Educating MFK on Africans!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
TheFanatic;1620057; said:
Fantastic thread. What about some Tangs. Tretacephalus (sp?)

Any chance of branching out into African Cats, Synos in particular? They can go hand in hand in a lot of cases with the African Cichlids...

Again I will try when I get more time, just to much school and work right now. I will def. look into some syno profiles as I love them and they do go with this so I see what I can do sometime.
 
Synodontis eupterus

Gen. Info: This catfish if found in Chad, Niger and White Nile rivers of Africa. Its commonly known as the Featherfin.

Size: They can grow to roughly 6-8 inches

Tank Setup: I would recommend a tank of 100gal + for these guys, assuming that most of you will probably be keeping the catfish with tank mates. If you are not keeping them with tank mates I would still recommend a fairly large tank of 75+ gallons.

Tempature: in bewtween 75-79 should be good

Ph: 6.5-7.5, but a pH of 8 should be fine also.

Feeding: Best to give them an all around mix of food. Sinking pellets, flakes, alage wafers as well as a nice serving of bloodworms and shrimp.

Breeding: To my knowledge no one has sucessfully breed them yet. (correct me if I am wrong)

Compatability: This catfish is usually compatiable with most fish other then its own kind. Usually docile, but does have an attitude to try and be the tough fish, Mine usually attempts to fight with my large frontosa over a particular rock area but they usually end up sharing it. I have mine with both large fish and small fish ranging from 2 inches - 7/8 inches and does very well with them all. I have heard they are trouble causers when kept with their own kind and will fight.

The pics posted are of my own syno. eupterus

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He is very nice cat and good info.
 
Synodontis longirostris

Gen. Info: This catfish if found in the Congo basin of Africa. It is also known as a squeaker and type of upsidedown catfish.

Size: They can grow inbetween 20-24 inches

Tank Setup: I would recommend a large tank over 100gallons. This fish grows anywhere from a foot 1/2 to 2 feet I would think something along a 180gal+ with large tank mates. They need enough space to swim around as they are an active catfish.

Tempature: 70-75 degrees should be good.

Ph: 6.0-7.5

Feeding: Eats almost anything off the bottom, bloodworms, sinking pellets, wafers, shrimp.

Breeding: Again, To my knowledge no one has sucessfully breed them yet. (correct me if I am wrong....)

Compatability: They should be fine with larger africans and anyfish that doesnt fit in its mouth.

Info from: Me, Dr. Axelrods tropical aquarium book and socat.com

havent found much info on this one, if anyone has kept one maybe some extra info would be good.

I took this photo from my book, sorry its a little blurry.

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here one

Synodontis petricola

Gen. Info: the smallest of the synodontis from lake Tanganyika. There are many different types found in various locations. They vary in size of spots, it is unsure if they are seperate species or not, time will tell.

Size: 4 1/2 inches

Tank Setup: are best housed in a 3ft or over tank

Tempature: 71-77 degrees should be good.

Ph: 7.5-8.2

Feeding: Eats almost anything off the bottom, bloodworms, sinking pellets, wafers, brine shrimp.

Breeding: Contrary to popular belief this is also an egg scatterer as well as a a Cuckoo spawner like Synodontis multipunctatus and a few other Rift Valley Synodontis. More indepth here
http://www.scotcat.com/articles/article30.htm

Compatability: Most Rift lake africans

Info from: Me and Socat.com and image search

I am in the middle of deciding on some cats so I though I would share what I have liked the most so far.

synodontis petricola.jpg

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mike dunagan;1660236;1660236 said:
here one

Synodontis petricola

Gen. Info: the smallest of the synodontis from lake Tanganyika. There are many different types found in various locations. They vary in size of spots, it is unsure if they are seperate species or not, time will tell.

Size: 4 1/2 inches

Tank Setup: are best housed in a 3ft or over tank

Tempature: 71-77 degrees should be good.

Ph: 7.5-8.2

Feeding: Eats almost anything off the bottom, bloodworms, sinking pellets, wafers, brine shrimp.

Breeding: Contrary to popular belief this is also an egg scatterer as well as a a Cuckoo spawner like Synodontis multipunctatus and a few other Rift Valley Synodontis. More indepth here
http://www.scotcat.com/articles/article30.htm

Compatability: Most Rift lake africans

Info from: Me and Socat.com and image search

I am in the middle of deciding on some cats so I though I would share what I have liked the most so far.
if my africans were mnuba instead of my tropheus i would get one of these, but once the tropheus get to breeding age i dont want any cats eatting my fry and eating eggs before fertilized!
 
WolfFisho1;1660491; said:
if my africans were mnuba instead of my tropheus i would get one of these, but once the tropheus get to breeding age i dont want any cats eatting my fry and eating eggs before fertilized!

They will go in non breeding or tanks that you do want them to breed, since it is more difficult to get all male mbuna...
 
This thread is the best. I just started getting into African cichlids and I'm learning so much. Thank you so much for all your information and great work.
 
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