Ok now my tank isnt big enough ATM to put any more cichlids that take my fancy in with them, but i am more after help of what species in lake malawi (doesnt have to be a cichlid) are there that will eat the waste and maintain food that doesnt get eaten by the fossies? I've been told lake malawi has catfish of some type, is this true? if so what are they called and are they commonly availible?

I need something that will like the hard water and generally wont be harrassed by the fossies (which i've been told by a breeder that fossies tend to beat up on there own more then other tank mates).

cheers peeps! :joint:

Synodontis petricola

cheers!!! i'm going down to teh aquarium tomorrow to see if they gots any...do they have any special requirements in keeping them? such as hiding spots since my rocks in the tank are small/broad but thin and designed to give a malawi shole area feel :)

cheers.

I think most of the larger Synodontis species catfish that are native or endemic to lake Tanganyika or Malawi would be excellent choices...S. petricola scares me as they don't get that large, and I would be afraid your sand divers might eat them!

S. decorus comes to mind as a nice choice, but large specimens are generally quite pricey...

fossies dont seem to eat live fish, they're sand sifters and LOVE worms and small crustations...when i tried feeding them feeders they didnt touch them and the feeders actually became a problem (breeding like rabbits so i euthanised what i couldnt give away).

Really i dont want them getting bigger then 15cm tops...do synodontis require being in groups of more then 1 or 2? i know my bristle nose when i had one on its own in a tank it stressed out big time so maybe a group of 3 or 4?

If size is not so much an issue then the most mind blowing cool fish you could have (in my humble opinion) is S. multipunctatus as it spawns parasiticaly with mouth brooders...a shoal of 10 or should do the trick...

Looked em up and they also look good for the theme i'm going for so i'm gonna write them down and see them in person...

i hate waiting!!! :( but my LFS that i goto is going to special order in some Synodontis Petricola! :D they just have to get back to me with a price and availibility ATM.

Great little catfish! I think you will enjoy them. How many are you getting?

i was thinking 4 or 5? i have to confirm numbers when he gives me a ring tomorrow or tuesday. BTW do they require hiding spots? if so i may have to get a few more rocks.

well i've backed out of these, needless to say in australia they want WAY more then i have at the moment. The synodontis petricola were going to cost over $100 when in america they aint anywhere near that expensive.

Ended up getting two small Glyptoperichthys punctatus (spotted sailfin pleco) and when i get my big setup i'll look more into getting some synodotis. if the pleco settle alright with the fossies i'll get 2 more...when they get real big he said he'd trade them for some of his bigger malawi species, i wanted these solely to keep the tank clean for the time being.

What size tank is it? Sailfins get big.

4'x2'x2' and in a 6 months or so i'm getting a 6'x2'x2.5' custom setup. they're not that big ATM (under 50mm) and i have some other common BN pleco in another tank and their growth rate hasnt been that intense that they'd exceed my tank size in 6 months.

they are rather nice looking though, he had one in there that was 27cm long!!! he told me one that size he'd buy off me for well over $200. Glyptoperichthys punctatus is the closest it looks to, def not a common BN pleco though.