| Synodontis petricola [message #2260] |
Fri, 26 September 2003 22:03  |
 Gass 
Messages: 404
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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| Re: Synodontis petricola [message #2837] |
Sun, 11 April 2004 02:02  |
Woot
Messages: 156
Registered: April 2002
Location: Bettendorf, IA |
Senior Member |
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Well I got these from 3 different sources, two were from actual breeders. The first 6 and biggest are F1's from a good breeder, and are amongst the nicer looking IMO. The 2nd group were a dozen unknown generation, probably F1+. The 3rd group I got in a trade, I'm not sure on his source. He told me, but I have forgotten now. I guess he got a whole bunch of them, and had a few he was wanting to part with. They are cool little guys, they seem to have such a happy go lucky personality. They just swim around and don't bug anyone, and no one bugs them. They were all small, so I doubt they are F0's but some mixing in shipping could of very well happened on the last 8 I got in that trade. BTW I found a good picture where you could actually see the males sex organ. I think I will be able to tell them apart now once they get more mature.
[Updated on: Sun, 11 April 2004 02:03]
Chad Lopez :: Orbital's African Cichlids
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| Re: Synodontis petricola [message #4199] |
Wed, 14 December 2005 06:38 |
karl
Messages: 1
Registered: December 2005
Location: UK |
Junior Member |
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Hi
I've just bought 4 juvenile petricola about 1.5 inches long, which I have in a 28 litre tank newly set up with some seeded filter media in a dimly lit tank (just daylight) and a couple of cabomba plants, rocks etc. They're great little fish and spend their whole time exploring the tank and playing.
The problem is that I can't seem to get them to eat. I've tried sinking pellets, flake, fresh shrimp, frozen blood worm, live adult brine shrimp and pea and they seem disinterested. They had a bit of a go at the brine shrimp but I think the brine shrimp were a bit big for them, because they left them alone.
I'm a bit concerned because there's no algae or mulm to speak of in the tank becauase it's newly set up so can't see how they're getting any nourishment by just foraging. They're very active and show no signs of stress.
Anyone got any suggestions ? I'm thinking of hatching some baby brine shrimp (the blood worm and adult brine may be a bit big for them). I know in the wild they will eat snails, so wonder if I should get hold of some snails to put in the tank. The baby snails might be good (although am not keen because I'm about to set up a 52 gallon planted tank to put them in with some other community fish and don't really want snails in there).
any help gratefully received.
Cheers
Karl.
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I'll hopefully be able to get some little Petricolas with it. I have 26 of them I'm growing out, from 3 different sources. I think they are all the same location. 
