My Most Elusive Fish

willtang3000 said:

his eyes look like they are a bit cloudy to me and it could be infection but other than that he looks stunning

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bunjiweb said:

Lovely true multipunctatus you have there.

Unfortunately as I have found out with most of my synos they are quite shy fish that generally only move from their hiding spot to feed or interact with any other synos in the tank. My most active synodontis is the euruptus in my 6ft who is very bold. I also have 4 petricola in my 4ft which are quite active usually only because i have 2 males and 2 females...

You will find that you probably will rarely see your syno if you only have one. The only way to make them more active is to have at least 3 of them in the same tank. You appear to have some quite large tanks so i see no reason why not to purchase more. If you can't find a multi then you could always get another cuckoo catfish such as a petricola, petricola "dwarf", polli, tanganyicae (if you can find it!)... Just be aware that there are also lots of hybrids that are bred in the czech republic as far as i know, some of them are better quality than others.

Ben

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The most interesting thing about this catfish is its unusual spawning behavior, which includes utilizing mouth-brooding Cichlids as foster parents for their fry. Unlike Cichlids, who spawn at very young ages, it takes about a year once S. multipunctatus have reached their adult size (3-5 years in all) before they will spawn. When 2 Cichlids begin to spawn, these catfish will come pouring out of their caves.

The unsuspecting Cichlids will continue to spawn, while the male Cichlid will attempt to drive the cats away. Notwithstanding, the catfish will snatch a Cichlid egg each time they are dropped, faster than the mother can pick them up. And, …as they eat the Cichlid eggs, they drop their own. In her haste to pick up her eggs, the female Cichlid will pick up the eggs of the S. multis and incubate the catfish eggs along with whatever eggs of her own she was able to secure.

While it takes almost two weeks for most Cichlid fry to hatch, S. multipunctatus will hatch after 3 days. And once they hatch they begin to feed on the Cichlid eggs. How's that for ingenuity! By day 5, they will normally have devoured the entire Cichlid brood. The miniature catfish will grab onto the eggs and suck them dry. If left to their own devices, they will even begin to prey on each other. That’s why it is wise to strip the mothers after 2-3 days and immediately begin feeding the S. multipunctatus fry baby brine shrimp.

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