Care
The Petricola Catfish is known only from the northern rocky shorelines of Lake Tanganyika, Africa. The aquarium should be spacious with a soft sandy substrate in order to protect the sensory barbels. It should be decorated with a good amount of rocky caves/PVC tubes, some driftwood, and robust planting (that can cope with hard, alkaline conditions) to provide shady areas, but you should also ensure that a roomy swimming space is left along the front of the tank. Efficient filtration is recommended, as these fish are voracious eaters and can produce a fair amount of waste. The water should be well-oxygenated with a moderate current, and frequent partial water changes are a must to help keep nitrate to a minimum. A gregarious species, S. petricola should be kept in groups. Companions should be relatively peaceful and larger than 3cm (1.2") in length (otherwise they may be predated upon); they do well as part of a Tanganyikan community of medium-sized fish. S. petricola is very similar in appearance to S. lucipinnis, but S. petricola grows to a slightly larger adult size. Additionally, in most cases, S. petricola displays spots on the head area that are smaller than the spots on the flanks. In S. lucipinnis, these spots tend to be larger and and connected.
Feeding
Omnivorous. Offer a variety meaty frozen foods such as bloodworm, white mosquito larvae, vitamin-enriched brineshrimp, Mysis shrimp etc., along with some sinking catfish pellets/tablets/granules. Be sure to offer some vegetable matter such as cucumber, courgette, and shelled peas, along with occasional algae wafers. These are greedy fish, and are a little susceptible to bloating so take care not to overfeed, and go easy on the amount of dried foods given - avoiding all floating foods.
Breeding
Unlike the majority of Synodontis species, S. petricola has been bred in the home aquarium. Interestingly, it has 2 methods of breeding: egg scattering and brood parasitism. For the latter, the catfish coincides its spawning with that of a mouthbrooding cichlid and stealthily lays its eggs amongst those of the host fish. As the Synodontis eggs hatch more quickly than the cichlid eggs, the young catfish consume all the cichlid eggs, leaving the unsuspecting adult cichlid to guard the catfish fry as if they were its own. In the aquarium, well-conditioned S. petricola will breed via the egg scattering method. The spawning clinch follows a period of excited chasing from the male fish, with the eggs being deposited on the substrate or in a cave. The eggs should hatch within 24 hours, with the fry becoming free-swimming some 48-72 hours later.
