Using a predatory fish to control "breeding like rabbits" Mbunas

[y2blade]

As per title...I read this on another website about Malawi community keeping, many of the users have a predatory fish solely to control the fry numbers!!!!!
What are the thoughts of this here?

To my mind it is logical, but I don't know... it just seems a bit mean

[190MPH]

Using a truly predatory fish may wind up controlling your actual adult population as well as fry! For excellent fry control, a group of 6 or so Synodontis Multipunctatus will do the job, add plenty of activity, and look nice as well.

[Crispy]

nothing wrong with a nice predator to keep the population from exploding. it's free food! I'm very partial to predators though.

[SW Florida Kid]

My african fry are always eaten within a week. =( What type of mbuna do u have? U risk a lot of tank aggression, stress, and bullying by putting a predator in there. ;)

[Northerly]

I am the kind of person who only approves of peacocks with peacocks, mbuna with mbuna(and syno cats), and tangs with tangs as well as vics with vics. I would not recommend keeping any sort of predator because of water parameters and extreme aggression issues. As mentioned, Syondontis multipunctatus, petricola, and other variants will do their part in controlling the fry population. I have about 18 fish in my 75 gallon plus 4 synodontis multipunctatus(they're expensive, plan on having 8 eventually) and I am surprised to see any fry surviving more than 2 weeks. I even used some newly stripped maingano fry as live food one time, and they were eaten as soon as they hit the water.(Did that because the fry had nowhere to go, and would have been eaten anyways)

[escamosa]

If you can't get, or afford the multipunctatus, Upside Down Cats (Synodontis nigriventris) do a pretty good job of cleaning up unwanted fry. Just like the multipunctatus, the Upside Down Cats like to be in a group of 4 or more.

[Northerly]

So to sum it all up, get some syno cats! :p I suggest researching them a bit first though.