care of syno. robertsi

[fishy]

Hi all,

After much searching it appears as though I may be able to get a hold of a few syno. robertsi. I haven't seen them yet so hopefully that is what they actually are...

There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of info out there regarding their care, so I have a few questions for the experts here. The tank I have ready for them is a 55g fairly heavily planted that currently houses about 6 or 7 oto's + 5 giant oto's and a few snails. How many should I get for a 55g, would 6 be too many? Also what are their preferred water paramenters?

Any advice would be appreciated,

Thanks!

[MatsP]

Have a look at

Synodontis robertsi

As the abvoe says, water should be soft [implied by the pH] and pH around 6.5-7.

It doesn't grow very large, so 6 in a 55g tank should be fine as long as the tank doesn't get overstocked by other inhabitants of course.

[yorkshiredavid]

Hey Folks

Synodontis robertsi are NOT ALWAYS EASY to keep in good health (although piggy4 from this forum has done very well with his S. robertsi). If you go to the Ryedale Aquarist Society website at http://www.ryedaleaquaristsociety.co.uk then to the articles section you will find a very informative article (one of a number on Synodontis) on Synodontis robertsi here.

Regards yorkshiredavid

[fishy]

Thanks for the quick replies! I have read that article and it wasn't very encouraging...I hope they do OK for me. I wouldn't be adding any other tank inhabitants, it would be just them and the oto's. The pH is around 7 but I imagine the water is fairly hard. I run a bit of CO2 to the tank and have crushed coral in the filter to buffer the pH.

I should have them next weekend, I'll post some pics for a positive ID once I get them.

[The.Dark.One]

A friend of mine had one and it was Ok in his neutral to slightly acidic water. He ended up selling it on.
It was quite a timid fish and if you are lucky enough to get a group of them I would buy a group. The other inhabitants should be OK but I wouldn't add any boisterous fish. I'm not sure if it will be happy in your water parameters?

[fishy]

I could easily remove the coral from the filter, but this would allow the pH to drop a bit more. The water from our tap is quite soft with GH4 and KH2. I just tested the water in the tank and GH was 11, KH 12. Is this too hard for them? It said on the catelog that excessively low pH will erode fin rays and membranes.

fishy

[Bas Pels]

As they come from rainforest - Africa, they prefer soft water - like you get from your tap. However, this will not always be acidic, and therefore you better use some buffer.

That is, the GH may, should, be low, but the KH better be 4 (or slightly higher)

Can you get sodium (bi)carbonate? We refer to it as Soda instead of the coral?

[racoll]

I have kept a group of 3 for a while now.

They started off fine, but developed the white lateral line and fin erosion common in S. eupterus. They were being kept in a big tank with loads of plecos (some fairly boisterous like Panaque sp. L204). The water was warm 28C, very soft and pH 6-6.5. These water conditions sounded ideal for riverine synos, but I had a feeling the acidity and temp was causing part of the problem.

I since moved the S. robertsi into a quiet 60L tank with a few anabantids and a spiny eel. I raised the pH (and hardness) of this tank to above 7 and dropped the temp to 24-25C. The S. robertsi have responded quite positively to this, with a distinct improval in the condition.

Thus I would recommend cooler, hard water with a pH >7 by keeping the coral gravel.

Quite a shy fish, but really cool. They get on well with each other so I would buy as many as possible (they may be more active in a big group). They eat any frozen or prepared food.

[fishy]

How hard is the water you have them in currently? I think I might turn the CO2 down a touch to raise the pH to 7.2 or so. Temps are currently at around 23C as the oto cats seem to appreciate cooler temps.

[racoll]

How hard is the water you have them in currently?

It is 450 microsiemens/cm.

[piggy4]

Hi Fishy , Robertsi are one of the most sought after of the Syno's ,if you get the chance to get some act quickly as they wont hang around too long , as Yorkshire David said i have one , and yes mine is shy ! i'd ideally like to have a small group of these , i nearly got the chance recently as one of our local shops imported a tank full , sadly they all died in another tank i have 3 S.Waterloti about 6 inches , and 10 Syno sp/s similar to Tourei [see thread] ranging from 2 inches up to about 5 ! i have thought about putting the Robertsi in with these mixed Syno's , BUT always thought the Robertsi might be a little too shy ? does anyone on these threads keep Robertsi in mixed Syno tanks
b t w Robertsi sometimes get mixed up with other Syno's , Soloni is shown as Robertsi in some of the books , if they are Soloni then the husbandry would be similar , again in my experience these are shyish fish also , though not as rare as Robertsi , they are not commonly seen and are well worth a try

[fishy]

My source said he could have them next weekend at the earliest, I'm dying to see if they actually are robertsi! I hope so. I will keep you posted.

Thanks for all the advice!

Fishy

[racoll]

Watch out for hybrids!