Moving Synodontis nigriventris group, bad idea?

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N0body Of The Goat
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Moving Synodontis nigriventris group, bad idea?

Post by N0body Of The Goat »

Before I went on holiday last week and starved all my tanks for ~3.5 days, I finally removed my concerning ~21cm SL Chrysicthys ornatus out of my 6-foot tank community and into its own 4-foot tank, for fear of coming back to at least one vulnerable fish in his/her stomach!

I've noticed my group of 11 S. nigriventris (eldest ~6 have been with me for almost 5 years now) are by far the bulkiest fish in my ~280l 4-foot tank of small/peaceful fish, they are easily able to shove other bottom dwellers like the Dwarf Chain Loaches and Chaetostoma spp. away from food.

So this got me pondering about moving them to my 6-footer that now contains...
6x ~6/~12cm SL Distichodus affinis/altus
1x ~22cm SL Distichodus "x" (possibly rostratus, but really not sure, very skittish)
3x ~11cm SL Ctenopoma acutirostre
1x ~14cm SL Xenomystus nigri
1x ~7cm SL Empire Gudgeon (mainly because I am not sure what a he is capable of trying to eat in my tank of small/peaceful fish)
1x ~22cm SL (very gentle) Synodontis notatus
1x ~18cm SL (slightly boisterous) Synodontis cf. budgetti
1x ~30cm SL (very provisionally IDed) Auchenoglanis tchadiensis
3x ~12/14cm SL Synodontis brichardi
4x ~10/12cm SL Euchilichthys/Chiloglanis spp.
1x ~9cm SL Synodontis schoutedeni
1x ~8cm SL (very well behaved) Steatocranus casuarius

I'm a little hesitant to do this (worry of being outcompeted for food), but part of me thinks it will be fine (because the gudegon, bushfish and knife get their share of food), even if it just a short term move for the summer.

At some point, I want to set up a 4-footer as a classic "African oddball" tank, but my 5 female Congo Tetras are still that little bit too small for me to be happy they will be safe with the bushfish (and possibly the knife, another fish I'm not really sure how big a mouth is on a ~14cm SL specimen). ;)
Last edited by N0body Of The Goat on 02 Apr 2015, 08:51, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Moving Synodontis nigriventris group, bad idea?

Post by Birger »

The above 6 ft tank seems well stocked already...are they all grown, I do not think I would add your nice group of nigriventris to this group....they are dominant in their current tank because they feel good..

How is your Auchenoglanis with the other fish(synos) ? I finally had to put my 2 A. senegali in with my S. nigriventris and S. robbianus because all others were pushing them around.

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N0body Of The Goat
Posts: 348
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Location 1: Southampton
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Interests: Sim racing; cycling (ideally not into the back of stationary dustbin lorries located on blind sweeping bends in wet weather, with rim brakes like chocolate teapots)

Re: Moving Synodontis nigriventris group, bad idea?

Post by N0body Of The Goat »

My Giraffe Catfish is usually a very sociable fish, only very rarely will he/she get upset with notatus or budgetti, if they stay in his/her face and the wind is blowing in the wrong direction! If fish had "best buddies," I think I would say schoutedeni regards my Giraffe in such a way, it was almost as if Giraffe would make him/herself a "target" fish for my Chrysichthys as a protective temptation barrier... My Chrysichthys was a model citizen with all but the 18+cm fish, I've never seen it go for a vulnerable fish in that community full on, but during February this large mouthed predator seemed to be ramping up its aggression to anyone hanging around in his territory, especially Giraffe!

Doing a major "fish juggle" between my five active tanks has been playing on my mind for ~15 months or so, but my physical ability to undertake this was rather hampered by my cycling accident at Xmas 2013, not to mention the mental drain of trying to decide which fish should be combined in each tank and then actually trying to do the netting etc.

Maybe the real answer is to work on separating my "tiny" fish from my "moderate" fish from my "tank buster" fish...
Returning the Chrysichthys to the 6-footer after pulling out vulnerable fish, to set up an "oddball" community in my ~280l 4-footer
Then place the smallest fish in my Rio240 (currently occupied by just ~15 Steatocranus casuarius from 3 broods, including at least one newborn that showed up in the week before my holiday, messing up plans to move the cichlids out and into my garage Rio400 full of Ilyodon xantusi that have been "over-wintering" at 18C)

Then it gets really complicated, at least in my head! 4 of my Distichodus altus/affinis have been with me for ~15 months and have grown from ~6cm SL to at least 12cm SL, but I came across two similar sized babies ~3 months ago. I quarantined the babies until my pre-vacation juggle, but unsurprisingly as a duo, they were not playing nicely. If Chrysichthys moves back to the 6-footer, the whole Distichodus group needs to move out, or I keep C. ornatus where he/she is (where he/she has become incredibly withdrawn, I ended up doing a ~66% water change at gone midnight last night, just to try and perk the catfish up)!

Keeping ~300 fish of different sizes in five active tanks is fun, interesting... And sometimes very complicated! X_X
Dreaming of a full-on 5x2x2 Zaire River rapids biotope...
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