Stunning Cuckoo catfish @ Pet Stop SA

@Moolies.. Im sorry.. dont mean to high jack your thread but i thought this was really interesting regarding the cuckoo catfish so i hope you dont mind.

Taken from Tropical fish site:
Breeding: The most interesting thing about this catfish is its unusual spawning behavior, which includes utilizing mouth-brooding Cichlids as foster parents for their fry. Unlike Cichlids, who spawn at very young ages, it takes about a year once S. multipunctatus have reached their adult size (3-5 years in all) before they will spawn. When 2 Cichlids begin to spawn, these catfish will come pouring out of their caves.

The unsuspecting Cichlids will continue to spawn, while the male Cichlid will attempt to drive the cats away. Notwithstanding, the catfish will snatch a Cichlid egg each time they are dropped, faster than the mother can pick them up. And, …as they eat the Cichlid eggs, they drop their own. In her haste to pick up her eggs, the female Cichlid will pick up the eggs of the S. multis and incubate the catfish eggs along with whatever eggs of her own she was able to secure.

While it takes almost two weeks for most Cichlid fry to hatch, S. multipunctatus will hatch after 3 days. And once they hatch they begin to feed on the Cichlid eggs. How’s that for ingenuity! By day 5, they will normally have devoured the entire Cichlid brood. The miniature catfish will grab onto the eggs and suck them dry. If left to their own devices, they will even begin to prey on each other. That’s why it is wise to strip the mothers after 2-3 days and immediately begin feeding the S. multipunctatus fry baby brine shrimp.