seanus Posted November 23, 2008 Share Posted November 23, 2008 Hey, can anyone advise me of the best method to breed cuckoo catfish? I have five cats (3 females and 2 males) about 8cm long and over a year old and only one pair of blue dolphins (mature at about 12cm long each). Do I need a colony of dolphins? These fish are in a large aquarium (equiv of 7ft tank vol) with about 20 or more tropheus swimming around, with no action for 3 months or so. I am thinking of moving the cats and the dolphins into a 5 ft tank but need to know if it is worth the effort first. Any ideas? Cheers Sean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DFishkeeper Posted November 23, 2008 Share Posted November 23, 2008 Hi Sean, In my experience, the cuckoo cats don't start breeding until they are around 2 years old. Cheers, Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boots n all Posted November 26, 2008 Share Posted November 26, 2008 Your tropheus eggs are large and the cuckoo eggs are small, l dont like the chances of the tropheus picking them up, but you never know? As DFishkeeper has already correctly stated the cuckoos need to be about 2 years of age Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogboy Posted November 26, 2008 Share Posted November 26, 2008 hey Sean, id pull them out if you want the T's to breed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ged Posted November 28, 2008 Share Posted November 28, 2008 You could also try G. acei (Ps. acei), Ps. elongatus, Ps. saulosi, N. venustus, M. lombardoi, L. caeruleus and A. burtoni as host fish. You need a host that will produce large numbers of small eggs. The problem is that the host quickly learns what the cuckoos are doing so the host stop spawning. Therefore you will need to move them around between tanks a number of host species or groups of the same species. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michiel Posted November 28, 2008 Share Posted November 28, 2008 I have mine with elongatus I grow the fry that is saved to another young colony and then sell the old colony. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seanus Posted December 1, 2008 Author Share Posted December 1, 2008 Thanks very much for the replies! Looks like I will have to think of getting into malawi's as well. The tropheus breed fine with the cuckoos around - I think that tropheus are smarter than the average fish But I used to have the cuckoos with a frontosa colony and it was disasterous - the cats went mad when the fronties were ready to spawn and ended up eating and munchcing up the fronty eggs so much so that the tank water went a milky white. I will try and get a few more dolphin females and see how I will go and if that doesn't work I will try the elongatus. Cheers Sean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogboy Posted December 3, 2008 Share Posted December 3, 2008 Sean, i have plenty of P. elongatus Mpanga fry if you want some, 3 to 4 cm, they grow quickly and breed fairly young. PM me if interested. happily swap for dubs cheers Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmy2422 Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 I have bred a fair few cuckoo's myself. I found the best host was electric blues. Maybe split your cats into two colonies. Mine worked best as a trio or pair, this way the host fish is overtaken by catfish and will stop or fail to breed. Trial and error is the best method. I found stripping the host females so the cuckoo's did not get eaten. Feeding them the host egg's is the best bet also. I found they liked bristle-nose eggs too. Another thing i also had trouble with was the cats eating each other or biting one another injuring them. I placed them in seperate small compartments until they reached about 1cm, then placed them into a 2 foot tank and fed them crushed NLS growth as well as BN eggs when i had the chance (more often then not) HTH, Timmy PS. I have heard (never bred them myself though) that dolphins can be hard to get to hold esspecially if you try to catch and strip them. So a easier breeding host may be the go mate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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