Do dwarf petricolas need to be in schools

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Deadeye

Deadeye

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Like the title says. If I were to get a dwarf petricola, can I get only one or do they need to be kept in groups?

Are pairs fine, I wouldn’t know if it were a male and female though?
Are they one of the solo or large school fish?
 
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in my experience they are one of the synos that fair well either way. I have a tank of two and a tank of three so know they do ok in small numbers but have kept and seen them in larger quantities too as they are quite a relatively peaceful syno species.
Make sure what you get is actually petricola or lucipinis as these are the smaller varieties (4”) as getting multipunctatus is a different challenge, especially if you get a group (11”).
 
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They will be fine, but are more fun in groups. I second Fishman Dave Fishman Dave . Most petricolas in the the market are either petricola or lucipinis, but when it is wrong you can get a big fish.
 
Deadeye said:

I would hope LiveAquaria has it right. Picture at least looks like a lucipinnis (I know that isn’t one of the ones there).
Thanks for the replies! I had also been looking at nigriventris, but they think they wouldn’t do well in the hard water.
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That pic is petricola or lucipinis. Be wary though liveaquaria consistently label their bichirs wrong and some of the salt water fish also.
I have a gold nigriventis in hard water it's fine.
 
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Only a trained eye can tell petri from luci. And the size.
 
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What would you guys recommend, 3 nigriventis or 1-2 lucis. It would be in a 36 gallon bowfront with mbunas.
 
Deadeye said:
What would you guys recommend, 3 nigriventis or 1-2 lucis. It would be in a 36 gallon bowfront with mbunas.
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I love my dwarfs. Very active and they interact with each other in a good manner. My gold is a lump. If I didn't know for sure it was getting bigger I'd think it was dead. Also if it found a better hiding spot I'd never see it.
 
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Well, live Aquaria is out of stock on lucis, so nirgiventis it is.
 
Personally, in hard water with mbuna I’d wait or find another source for petricola or lucipinnis.
The pic in live aquaria was petricola IMO.
 
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