Need info on Synspillum

[Flippin'thing bit me eye]

any info on Synspillum would be great, found a breeding pair for 35 pounds

 

[smb]

Good find. It's not easy to get a breeding pair of them unless you let them grow up together as they hate each other.

They get to 14"-15" and their heads are red usually to their gill plates and then it's white then a variation of greens, oranges and blues. It's best if kept in fine gravel or sand instead of the larger gravel. They can breed at around 5".

Feed a varied diet or they can lose their coloring. Tubifex worms, spinach, peas, crawlers, insects, pellets and lettuce are good for them.

They'll clean off a place to lay the eggs (they have about 1000 or so eggs if I remember right) and the fry will hatch in 3 days and are free swimming after 5 more. You can feed the fry crushed flake and nauplii. I would take some of the fry out after a time because I've heard that some of the fry won't make it with the parents but they are otherwise good parents like most cichlids are.

HTH.

 

[Flippin'thing bit me eye]

They are fairly peaceful arent they, Im thinking of putting them in a 70 UK gallon with a striped dora, what would you put in there as dithers, ive heard maybe another hardy cichlid pair, Rainbows, or Geophagus Australis, maybe even Meeki.
what would you suggest

 

[smb]

How big are they? A 70g is pushing it for just the pair synspilums, imo. A meeki's aggro level would be fine, but unless the synspilums are small and you plan on upgrading soon the tank is too small for 2 pairs of breeding cichlids, remember cichlids get more aggro when they breed and the smaller the tank the more aggro they become.

Yea, they are usually fairly peaceful to other fish species, just not their own. There's always exceptions to every rule in the fish world but in general that's how it is.

 

[Flippin'thing bit me eye]

Just outta intrest what would you do with a 70g, I trust your opinion

 

[smb]

[quote name='Flippin'thing bit me eye' date='Oct 2 2003, 05:47 PM'] Just outta intrest what would you do with a 70g, I trust your opinion [/quote]
Do you mean with the synspilums or if I could have anything?

If with, I would just get some small dither fish and keep just the breeding pair in there. You'll probably have to upgrade when they mature to keep them at their happiest and to keep the male from offing the female for more room, imo.

If I had a 70g tank and could put anything in it, I would get a single aggro CA/SA with some dithers. I have 2 Nandopsis I just bought from CM, an odo and a istlanum. One is going in my 75g with dithers and another is going in my 135g with some dithers when they get bigger. In the meantime on Saturday they are both going in the 75g. But that's just me and I like single specimen tanks with mean fish. I realize not everybody else does and thinks it's boring. I can understand why people would think that but I like it.

 

[Flippin'thing bit me eye]

Me to as a rule, have you seen my pics of "cupcake" 14" of nutty Jag

 

[smb]

[quote name='Flippin'thing bit me eye' date='Oct 2 2003, 06:00 PM'] Me to as a rule, have you seen my pics of "cupcake" 14" of nutty Jag [/quote]
No I would like to tho. If it's in member pics I very rarely go in those forums down below so can you give me a link?

If you like just a single aggro cichlid I would suggest an istlanum. I think you'd love the aggro of them. I do so far!