Tropical Fish Hobbyist - October 2010

stands guard at the nest, rebuilding and repairingitasneededuntilthe eggs hatch. Once hatched, the fry float for a while near the nest but soon scatter throughout he aquarium.

Ancistrus dolichopterus eggs.

Lip-Brooders

Dr. Jurgen Schmidt

Pseudohemiodon apithanos is known as the chameleon whiptail cat because of its long, narrow body and ability to change colors and markings to blend in with its surroundings. These Loricariidae cats are what we refer to as lip-brooders. The male broods the mass of 20 or so eggs under his body, holding them in place with his elongated lower lip.

Though not very active when carrying, he will move around and even bury himself in the substrate. If he were to drop the egg cluster, he will simply return to it, pick it up again, and carry on. In the Bodrock fishroom, eggs that have been artificially incubated almost always hatch prematurely, and the fry soon die. It is believed that secretions from the male’s mouth protect the eggs from microorganisms that attack them. The newly hatched fry are large enough to take microworms and live baby brine without any problems and grow rapidly. The adults may reach a length of 6 inches. The fry are miniature replicas of the adults and possibly the cutest baby fish you will ever see.

Bob Allen

Cuckoo catfish Synodontis multipunctata fry; like the cuckoo bird from which it derives its common name, S. multipunctata is a brood parasite, laying its eggs alongside those of a mouthbrooding cichlid, who then picks the catfish eggs up and incubates them—with fatal results for the cichlid’s own spawn.

and gouramis don’t have anything on Hoplosternum littorale. Like anabantids in the shallow rice paddies of Asia, this armored South American catfish is adapted for life in shallow, oxygen-deprived ditches and ponds. Hoplos gulp air from the surface like anabantids and blow bubblenests to incubate their eggs. This behavior is thought to enhance the offspring’s survival by keeping them near the surface where oxygen levels are higher.

In nature, they anchor their nests
to leaves or branches. In the Bodrock
fishroom, however, the preferred nesting
anchor is a floating yellow coffee-can lid.
When offered a choice of other colors, the
fish selected a yellow lid every time. The
large rubber-like eggs, which can number
in the hundreds, are very adhesive and
difficult to remove from the lid. The male

Cuckoo Cats

Native to Lake Tanganyika, Synodontis multipunctata has one of the most unusual breeding strategies. Dubbed cuckoo spawners, for the European bird that lays its eggs in other birds’ nests, these catfish deposit their eggs during the spawning frenzy of mouthbrooding cichlids. The female cichlids unwittingly pick up the catfish eggs and incubate them in their mouths along with their own. The catfish eggs are the first to hatch, and, while still in their host mother’s mouth, the young proceed to devour the cichlid eggs! When the cichlids release them, they are fully developed and able to fend for themselves.

Juvenile Corydoras adolfoi.

…And More!

TFH Archives

These are just a few of the many breeding strategies of the huge and diverse group known as catfishes. Hundreds of species can be bred in the home aquarium, so you can witness these amazing behaviors firsthand. D