Lol idk the numbers, but if they are old enough & opposite sex, I believe it'll happen.. Ha.
Actually, I suspect it wouldn't, for a coupla reasons. First, it isn't simple to get most synos to reproduce in captivity. There are a few species regularly bred nowadays, but it takes a little bit of work and ideal conditions. Second, the two species have vastly different breeding strategies.
S. decora is a random egg-scatterer; it scatters its eggs and abandons them during seasonal flooding events.
S. multipunctatus is a brood parasite; it lays its eggs in conjunction with mouth-brooding cichlids. The cichlids then take up the syno eggs with their own. The catfish hatch earlier than the cichlids and eat the remaining eggs and any cichlid fry that may have hatched. Any cichlid fry that hatch may or may not escape the faster growing syno fry, but in the end the brood ends up being mostly a few catfish and not many, if any, cichlids. These breeding strategies would have different environmental and physiological triggers, making timing a "natural" spawning extremely difficult.
These factors suggests to me that either 1) the males and females need to be stripped of milt and eggs and artificial fertilization and hatching are needed, or 2) spawning is hormonally induced to counteract the differing breeding strategies. I honestly don't know for sure, and have had little luck finding the methodology used to create these hybrids on the interenet.
fishfool58, try Planet Catfish for a pic of juvie zebra synos. IIRC, they have added hybrids under their
Synodontis listings. I believe they have hybrids listed as
Synodontis sp. hybrid.
Yes, I was irritated about the jaguar syno incident. Very irritated. I didn't go back since they charged me for the decorus and they were cheaper anyway, so I didn't exactly get ripped off, and the gas and hassle woulda been more trouble than it was worth. In addition (prepare for mini-rant), I am very anti-hybrid, don't condone the intentional creation of hybrids, and won't support the creation of hybrids by purchasing such fish. My personal feeling, and I don't hold it against anybody who does, so please don't take offense.
WYite
