# Multipunctatus vs Lucipinnis



## MJCanAm (Jan 1, 2018)

Looking to add a few synos to my 75g for fry control. From what I've read it seems multis are the elite in fry control but they are on the expensive end and I'm having a difficult time finding any in stock. With that said a LFS has what they say are petricola, I haven't been but I'm sure they are Lucipinnis. How would about 3 Lucipinnis do in terms of fry control and are they as active in a tank as the multis?


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

I'm surprised the Synodontis multipunctatus are more expensive than the S. lucipinnis unless they are considerably larger. I did keep S. lucipinnis (sold as petricola) with A. calvus and Julidochromis regani and mostly noticed that when the S. lucipinnis spawned, the other fish ate their eggs in a feeding frenzy. That's just my experience and the J. regani had quite a few fry/juvies by the time I tore the tank down due to a leak.

Which tank are you looking to control fry in, Malawi, Tanganyika or other?


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## MJCanAm (Jan 1, 2018)

I may have been looking in the wrong spots in terms of pricing. I will do some more searching for suppliers. I'm looking for fry control in my Mbuna tank. I have only seen 1 fry make it to the juvenile stage in the past year but now that my Mbuna are all close to maturity I am noticing more breeding behavior and want to make sure I'm covered once they get going.


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## The Morning (Nov 22, 2017)

I have a 150 mbuna tank with 4 "petricola ". I bought them for the same reason, fry control. I assume they are doing their job however I still have fry in the tank....about 10 right now that I can see. That being said there should be far more fry considering the fish I have in tank.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

The adult Malawi will eat the fry if they can (make crevices between rocks big enough for adults to get them) during the day. Then the cats will get what is left when the fry are sleeping.

I do think multipunctatus are better at fry control.


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## MJCanAm (Jan 1, 2018)

DJRansome said:


> The adult Malawi will eat the fry if they can (make crevices between rocks big enough for adults to get them) during the day. Then the cats will get what is left when the fry are sleeping.
> 
> I do think multipunctatus are better at fry control.


Do you find the multis to be more active in the tank during the day than the Lucipinnis?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

They are both active if you buy a large enough group.


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## MJCanAm (Jan 1, 2018)

In terms of fry control, do they eat the fry after the mom has spit or do they interfere during the initial breeding process? I ask because there are some fish I'd like to save the fry in a fry tank and so if the synos are going to stop breeding in general I'll probably pass on them.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

They do try to interfere, but your fish will still successfully spawn.


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## Mr Chromedome (Feb 12, 2013)

The _multipunctatus_ are cuckoo spawners. They put their own eggs down with the cichlid eggs. Even if they don't eat all the Cichlid eggs, any of their eggs that are picked up will hatch before the Cichlids, and those fry will proceed to eat the surviving Cichlid eggs in the mouth of the female Cichlid. _Synodontis lucipinnis_ are crevice spawners. They shove their eggs in small cracks, and while they may try to eat Cichlid eggs during spawning, they do not leave any of their eggs for the cichlids to raise. So if you want to raise Cichlids, I do not recommend using _multipunctatus_.


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## MJCanAm (Jan 1, 2018)

Thanks for the info, I'm thinking of picking up 5 of the Lucipinnis this week. My LFS has them marked as Petricola but based on what I've read it seems they are more than likely Lucipinnis. What do you guys think?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

My experience with multipunctatus is that the mbuna, haps and peacocks spawn successfully way more often than the synodontis do. I would not hesitate to mix them unless your main objective is volume spawning.


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## BlueSunshine (Jul 13, 2014)

We had a group of six multipunctatus in our 150 gal. tank. They absolutely wrecked the spawning.
Our group of six lucipinnis work better for our needs. They do not bother the spawning in our tanks.


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