Malawi catfish

[Maxkolbe]

Does anyone know of any catfish that are native to lake Malawi? I am doing a setup in a sixty gallon tank with some of the more peaceful mbunas and possibly a peacock. I am new to cichlids so any information about this kind of setup would be greatly appreciated. On a side note does anyone know anything about Fenestratus? A saw a pictur eof one in a book and want to know about them. How big do they get? how aggressive are they? And would one work in this setup? Here is a photo of the fish in the book.

 

[Convict2161]

I know a member here has a beautiful cuckoo catfish which I'm also adding to my African Cichlid tank. Right now I have an upside catfish with them.



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First one is the cuckoo second is my upside down CF.

 

[Maxkolbe]

Where can you get a cuckoo catfish? Are they expensive? I heard about a catfish called the Malawi syndontis. Do you know anything about them?

 

[Convict2161]

Where can you get a cuckoo catfish? Are they expensive? I heard about a catfish called the Malawi syndontis. Do you know anything about them?

I'm not sure as I'm new to this hobby but I believe the cuckoo is in the syndontis family. Where to get one? I'm trying to find one myself(short of ordering online) When I find out I'll let you know.

Sorry couldn't be more help.

Good luck.

 

[Maxkolbe]

How has your upside-down catfish done with the cichlids? I currently have one in a ten gallon and he is so cool. He just never comes out. He hides all day and part of the night and it's a pain to get him to eat. Does yours act like mine or is he active?

 

[Convict2161]

He's doing just fine! No one even bothers him,when I feed them he just scurries around and picks up the left overs. Fun to watch!

 

[Mogurako]

The "Cuckoo" / "Malawi Synodontis" is the same fish Synodontis multipunctatus, they average $10-30 us depending on where you get them. Allot of the other Synodontis from africa come from lake Tanganyika but with be fine with any rift lake cichlids.

 

[Maxkolbe]

Do you think that I could do 1 or 2 peacocks if I stuck with peaceful mbunas or should I just stick with mbunas and a catfish?

 

[Mogurako]

Mbuna and cats IMO

 

[Maxkolbe]

I'veheard that you have to have a group of females for each male for the fish to be compatible. Since I'm no good at sexing the two mbunas I already have would it work to only do one or two of each species so that they have no females to fight over and I won't end up with hundreds of fry that can't be accommodated.