upside down catfish mating

Question
I was wondering if you knew what the upside down catfish do when they are mating?  we have some in our tank and they just keep going mouth to mouth almost like they are fighting but this is the first time we have seen them do this.  I was wondering if you knew if they did this while mating?  thank you for your help.( if you don't know thats ok)
James

Answer
Hi James,
Unfortunately Upside down Catfish currently are not being very sucessfully bred in the aquarium. I'm sorry if you had your hopes up about it. There have been limited numbers of sucessful spawnings but I am not aware of how these spawnings were accomplished and who did it. Female Upside down cats are larger, paler in coloration, and have a plumper, more rounded body. You can try to induce spawning by the feeding of live foods and softening their water to stimulate spring rains to increase the odds of sucess. The mother and father fish can be left in the spawning aquarium as they will tend to the brood. It takes two months for the little fry to begin swimming in the upside down fashion.

I'm not for certain why your Upside down cats are going mouth to mouth. Perhaps this is a behavior when they are fighting over certain hiding spots or food.
But because breeding has never really been observed, I cannot say for sure if this is why they are doing that.

Thanks for your consideration! I'm sorry I don't know exactly, perhaps you will be the first one to spawn these odd catfish and tell everyone everything about it! ;-)

Did you know Upside down catfish are commonly well known to live well into their teens and sometimes even twenties! I once heard of some of the first Syndontis catfish owned by a well accomplished aquarist live for 25 years.

I really hope this helps!
Best wishes and happy fishkeeping!
Karen~