Pet Forum / Aquaria / Cichlids / April 2005

I've recently purchased a small batch of s. njassae catfish, approx 2-3
cm in size.

Normally, Mbuna tend to leave them be, atleast from what I know, but
upon introduction to the tank, my ps. crabro snatched one, and started
"chewing" on it.

Now, seeing as it happened in the back of the tank, and quite fast, I
don't know whether it got away immediately and it was simply gasping
because of irritants from it's spines. it's entirely possible that he
was infact trying to munch it down, and it got spewn out due to stress
after I started chasing him around the tank, to put him in quarantine
untill I've heard of a few experiences with this subject.

It's probably worthwhile noting that it wasn't a one-time only thing, he
snapped at the njassae's, in multiple `attempts' - in what didn't look
like normal aggression to me - but more of a "FOOD!" approach.

my question is this:

should the njassae's spines be more than a match for this seemingly
hungry fish, or should I let them grow up some more in a seperate tank?
as of right now, the ps. crabro is in isolation, to avoid mishaps.

I've been contemplating that seeing as ps. crabro feeds on catfish eggs
among other things in a specialized way, it -could- be entirely possible
that it's considered food items. on the other hand, I doubt this
speciment to be anything but f1000, but I can't tell for sure as I
purchased him along with the tank second hand, and the previous owner
didn't even know the name of the fish. according to previous owner the
fish were: "blackie" (ps. crabro) "big blue guy" (ps. sp. "msobo") and
"the yellow ones" (lab. caeruleus), so as you can guess - additional
info on them were sparse.
anyhow - my point was that if it's f1000, it's doubtful that it's
behavior it's learned during it's lifespan in which case it could be:

1) Instinctive "knowledge"
2) is this food? *chew*

I'm a bigger fan of 2), really. and if that is indeed the case, the
spines of the catfish might convince it to leave it alone after a few
tries......

if it is indeed imported from Malawi, things could be otherwise, but
google have left me empty handed.

any clues? advice? flames?