# Can a multipunctatus and petricola crossbreed?



## Riverwater (Nov 3, 2010)

Does anyone know if a synodontis multipunctatus and synodontis petricola would crossbreed?

I bought a petricola today, and have a multy in the tank already. The lfs advised me that they would NOT crossbreed when I asked, and I wanna double check. Thanks!


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## BioG (Oct 12, 2008)

Just about anything in the same genus can X-breed. It is more or less rare depending on breeding style but it happens more often, in captivity, than we know about I think.


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## Riverwater (Nov 3, 2010)

Thanks for your response. Yeah I do too think it's possible seeing as they are both synodontis...stranger things have happened. eek.


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## mike1234 (Feb 16, 2010)

Have a few of this exact cross. They show more character than my multi pures. When talking to a guy at a Lfs he told me he's had definite crosses come in with wc stock. Gotta wonder if even the wild population is pure.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

In 2007 Petricola was split into two classifications: Petricola and Lucipinnis. Other than my fish I have not yet found a Petricola in the US...all the ones I have been able to find for sale so far have been Lucipinnis, and I have been seriously looking. You will see most listed as Petricola, but that is leftover from pre-2007 when there was only one classification.

It is thought that there may be more than two classifications that need to be made to properly classify the fish formerly known as Petricola, but this has not happened yet.

So maybe those wilds are just unclassified but separate species of Petricola and Lucipinnis rather than hybrids?

I know I have purchased tanganaicae and polli under the name Synodontis petricola Burundi. Classifying Synodontis correctly takes a pretty serious expert (not me :lol: ).


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

oops double post


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

I have not heard of these two crossing. However most petricola sold in the hobby are realy lucipinnis.
Just pop up a photo and any cat guy can tell the two apart. :wink: 
Both petricola and lucipinnis AKA dwarf petricola are egg scatterers wheras Synodontis multipunctatus are paracyitic mouthbrooder breeders. It would take a major effort to cross them. :wink:

Sadly most Synodontis multipunctatus sold in the UK are hybrids with other easier to breed Synos so I guess nothing is cut and dried.

All the best James


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

I had a female "petricola" or lucipinnis in with Multi's for about twenty years. Not once did she try and spawn with the multi's in their mouthbrooding behaviour. I can't really comment on whether or not the male multi's would try and fertilize eggs she might have dropped, but they were never interested in interacting, with her, and she never schooled with them.


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## Riverwater (Nov 3, 2010)

Thanks for all the responses guys. I somehow think it's possible given no similar mates, and even though they have different breeding styles, so I will be trading in the multy.


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## xxbenjamminxx (Jan 22, 2011)

I never knew they were split into 2 classes. See I learned something new today. Now I wanna go to my LFS and see if the ones they have are truelly petricolas or not.

Just seen that the petricolas have the spots in a line and the lucipinnis are staggered so should be easy to see the difference.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Actually not so easy and spots on each species are quite variable. I always get a pic and post on planetcatfish for ID.

If you find some petricola PM me. :thumb:


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

Nearly all petricola in UK shops are really lucipinnis (Dwarf petricola). Real petricola you kind of have to go to folk like Mike. Reclassified a couple of years ago, hardly any of the shops know the difference or have even heard of the change.

I bought my breeders as petricola, soon found out what they really were by asking about em on planet catfish popped a video of em "on whats my catfish" thingy.

There is a post here somewhere explaining and showing how to tell the difference.

Any hoo........

Hopefully this should help people in determining whether they have Synodontis lucipinnis (a.k.a. "Dwarf" petricola) or the true Synodontis petricola.

Look at the spots on the "thick" portion of the body, before it tapers off to the tail zone... basically between the gills and the anal area...

The petricola have a "straight-line" pattern of spots, whereas the lucipinnis have a "staggered" pattern of spots.

S. petricola









S. lucipinnis









Oh and petricola gets to about 6" where as lucipinnis stays under 4" and the shape of the fish is quite different as you can see in the photos I hope.

Great catfish both of em.


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

Fogelhund right though many bred lucipinnis have lost the neet pattern of spots and are thus harder to tell apart. I would avoid these anyway when looking for a good looking lucipinnis or petricola or looking to breed iether of them.

General rule of thumb if not sure its prob a lucipinnis they are about 99 times more common. I am still to find anyone who has bred and raised the true petricola in commertial numbers. :wink:


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