elise007 Posted December 7, 2003 Share Posted December 7, 2003 Hi All,Like many of you i am attempting to breed the multi catfish. Also like many of you i am sure i never have enough tanks for all the fish i like.The hosts i am using are Burtoni and Calliptra at present and i have had limited success in tweleve months with these hosts, about 15 babies in that time.In the meantime i have had heaps of Burtoni fry which i am having difficulty getting rid of at a decent price or any price and they take up space which i need for other fish.So what do you all use for hosts, as i am potentially going to change over to something else that if i dont get multi babies at least i can raise the fry of the host and find a willing buyer for them.Your info would be appreciated.Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tangfish Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 elise007try e/blues. great host and if no great success in multi fry at least e/blue are easier to sellgood luck tangfish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 I haven't played with East Africans for over ten years (the water here is to dambed soft and acid to much around with), but, in my experience S multipunctastus prefered predominantly blue hosts. In those days we mixed all sorts of rifts. Out of big communities of "licorice-all-sorts" my synos only spawned with (what is now called Electric blues), Ps socoloffi, Ps elongatus(or where ever they have put that these days) and H rostratus. They had the choice of half dosen or more species who spawned regularly in that 8 footer but never did.What you have to concider is, The ease of the host spawning, you intend to sacrifice the host fry anyway (so why keep fry with no value). The Synos acceptance of the host (no point useing an unacceptable host regardless how easy they are to spawn) . No point trying with an acceptable host that is more difficult to spawn than the cookoos but has a high resale value. A bit like taking an each way bet on the TAB ! you only get 25% the dividend.My idea of Multi breeding set up :- Catfish conditioning tank, appropriate high protien diet ( they will not spawn with out hosts). Conditioning tank for male hosts. Conditioning tank for female hostes, and appropriate diet for both.This is where the guess comes in unless you want to take ova samples from the females. Tip all the conditioned hosts into the cat tank and watch.strip all carrying females at 4th day for max cat fry survival (they even eat each other) and feed on from there.Go for it AlanPS I could be talking a whole lot of bull But, been there! 15 or more years ago and IMO cookoos are under valued as captive produced stock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elise007 Posted December 8, 2003 Author Share Posted December 8, 2003 Alan,Thanks for your comments and i agree that you need to choose the best host as the catfish is what i am after.I guess i am sentimental in that i feel bad feedign off the fry to the other fish and i had tank space at the time so was no problem keeping them. The last couple of mouthfuls have all been fed off to growing e.yellows and others.The other issue was i was not certain whether the Burtoni are actually the best choice of host and whether there was somethign better for the catfish and that if i didn't get catfish babies the babies of the host were worth keeping so i got some return towards food etc.Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquaman Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 I'm no expert, however I've read on this forum of people using Saulosi and E. Yellows as hosts...CheersRichard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anchar Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Hi, I've used elctric yellows as hosts in the past because they are not aggressive and don't chase the multis away whilst spawning. However, unless you are really vigalent and remove the eggs/fry quickly, their small mouths end up getting hrut by the cattie babes. I have lost a couple of host yellows because of this . I use F. rostratus now due to the larger mouth size. They also don't seem to mind the presence of the swarming spawning multis (pardon the alliteration) :rolleyes: . I once knew of someone that only used "virgin" spawners (he used P. lombardoi) because he believed that the fish cotton on to the multis, get wise and chase them off - haven't found this to be true myself.merjo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hypo Zebra Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 I have sucessfully bred multi-cats for over 12 months, my best spawn was 37 catfish fry out of one mouthful, I was consistantly getting between 7 - 15 fry a mouthful. A friend of mine did breed them as well and he has got 70 out of a mouthful. The trick is keep host fish and catfish well fed, good water conditions to suit the fish which are Africans. I suppose you would like to know what the host fish is....e-mail me and I'll let you know hypo_zebraATyahoo.com.auHypo Zebra's Webpage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boots n all Posted December 13, 2003 Share Posted December 13, 2003 Your a bugger Hypo :D :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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