| Synodontis petricola [message #2260] |
Fri, 26 September 2003 22:03  |
 Gass 
Messages: 407
Registered: April 2002
Location: Lake Canyonyika TX |
Senior Member |
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This is a cool breeding trick that Dave Ball taught me.
Step one: Condition your petricola with some small type of live worm...black worms, blood worms...whatever. Use the usual caution in knowing you are not getting a contaminated source. In actuality, ours have spawned on a diet of flake food.
Step two: Gather the following items:
A-clay flower pot with drainage tray to fit. The size of the flower pot should be in the 6"-9" range. The flower pot should, when flipped upside down, rest on the drainage tray perfectly.
B-enough marbles to fill the clay drainage dish. Dark green marbles are prefered as this is my favorite color.
C-a piece of rigid plastic tube that will fit the drainage hole on the bottom of your flower pot. This will have to be large enough to stick out of the water.
D-a small plastic or PVC 90 degree elbow to fit the above mentioned tube.
E-an airpump and airline tubing.
F-a small gauge mesh breeding trap. One of those ones with metal clips that bend to fit on the edge of a tank works best.
Step three: Assemble everything!
A-cut or chip a small hole at the rim of the flower pot. Make the hole large enough so that your petricola can get in. When you have made this door, ensure the edges are sanded down so your Synodontis don't scrape themselves against it. At this point you should have a clay flower pot that when flipped upside down rests on the clay drainage tray. You should have a small porthole for the petricola to enter safely in.
B-snuggly squeeze your piece of tubing through the hole at the top of your cave (this is the drainage hole on the bottom of the flower pot which should now be the roof of your spawning chamber). Push it down until it hits the drainage tray which is the bottom portion of your spawning chamber. if your tubing is snug, you are fine so far. If it is loose, you may have to add a bead of silicon around the outside edge. Once everything is fitting correctly, cut three small V's at the bottom of your tube. The idea is that the eggs will pass through these openings and up the tube. I've found that melting notches with a wood burner makes this very easy.
C-cut a small hole in the tube extending out of the spawning cave
large enough for your airline tubing to fit in. The cut should be made close to the point where the tube enters the top of your spawning cave. There is some give to the airline tubing so ensure you don't make this hole too big. It should also fit snuggly.
D-place the unit at the bottom of your spawning tank. Cut the top of the tubing about an inch above your projected water level. Fix the elbow to the top of your tube.
E-Remove unit from it's base (clay drainage tray) and fill the clay base with marbles (preforably green). Place net breeding trap on the side of your tank. The breeding trap should be on the inside of the tank! Replace the top to your breeding cave on the marble filled base. Hook your airline tubing up to an airpump. Adjust your breeding cave so that the water coming out of the top of your tubing falls into your mesh breeding trap.
F-yer done! Grab a beer and get comfortable in front of the tank.
Given the oppurnity, Synodontis will almost always use this cave for spawning. The idea is that they enter the cave, scatter their eggs, the eggs fall between the cracks in the marbles (preferably green ones) and get sucked up the tube by the current your air bubbles create. The eggs then get dumped into your breeding net where they can be hatched. Some minor adjustments may be necessary or ever your own modifications, but this method of securing the eggs from a petricola spawn works very well. When you consider that hundreds of eggs can be released in a single spawning, the potentional fry amounts make this contraption more than worth a try.
Gas
http://www.africancichlids.net
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