WC Synodontis sp. "Kenya"?

[TalenT]

A wholesaler here in Sweden has just added "Wild Caught Synodontis sp. 'Kenya'" to their list.
Sadly, there is no photo but the size is said to be between 8 and 12 cm.
Does anyone here on PC have a guess on what species this might be?
I did a search on freshwater species of Kenya and found Synodontis serpentis having roughly the same size.
For the average customer the price is set to 357 Swedish Kronor = about 35 USD.

[Jools]

No idea, but a few of us would be interested if you find out more or get pictures.

Cheers,

Jools

[Birger]

I always have a hard time when a store advertises "Wild Caught" For example, I have seen among others, tanks full of "Wild Caught Albino" African Aulonocara cichlids. I realize they just call them what the exporter labels them as but research is very much needed before believing, as you are doing here.

[Bas Pels]

I always have a hard time when a store advertises "Wild Caught" For example, I have seen among others, tanks full of "Wild Caught Albino" African Aulonocara cichlids. I realize they just call them what the exporter labels them as but research is very much needed before believing, as you are doing here.

must be caught wildly

[Tropicalfishtt]

used to live in kenya a long time ago and was part of the Aquarist Society of Kenya...i had kept two synodontis from l. victoria...one was grey blue with black dots and the other was chocolate brown with yellow squiggles...i would have to go back in my notes to see what they could have been...cant remember any names off the top of my head...would be good if you had a pics

[Viktor Jarikov]

It'd be interesting to see your photos too, to know the species and read your stories.

[Jools]

The brown one would be

Synodontis afrofischeri

, the other probably

Synodontis victoriae

. Always interesting to read stories from where these fishes come from!

Jools

[TalenT]

Late answer:
The same wholesaler have both Synodontis afrofischeri and Synodontis victoriae on the list, which would suggest that these .sp "Kenya" are something else.
Just checked their website, still no photos.

[Kryptic]

I stumbled across this thread few months ago and immediately realised wich wholesaler and fish was in question.
I had ordered both Synodontis afrofischeri and victoriae from them but didn't dare to oder the sp. kenya because I wasn't sure if any of those fish were genuine. Both of the fish I odered proved to be genuine species although I think that the victoriae is actually S. ruandae. Time went by and I forgot the whole sp. kenya fish. Until I saw this thread. I decided to see if they still have it listed... and turns out even after a year or so they still have them. So I decided to order one.
Here are some pics I've managed to take of him (sorry for the dirty glass). My guess is that IF the fish is actually WC it is either S. zanzibaricus or rukwaensis. What do you guys think? If you want more pics of him I do have plenty!

[TalenT]

That is really interesting! Feel free to post more pics (and of the other two species too if you want).
I just checked, and "sp. Kenya" and S.victoriae are still on the list.

S.afrofischeri has disappeared though.

I didn't know that the Sweden-based wholesaler deliver to our neighboring countries. Nice.

[Jools]

The same wholesaler have both Synodontis afrofischeri and Synodontis victoriae on the list, which would suggest that these .sp "Kenya" are something else.

Sorry for the confusion, I was answering @Tropicalfishtt question and not the OP!

Cheers,

Jools

[Kryptic]

The fish sold as Synodontis afrofischeri were indeed genuine, but the fish being sold as S. victoriae proved to be a S. ruandae or at least the one specimen I got. Sadly I lost that fish few days ago because of a local heatwave, I'll attach some pictures of him here. The sp. "Kenya" seems to be something of the zambezensis/zanzibaricus complex. I'm leaning towards it being zanzibaricus, mostly due to the location provided being Kenya but then again who knows if these fish were actually collected from Kenya. And again I'll attach some photos of this fish as well. I would definitely want to know if the rest of the so called S. victoriaes are also ruandaes and what are the rest of the sp. "Kenyas". So if someone has room in their tanks please order some and post some pics!

[Kryptic]

Had to do an other reply to post the pics of the Synodontis cf. zanzibaricus! Also I noticed that S. ruandae only has drawings as pictures on the site so if my pictures are good enough you guys can use them.

[Kryptic]

Took me quite a long time to do an update on this fish. Finally went through my camera roll and found these fotos. I also got an confirmation, years ago now, that this fish is actually wild caught and apparently somewhere from the Tana river. I have also come to the conclusion that he is in the zambezensis/zanzibaricus complex and given that it comes from Kenya I am thinking that this is a

Synodontis zanzibaricus

. I will be redoing the tank he currently resides in, so hopefully I will get some better up to date fotos and proper measurements. Just by eyeballing it he seems to be about 22-25cm TL.

[Jools]

What characteristics are you using to determine the ID? I have no reason to doubt the ID but if we're going to really get into it, a good start would be what you see and think about the fish now.

Cheers,


Jools

[Kryptic]

I'm going of a lot by the description of Synodontis zambezensis on the book The Catfishes of Africa by Dr. Seegers. The fish is lead grey with a little hint of greenish brown, maybe best described as olive brown. All of the fins are of the same color as the body of the fish with markings, small darker grey spots. Comparing the humeral process to the ones pictured of S. zambezensis and zanzibaricus on the last pages of Max Poll's Revision des Synodontis Africains, I'd say that my fish is a good match to those. I was able to measure (and take new pictures) the fish on sunday and it is just around 24 cm Tl.

Now something that is interesting is the fact that the fish has lost all of its patterning on the body except on the adipose fin. I honestly haven't seen the fish for about a year, well since when I put it in the tank, I only see it during the night when there are no lights on. Now although the description of S. zambezensis is a good match Seegers mentions that rukwaensis, zambezensis and zanzibaricus are pretty much identical and divided mostly by their range. And since this one is caught from Kenya (maybe from the Tana, but not 100% confirmed) I have believed this one being zanzibaricus. But I also had the impression that zanzibaricus will have its patterning, like the southernmost population of zambezensis. Now there seems to be a lot of variability between specimens of zanzibaricus having larger or smaller spots, but then again mine has none anymore. Last year when I transfered him to this tank he still had spots all over his body, like he had on the photo I posted on the lasat post.