Cousin of Upsidedown catfish, ID HELP

[51504fish]

I have been asked by a fellow aquarist to rehome his 7 catfish. I brought one home to get a pic. and ID. He says it is NOT an upsidedown catfish. He said the fish are young, right now about 2 1/2 inches long. They have dark black markings mixed with a whitish color. I am leary of bringing all 7 of them home until I KNOW what they are and if I can home them properly. Thank you for any help you can provide.

[Martin S]

I'd say a young

Synodontis euptera

- chec out the CateLog page for other pics of this fish in it's juvenile colours and it's adult size.
HTH
Martin

[Mod edit: Fix old-style eupterus name to new euptera --Mats]

[medaka]

HI

This is a young

Synodontis euptera

and one that when young does not look anything like how they look when adult.

[andywoolloo]

they grow very fast! you can actually see them doing it it seems. Mine are two years old now and about 6 inches or so maybe over. their adult colouring is very beautiful also. mine are a beautiful charcoal colour.

I love your screen name by the way!

[medaka]

For further reading;
there is a Cotm article on this fish,, going way back to May 1997.

Look it up

[phoenix44]

yep definitely a euptera.
I got one that was sold as an upside down catfish (so only paid NZD11 vs. NZD60+ for a euptera)
they change colours and patterns as they get larger, and soon he will have a real fat belly ALL the time

[Carp37]

yep definitely a euptera.
I got one that was sold as an upside down catfish (so only paid NZD11 vs. NZD60+ for a euptera)

Whoa- am I glad I'm not in New Zealand- here in the UK euptera are about £5, which translates to about NZ$12

[phoenix44]

you should hear what we pay for the other plecos.
the "fancy" ones like tiger plecos (I know they are not fancy for you guys), and the rest START at NZS160

[walshy317]

i have 2 of them and they grow about 12inch, the shop called them high fin synos