S. Petricola

[Corleone]

Rescued one out of a neighbor's goldfish bowl. It's in rough shape right now, treating it for ich and finrot. If it survives, I have two questions:

1. I've found conflicting size info in my books and online, ranging from 3.5 to 8 inches. How big do they get?
2. Pretty much the same question, really: I have a couple tanks I could put him in, but I'm somewhat interested in adding him to my living room display community, would he be big enough to eat paleatus corys?

 

[Loony Fish]

common name please?

 

[Corleone]

Never seen a common name associated with them, the store they got it from sells it under the scientific name Petricola synodontis, which is backwards - it's Synodontis petricola.

 

[Ace Of Spades]

Rescued one out of a neighbor's goldfish bowl. It's in rough shape right now, treating it for ich and finrot. If it survives, I have two questions:

1. I've found conflicting size info in my books and online, ranging from 3.5 to 8 inches. How big do they get?
2. Pretty much the same question, really: I have a couple tanks I could put him in, but I'm somewhat interested in adding him to my living room display community, would he be big enough to eat paleatus corys?

Well these are sociable little catfish and one of my favourite. There are a few species that look similar but the petricola is defined by the white edging on its anal and pectral fin . Erm they are the smallest of the synodontis gettining to 3.5-4 inches. They are very sociable with their own kind so id keep them in groups of 3+ and I dont think they will be able to eat the corys. They like a high PH rather then low.

"Cuckoo Catfish" is sometimes the common name but is normally assosiated more with the multi synodontis

 

[Corleone]

The same store uses cuckoo for multipunctatus. My neighbor said it was a petricola, which I'm only about 50% sure about, since his fins are too bad to see the telltale white. Coming from that LFS, there's nothing else it could be (I doubt they'd spend the price on a special order and then dump it in an unfiltered bowl).

The water's good for them, very hard with a pH of 7.6. Not quite their native levels, but Tanganyikan cichlids generally do quite well in the local water, so I'm hoping the same is true of petricola. Unfortunately a group might not work in my community plans. I might have to adjust, or if he doesn't do well on his own just move him into a tank with more free space.

 

[Ace Of Spades]

The same store uses cuckoo for multipunctatus. My neighbor said it was a petricola, which I'm only about 50% sure about, since his fins are too bad to see the telltale white. Coming from that LFS, there's nothing else it could be (I doubt they'd spend the price on a special order and then dump it in an unfiltered bowl).

The water's good for them, very hard with a pH of 7.6. Not quite their native levels, but Tanganyikan cichlids generally do quite well in the local water, so I'm hoping the same is true of petricola. Unfortunately a group might not work in my community plans. I might have to adjust, or if he doesn't do well on his own just move him into a tank with more free space.

Its a good idea to have a group TBH, as these are social catfish they tend to be quite scared to eat on their own,

 

[Corleone]

Just a follow up - I did rearrange some stocking plans and picked up a second petricola, and hopefully will get a third when they get the next shipment. They're a best seller ever since the store started sticking them in betta cups, the price was ridiculous (I could have had a foot long pleco cheaper). I hope these guys work out. They've settled in reasonably well, one's claimed a driftwood cave and the other's actually chased the bristlenose out of the cave he's owned for six months.