"Gill Passman" wrote in message
.. .
Stephen Provis wrote:

Mine are prolofic breeders as well but I haven't got to your stage.
I'm
wondering if the Plec keeps the numbers down - he never feeds on
anything other than what is in the tank even if offered....

If it does become a problem I will also consider the pictus

Gill


its only in the past few months its got this bad, I have no idea why
they
are surviving so well, I have 2 plecs and 2 synodontis which I thought
would
help but the young are very very good at hiding even getting them out
of the
tank is like a military operation thats why I leave it as long as
possible
so as not to disrupt the fish too often, although at one point we were
removing 20+ young every three weeks, i'm desperate now, if only there
was
the fish equivalent of bromide!



Know what you mean about the bromide - LOL

My tank hasn't quite got as bad as you describe but there are rather a
lot of fry of varying sizes - I haven't taken any to the LFS yet mainly
because the thought of tearing down the rock work to catch them is
quite daunting. I checked on the synodontis and am wondering if I might
get some of these to help control things before it gets too bad.

Gill

If you look at a pictus's long twin barbels, you get a sense of how they
hunt. They sweep the barbels through the cracks in the rocks, and
frighten the fry momentarily out into the open. They also 'taste' with
the barbels, so they know exactly when to turn their heads and open their
mouths. They are almost always in a forward motion as well, so they have
that advantage as well. Formidable eating machines.

Synodontis typically have branched barbels, more typically designed for
sifting through sand looking for invertebrates. They are (imo)
specialized bottom feeders for smaller prey, while pictus are more
adapted to covering larger areas faster looking for larger prey (fry).
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