Synodontis catfish breeding question

[Steve]

I have a question, I'm new again to fish keepeing grabted I don't know as much as some of you guys, but this has me wondering. I have two 55g tanks, one has 6 syno cats in it, the other has 4 syno cats in it (6 months now on both). Is there a reason synodontis catfish never seem to breed? I've never seen syno cats in LFS that were "juvi" size, and my cats never seem to try to breed. So just wondering, is there some reason they don't breed or are they just hard to breed or???

[djlamonica]

There is over 150 Synodontis catfish and some the hybridize so figuring out the which species you actually have would be a good start.  Also most seem to breed in home aquaria with little to no stimulation. 

[Steve]

My one 55g has four synodontis multipunctatus, and my other 55g has four synodontis multipunctatus and two Angelicus X Eupterus Hybrid.

[Regalblue]

Research spawning techniques for the Syno species you have & then go for it.

[Ron]

I've had S. multipunctatus breed on a number of occasions and still have 2 breeding groups, I just don't try hard to keep them breeding since the interest/demand isn't what I thought it'd be.

I've had S. petricola spawn, but didn't have the proper setup to retain/raise the eggs/fry.

The parasitic species are easier IMO. My understanding for S. eupterus is that hormones are typically used to get them to breed in captivity.

[SirBailey]

You need to introduce new spawning "host" cichlids that are naïve to what the synos are doing. Keep doing that and soon you will have plenty of multis.

[mightieskeeper]

Gary would labs be good for that?

[SirBailey]

Yes labs would work.  Peacocks and haps are what are commonly used.  The key is just keep moving the breeding hosts around.  As long as they are spawning you can leave them, but once they figure out what the multis are doing, they need to be moved.

[linuxrulesusa]

Gary would labs be good for that?

This is a helpful thread: http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12801

In general, no, because the labs will figure out what's happening and stop spawning.  Some other species, especially haps, seem to be better from what I read in the thread above as well as other info elsewhere.

[Ron]

IMO labs have too small of a mouth.

IME, haps work well, but they eventually figure it out and stop the parasitism.

[linuxrulesusa]

IMO labs have too small of a mouth.

IME, haps work well, but they eventually figure it out and stop the parasitism.

So did you switch up which tank the synos were in to rotate through host species?  Or just stop messing with spawning s. multipunctatus?

[runawaypencil]

Mine worked out with white labs, blue dolphins, super red empress, German reds, Dragon bloods.  The best for me was the dragon bloods, because they never caught on.  The blue dolphins and the super reds caught on very quick.  The white labs wouldn't hold alot but the would do it and like Ron said had small mouths.  The German reds the smartest to them and allowed to be a host once and then the male would keep a much closer eye on them and attack them with extreme aggression,  so I think he caught on really fast. 

[Ron]

IMO labs have too small of a mouth.

IME, haps work well, but they eventually figure it out and stop the parasitism.

So did you switch up which tank the synos were in to rotate through host species?  Or just stop messing with spawning s. multipunctatus?

I did for a while, then stopped due to lack of demand and now I'm out of good, larger breeding groups to pair with them.