advice about synodontis petricolas

[keithnj]

i had 2 petricolas and i recently purchased 6 more at 1.5-2 inches . and one of my older petricolas which is about 4 inches never comes out of hiding anymore - it always used to swim all over the tank and be very active . can anyone tell me whats going on?
obliged

[Barbie]

Have you changed any other fish in the tank? What type of set up is it? How warm are you keeping them? Are they feeding well? All of that information can help us actually form an opinion. Adding more Synos should make them more active, not less.

You might want to check, also on the classification of your fish. You might actually own Syno. lucipinnis, as they were reclassified a couple years ago. It's just slow to catch on ;).

Barbie

[keithnj]

i took a frontosa out because i was scare he would eat the little ones- the water temp is 78deg-they eat almost everything i put in the tank i dont like to feed the same food everyday- they love krill plus flakes new life spectrum sinking pellets - frozen bloodworms - and they love petcos brand of aquatic turtle food. they are housed in a 75g tank with lots of rock work and i have the african lake shell substrate.

[keithnj]

im also almost 100% that they are petricolas at least the 2 adults anyway. i bought them from a very reputable fish store that really takes their jobs seriously. the juvis on the other hand i purchased on aquabid

[jpappy789]

I agree with barbie that they should get more active but I wouldn't think it would be necessarily right away. New additions can add stress. Nothing sounds out of the ordinary about your tank so just wait and see how he (she) responds.

A little off topic, but what did you do with the front?

[keithnj]

i put him in my other 75 g with believe or not my red eared sliders and a joselimae pleco and a few cory mellinis

[jpappy789]

i put him in my other 75 g with believe or not my red eared sliders and a joselimae pleco and a few cory mellinis
not a good stocking, especially for long-term

[keithnj]

i figured as much - in your opinion why isnt it a good stock

[jpappy789]

first of all, sliders are not good with fish. not only do they reach 10-12" when full grown but they will end up snacking on anything they can get a hold of. and because they are semi-aquatic, and you hopefully have a land section for your turtle, putting them in tanks reduces the actually amount of space you have for the fish. frontosas naturally live in colonies and tend to be shy and unactive when alone. and since they grow past a foot they obviously need a lot of space.

[keithnj]

im aware - although i have owned sliders my whole life - i have kept the two i own now because they are only 3 in long and i have had them for 4 yrs now - all of the other i have had reached 10 -12 in in two years and then they are donated to a local zoo and to schools. i have housed them all with fish at different times and believe it or not i have only had two deaths from probaly 15 different fish. the front has been with the sliders for a week now . and he doesnt have a scratch on him. i do plan on putting him back w/ the petricolas once they grow another inch. the 75g is of actuall water volume its not the tank size. the true tank size is 150g. i have a few floating logs and one of those tetra rock scaped corner filters(ontop of the main filtration) that they also bask on besides the logs. do the 7striped frontosas max out at around a foot as well?

[jpappy789]

I was more concerned about the sliders with the corys. The fronts should be able to handle it. But all of them reach about 14", obviously some slight variation with the different strains. Your "7 striped" front is most likely a regular C. frontosa as those are the only Cyphotilapia species with seven stripes. All C. gibberosa have six. Here is a good visual to help with the ID'ing of fronts:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/frontosa_variant_map.php

[toddnbecka]

The size difference between the catfish likely has something to do with them not schooling together.

[keithnj]

thanks for the link very informative- im not worried about the cories they used to be housed with much much larger sliders. there about 3yrs old now and they have always been housed w/ sliders. they do hide all day - but they come out about a half hour after the lights go off and the turtles are sleeping. they do a great job and keeping the bare bottomed tank free of little tidbits of food.

[Barbie]

Syno. lucipinnis have been called S. petricola "dwarf" for years. The fact that someone wouldn't be current on the species identification wouldn't make them less ethical, just less informed. If you take pictures of them, I can help you identify which you have. I have one supplier that is a stickler for proper identification on most things and they still list them as S. petricola because that's the name everyone recognizes.

Turtles put off a ton of waste. I'd be very interested to hear about your ammonia and nitrate levels in that tank. While I know that you feel it's working, you have to realize that while everything is living now, it definitely isn't a recipe for long term success.

Barbie