Cats in the Lake? The synodontis family
How many of you have ever seen the varieties of catfish from Lake Tankanyika scurting around the tanks of a local breeder or a local pets store? Chances are that you have seen them and thought they would look great in your tank, but then looked at the price and thought other wise. Let me tell you that they are well worth the price they fetch.
In the Lake:
In Lake Tanganyika the synodontis spend the majority of their time around the drainage basins of rivers scurring around in a never ending search for food. The Synodontis Multipunctatus in particular enjoys being in a large school where the fish form a staight line of two to three fish deep and do a leap frog motion so that the front of the line pick up the majority of food and the later lines get the rest. If the school of catfish happen upon a pair of mouth brooders breeding, the cats will rush in and under the all the comotion the female cats will drop her eggs and the cichlid will pick them up into her mouth along with her own eggs. The cichlid is holding both the catfish eggs and her own but the catfish mature much faster than the cichlids and when the catfish hatch they eat the cichlid eggs while still in the cichlids mouth. The cichlid will eventually spit the little catfish out.
In the Tank:
The syno's show much of the same behavior in the aquarium as they do in the lake. The fish tend to feel more comfortable in large numbers, which is apparent when you see a lone fish in a tank that hides compared to a tank with 5+ individuals that seem to love being in the spotlight. One of the nice things about these curious cats is that they are easy to keep. I like to feed them (as with every other fish I keep) a varied diet, ranging from shrimp pellets to frozen marine food. They would even go upside down at the top of the tank so they could get their share of the cichlids food. They cats do very well with their aggressive tank mates. It seems that the cichlids have nothing to really bite onto except slick body or spiny fins so the cats are generally left alone.
Warning:
The synodontis family are a scaleless fish and will be severly stressed or even killed by treating the tank with methyline blue. So don't use it.