricola's, but in such a tiny tank, there's no way of controlling the waterparameters and the wood will have a fairly big influence on the water, perhaps too big for the petricola.

15G with ONLY 5 petricola's in it would be a nice breedingtank, although a bit small. They like to swim!

example; mine spawned in the big showtank on a regular base. Once removed to a 54 liter breeder (2 feet long, 1 foot wide, 1 foot high) they steadfastly refused to spawn.....

Perky · Post by **Perky** » 25 Jan 2004, 17:18

15 UK Gallons

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 25 Jan 2004, 18:01

still a very small tank...what's a UK gallon? 4,5 liters or so?

Perky · Post by **Perky** » 25 Jan 2004, 20:50

It is about 20 US Gallons.