120 gallon Tanganyika tank- when to add Synos?

[severum mama]

Hey all, we have a 5'x18" 120 gallon tank that's well-established and has been running for a couple of years. Filtration is two Rena XP3 canisters. Current stock list is 4 large Neolamprologus leleupi, 5 Neolamprologus cylindricus, and 6 young Cyprichromis leptosoma "blue flash". They Cyps are the most recent addition and have been in there for a couple of weeks with no aggression from the Neolamps. The leleupi and cylindricus have minor squabbles, but no serious aggression. We do not plan to add more cichlids to this tank.


This is the tank, for now. The rock work will be changed over to all TX holey rock as soon as we can find someone that has a bunch of it at the right price (if that's you, PLEASE PM me, lol). Unrelated to the success of the tank, but that actinic light is getting replaced by the Current FW LED Plus very soon.

Several months ago, we bought a group of 7 small Synodontis petricola to eventually add to the tank, knowing we would need to grow them out for a bit. At this point, our largest Synos are about 2.5", and the smallest are about 1.5". I'd like to add them before the end of the month to free up some tank space in our fishroom before the big auction... but I do want to make sure they are safe. Thoughts?

Thanks for reading.

 

[jwh0818]

Yes I do believe its safe as long as they have plenty of hiding places. They may get nipped at a bit but thats where the hiding spots come into play

 

[Wy Renegade]

Nice looking set-up guys! I really wish I had more experience/knowledge of the Tanganyika fish, unfortunately my experience with the Tanganyikans is pretty limited. I did look them up, and you have some pretty cool fish there. The Neolamprologus leleupi are one I'm definitely going to have to look into a bit further. Love the Cyprichromis leptosoma "blue flash" as well, but they wouldn't work in my current system. While I don't have first hand experience with the others, I have kept the Synodontis sp. ~ assuming you are not keeping the dwarfs. After looking through the descriptions, I would think you should be safe adding the Synodontis at this point as you have plenty of hiding spots for them, although I would certainly defer to anyone else who has more first-hand experience. I'll look forward to seeing future updates on this one.