seanus Posted April 19, 2008 Share Posted April 19, 2008 Hey, can anyone advise me regarding the Synodontis multipunctatus cuckoo catfish. I am planning on buying 2 pair and placing them in either a 6ft tank with tropheus duboise and ikolas (regularly breeding) OR my 6ft Frontosa tank with a colony of 1 male and 6 females. The fronties breed off and on and not as regularly as the tropheus. My first preference was to put them in my fronty tank as the females would easily be able to accommodate the cuckoos eggs. The catfish should be at breeding size and pretty expensive at 120 bucks each. But these fish seem so interesting to me with their parasitic breeding style. I am a little worried at upsetting the colony of tropheus as they are well established and so are the fronties. Any pointers? Cheers Sean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted April 19, 2008 Share Posted April 19, 2008 I dont know that they will breed that well with tangs. I dont know of anyone who has spawned them in the aquarium with Lake tang fish. I know this might sound a bit silly as they are found in lake tang. I have used electric yellow and peacocks mainly to spawn mine when I had thme I wouldn't do it with either of the fish you have. Josh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colfish Posted April 20, 2008 Share Posted April 20, 2008 most tangs are too territorial when breeding to allow the cuckoos close enough. even most of the usual malawi that can be used for this purpose wake up to what's happening after a couple of times and move 'em on. at the best [imo] all you will acheive is disrupting the trophs and fronts breeding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seanus Posted April 20, 2008 Author Share Posted April 20, 2008 most tangs are too territorial when breeding to allow the cuckoos close enough. even most of the usual malawi that can be used for this purpose wake up to what's happening after a couple of times and move 'em on. at the best [imo] all you will acheive is disrupting the trophs and fronts breeding. Cheers for that I might just reconsider. But they are the coolest catfish Still they are all expensive fish to muck around with, plus I wouldn't want to wreck the colony setup that I have established over the last few years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seanus Posted April 27, 2008 Author Share Posted April 27, 2008 most tangs are too territorial when breeding to allow the cuckoos close enough. even most of the usual malawi that can be used for this purpose wake up to what's happening after a couple of times and move 'em on. at the best [imo] all you will acheive is disrupting the trophs and fronts breeding. Cheers for that I might just reconsider. But they are the coolest catfish Still they are all expensive fish to muck around with, plus I wouldn't want to wreck the colony setup that I have established over the last few years. Hey there, well I have done it. Bought 4 cuckoo catfish and put them in my Fronty tank. The LFS gave me a special deal and I gave em 9 fronty babies as a sweetener. The catfish are really cool in the tank and the fronties don't seem to mind them at all. It looks as if I have at least 2 females but I suppose I will have to wait and see. The fronties will probably spawn in the next couple of days as they are going through the motions atm. I will keep you posted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seanus Posted May 6, 2008 Author Share Posted May 6, 2008 I am so glad that people on this forum don't reply by saying "I told you so". Well last night I got really excited as the Fronties were preparing to spawn and the cat fish were swimming around frenetically waiting for the moment to occur. But, what happened was that as the fronty was dropping her eggs the catfish were eating them, but not just eating them they would squash them and spill the contents into the tank. The water in the aquarium turned milky white. It was incredible. The cats were so active that the eggs went flying around the place and all the other fish in the aquarium ended up snacking on them including the male fronty. So, I am not sure if I want a repeat of this, not only did all the eggs get eaten but the catfish did not spawn at all. The female fronty was also very distressed by it all. I am thinking that the cats probably need to go through this before they get the hang of spawning at the right moment. I have 4 cats about 8-10cm long and 3 females and a male. I think they are about 2 years or so old and should be mature enough to spawn. The male is identifiable easily enough and it looked as if in the last week the male and a female paired up. The whole process seemed a big waste in a decent brood of fronty babies though and I hope it hasn't given all the other fish in the tank including the alpha male fronty a taste for fronty eggs. Cheers for the advice above and might look for another host fish for the cats. Sean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeppry Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 get some good old flame backs or electric blues and put the catties in with them. The way it sounds from your post the catys could deffinately stuff up your frontys from breeding. IMO i would get em out asap.... good luck breeding the catys cheers Brett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leone Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 Seanus - I am impressed that you posted the "I told me so" message.. It really sucks when you should of listened to what people say but dont... it takes a brave person to come out and admit they are wrong. cheers Leone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Textiles Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 Seanus, I really doubt your catfish are mature enough to be spawning 8-10cms is pretty small in terms of cuckoos. They are doing the right things though, like eating the eggs and rushing around the tank but if they were sexually mature eggs would have usually been dropped. I have successfully bred cuckoos at my place and they are definatly 12cm+ in size and are mature. I did alot of research before trying to breed them and it says everywhere about there size of and sexual maturity and the link between the two. Also do you have a picture of your cats ? I would seperate the cats mate, move them into a tank with some a colony of malawis till they start spawning and get more experienced with them then chuck em in with the fronnies. Hope any of that helps ? haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seanus Posted May 8, 2008 Author Share Posted May 8, 2008 Hey thanks for the comments. Yep, I am going to take the cats out of the fronties tank, especially since another female is just about to drop some eggs. I am reluctant to get malawis as I already have 5 large tanks and the house can't really fit another one in (unless..... ). What i will do for the moment is move them into a tropheus grow out tank and watch them carefully. I will try and take some pics of the cats and post them up. Cheers Sean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dobbin4 Posted May 15, 2008 Share Posted May 15, 2008 8cm would be to young but mine have breed at 10cm. The front's are not the host to pick.Would not put them with your trophs either. Like said above those fish are better hosts. Great catties and mine have breed with Yellows, Blues, Peacocks,Vic famebacks which I've found best. But the host need to be swaped as they soon find out what the cats are up to and dont breed. Thats top $$'s at $120 a fish. Mate do a search on the net and that will give you the insight on these. There's a good writeup in the catfish section. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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