Synodontis ID: Small dot on head, large dot on body

[laotianking]

Long story short, i need an ID on these syno's. They might be hybrid, which i hope not.... I ran and took these pictures at the store today. The catfish has small black dots on their heads, and larger spots on the bodies. They have 6 barbel's. Two main ones and four smaller ones in the middle that are spike tipped or whatever you want to call it. The guy at the pet store says his distributor will throw in a bag of random fish in his orders to make up for any dead fish. He got these labeled as synodontis sp, like the window says.
The price is really expensive so i would not rather get these if they were in fact hybrids. But then again i might get a couple because it would make my tank a lot more interesting. Please help me identify these ASAP!!! If you need larger pictures i suppose i could email them, because i had to severely downsize these pictures. thanks

[Birger]

Compare them with these

Synodontis decorus

specifically the juvenile pictures
I think that should be it

Birger

[Lornek8]

Synodontis hybrid 'Valentine'. You can see it in the tail & dorasl patterns.

[laotianking]

Synodontis hybrid 'Valentine'. You can see it in the tail & dorasl patterns.

thanks, i believe you are dead on.

[andywoolloo]

cute little guys.

[laotianking]

cute little guys.

i'm still thinking about getting 4-5 of them so i can throw in my father's tank, i don't want them anywhere near my tangs. ;)

[MatsP]

That's obviously up to you. I would not knowingly buy a hybrid, as it's not produced in a natural way - to make different species breed together, the breeder injects the fish with hormones and strips the male and female sperm/eggs into a bowl, which is then incubated. Whilst I can see that using hormones and stripping the fish may technically be a viable option for breeding some fish - which is probably better than catching (rare) fish in the wild. But to mix two species together for the pure purpose of producing "different" fish when the natural ones aren't particularly different in the first place is beyond what I consider good practice.

Obviously, if you buy this fish, it promotes further trade of these man-made fish.

--
Mats

[Richard B]

Well said Mats

Hybrids... just not my cup-of-tea....oh well each to their own

[Bas Pels]

Does anyone have any information about the survival rate of the 'parent' fishes?

I would not assume they enjoy the treatment

[zenyfish]

Not sure it's really a hybrid. The shape of the head looks like a decorus, and it looks alot like this guy:


[Mod edit: Change URL tags to IMG (and change the image link to the actual image, rather than the page) tags to avoid need to click on the image link. -- Mats]

[Mike_Noren]

Does anyone have any information about the survival rate of the 'parent' fishes?

I've talked to a czech researcher who had experience with their fish-breeding industry, and according to him it is common that the parent fish does not survive. Apparently the deaths are caused by a number of reasons, from secondary infections from impure hormone extracts and dirty (re-used) needles, to the sheer damage caused by the injection.

Or, as he put it: "It's not surprising that fish die when you jam a big dirty needle into their brains!".

That said... intensive, industrial, animal husbandry, where efficiency is all that counts, is often brutal and distasteful, and I don't expect high-intensive aquarium fish breeding is either better or worse than any other.

[Richard B]

I dislike hybrids even more now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[Bas Pels]

Thanks Mike

I was afraid the answer would be like this

breeding synos as pigs are not allowed, and than selling them for us to 'enjoy'

Am I the only one who understands the world less by the day

[andywoolloo]

that's so depressing. they don't really stick a needle in their brain do they?