synodontis petricola and synodontis multipunctatus

[austinroberts23]

I have a 125g cichlid tank set up. Currently has around 25 cichlid (3-4"), a lace catfish, and 3 multi. catfish. I was thinking of add 3 synodontis petricola. Would this work out?

[AquariumTech]

Im surprised it works out how it is, not to mention when some of those fish mature they will probably need to be separated. Synodontis get quite big and are territorial, they arent strictly bottom feeders (they are called upside down catfish, because of the way they eat) , but usually their territory will be on the bottom.

[lohachata]

a 125 gallon tank with 25 or so rift lake cichlids(i would assume)....no problem if you nearly fiil the tank with rocks....piles and piles of rocks...
1 synodontis eupterus...it may reach 12-14 inches...
3 synodontis multipunctatus.....may reach 6 inches...
synodontis petricola only get to be 4-4.5 inches....i would add about 6 of them....they are slow growers as well...

you should be fine as long as you maintain your tank properly..

[AquariumTech]

Originally Posted by lohachata a 125 gallon tank with 25 or so rift lake cichlids(i would assume)....no problem if you nearly fiil the tank with rocks....piles and piles of rocks... 1 synodontis eupterus...it may reach 12-14 inches... 3 synodontis multipunctatus.....may reach 6 inches... synodontis petricola only get to be 4-4.5 inches....i would add about 6 of them....they are slow growers as well... you should be fine as long as you maintain your tank properly..

Dude, that tank is going to be cramped when they grow, and they are all territorial, aggressive fish, I doubt it will end well. I know that some Synodontis actually depend on certain cichlids for breeding, but still they are all pretty dirty fish, and will definitely need some good maintaining/water changes.

[austinroberts23]

I do 25 gallons a week as well as run 350 gallons of filtration

[emc7]

the water change is good, but I have more filtration on my 40 gallon tanks. How stocked is it yet? Are they just babies? If I were you, i'd be watching the local club board and CL for a couple large, cheap, used filters.

On the other hand, if you have 350 gph through a 40 gallon sump, you likely have enough.

[austinroberts23]

I have 4 emperor 400s in storage. They are all 4" or smaller. Most around 3"

[lohachata]

A T.....maybe you aren't real familiar with rift lake cichlids ; but i have bred and raised thousands of them.....now....we don't know what species of cichlids Austin has in his 125..so we can't assume that they will all get big(over 6")...
in the beginning i kept almost all mbuna..zebras , fullebourni , twewavasae , and many others....i kept them in 40 longs..20-30 fish per tank.(adults)..40-50% weekly water changes...substrate was dolomite......tanks were literally filled with tufa rock...
i had found that with so many fish and so many hiding places nobody got picked on enough to even get torn fins let alone body damage...every 2-3 weeks i would pull all of the rocks and catch all the females that were holding..the fry went into their own tanks with just a dolomite substrate and a few rocks to hide around...the females went into a recovery tank for a week ; then back into the breeding tank..
personally ; i think that 25 fish in a 125 gallon tank is pretty understocked for mbuna...or even the smaller (6" and under) tangs or vics...
Austin...i think you need to step up the water changes a bit...maybe 40-50 gallons a week....and add a bunch more rocks...if you are keeping mbuna allow some algae to grow on the rocks so they can graze on it...it's good for them...

[austinroberts23]

There is a little algae growth. They keep it pretty well picked clean though. I watch them a few hours a night (tank is next to my desk) and nobody picks on anybody. If anything they "play" well together.

There really aren't many pure species in there. Most were ones we picked up at the local store under "assorted" we don't plan to breed or sell either. Only ones I'm sure of are some frontosa that came with the tank

[emc7]

If you can stand the racket and the evaporation, I'd run as many of those Emperors as will fit on the back. I typically run 2 on a 55.

[austinroberts23]

I've had this routine for about 6 months and my water is perfect and no issues at all. I can reevaluate when they grow but for now I wont be changing anything