# malawi catfish



## karmafish (Feb 26, 2012)

Is there a catfish from lake malawi that would help with the algae, work as a dither fish, not get too big and not lay eggs that will hatch in my cichlids mouth and eat my fry? I want to keep my tank strictly malawi so I would prefer not adding adding a catfish or pleco from another lake.


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

Synodontis njassae/nyassae is a Malawian Catfish. It isn't available very often though, and Syno's don't typically help much with the algae at all. They grow to 11.8" max though, so a bit big. Any big fish will eat little fish, including your cichlids.


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## karmafish (Feb 26, 2012)

yeah  my rule of thumb is if it will fit in their mouth they will eat it. But what I've heard about most african rift lake catfish is that they lay their eggs amongst cichlid eggs and have the mouthbrooder carry their young to term. They hatch first and the little buggers eat all the eggs or fry still in the mothers mouth. When the mother releases her fry, only a few catfish come out. Thats what I'd like to avoid. Close to a foot long is a bit big. I guess I will pass on the idea. Really it was just for a bit of variety and I was hoping for just 6 to 8 inches max.


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

karmafish said:


> But what I've heard about most african rift lake catfish is that they lay their eggs amongst cichlid eggs and have the mouthbrooder carry their young to term.


This is true for only one species, Synodontis multipuncatus.

There are many other species that don't do this with mouthbrooders. Synodontis petricola and lucipinnis (dwarf petricola) are egg scatterers, that tend to drop eggs with substrate spawning cichlids, while your fish are mouthbrooders... so no interference. Anyway, having catfish babies is rewarding anyway, you can't flood the market with them, and they go for good dollars. My oldest multipunctatus is still breeding, was imported in 1981. Yes, you read that right.


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## cantrell00 (Oct 30, 2010)

I just stripped two multi's (I think) from a Msobo...

Not to hi-jack but could multipunc's and petricola cross and have their eggs picked up this way by a mouth brooder? Can only a pair of multipunc's do that?


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## Storiwyr (Apr 24, 2012)

Fogelhund said:


> My oldest multipunctatus is still breeding, was imported in 1981.


Good grief, Fogel. That fish is older than I am.


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

cantrell00 said:


> Not to hi-jack but could multipunc's and petricola cross and have their eggs picked up this way by a mouth brooder? Can only a pair of multipunc's do that?


I doubt you would have hybridization between those two cats. Only multis are known to do that.


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## cantrell00 (Oct 30, 2010)

Has happened twice. The first time I found them swimming in my 180. This was the first time that I had actually stripped them from a cichlid. They were huge!

Interesting. Thanks.


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## brinkles (Jan 30, 2011)

Wow that's an old catfish! Amazing!
I've got some multis that I'm hoping will spawn when they're older. I've noticed fewer holding cichlids in the tank since I've had them, and they're very aggressive about stealing cichlid eggs. It's not a problem because I can't raise too many of the cichlids anyway, but I wouldn't keep them with cichlids that I really wanted to breed.


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