Not even a cory?

[Brengun]

I purchased 3 of these fish today at the lfs. They were labelled as Corydoras Melanistius and I paid $11.95 each for them. I had been brushing up on what types of corys I wanted to buy and while I couldn't remember what a Melanistius looked like, I did remember the name and that it was a good looking fish.
When I got home and checked the cat-elog I found it is definitely 'not' a Melanistius.
I am even having doubts that they are even corydoras at all. For one thing, one has claimed the bn log for itself. They like to swim up the glass on their bellies, and when I turned the tank light off, they started swimming upsidedown!
Don't get me wrong, they are a spectacular looking fish and I love them but what the heck are they?

[MatsP]

Alsmost 100% sure it's a

Synodontis euptera

Looks very similar to this:


--
Mats

[andywoolloo]

my favourite catfish!!

in real person are they more black then brown? is that just how the pic came out? And are their big long front whiskers that go the sides dark or light like in the picture?

[Brengun]

Ahhhhh, so they are not corys and it is normal to swim upsidedown as they are an upsidedown catfish.
If they are juveniles, I will keep an eye on how they change from marbling to spots. Even the adults still look a cool fish. They will have to graduate out of the 2ft cory tank later on to the 3ft community, and then I might have to invest in an even bigger tank.

Thankyou so much for identifying my fish. I was really worried when they swam upsidedown as I had never seen anything but a loach or a dead fish do that.
The really, really funny part is, I directly asked the lfs if they had any upsidedown catfish for me to look at as I have never seen one in real life and they denied having any.

[MatsP]

The really, really funny part is, I directly asked the lfs if they had any upsidedown catfish for me to look at as I have never seen one in real life and they denied having any.

That is too typical - unfortunately, not all LFS' know what they have in stock.

--
Mats

[Brengun]

I will just have to see if the mottling turns to spots with maturity or not.
Another possibility is S.Schoutedeni which only gets to 6 3/4' which is small than S.Eupterus 8".
Faint hopes it is S.Aterrimus which only gets to 3" but it doesn't look likely on this comparison link.
http://www.scotcat.com/factsheets/synod ... tedeni.htm

[Marc van Arc]

Sorry to disappoint you here, but this is no S. schoutedeni. As Mats said it's S. eupterus, no doubt.

[Richard B]

agreed - S.Eupterus

[Brengun]

I emailed the manager of the lfs and pointed out the error of his staff. He has looked at his orders and the fish is indeed an S.Eupterus. He offered to take back the fish and give a refund but I love these fish and I am not returning them. I did cheekily ask for a discount on a 4 or 5ft tank in the future.

[andywoolloo]

Who are your eupterus's going to live with, in their tank?

[Brengun]

While they are just little fellas and they are quite small, they are in the cory tank with cories, an elephantnose and a coupla guppies and balloon rams and 2 juvi bns.

Then they can upgrade to the 3ft with whiptails, glass cats, coupla danios (my cycle fish), dw gouramis, pearl gouramis, clown loaches (who will also be wanting a bigger tank one day), kuhli loaches, and a coupla angelfish, coupla bolivians, and a fullgrown SAE. There are currently some little tetras in the 3ft but they will be migrating to the nano tank when either the angelfish get big and hungry or the upsidedowns do.

I am currently cleaning the rubbish out from the storerooms under the house and intend to get a bigger tank or two. My house is flexable timber floors upstairs so large bodies of water are limited as the water vibrates when you walk heavy. Running or jumping near my tanks is banned.

[davenia7]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but isn't S. Euruptus (sp?) an African catfish? Therefore, shouldn't it have harder water to thrive? I have 2 with my African cichlids and at 9 inches long, I consider them thriving.

[Suckermouth]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but isn't S. Euruptus (sp?) an African catfish? Therefore, shouldn't it have harder water to thrive? I have 2 with my African c*****ds and at 9 inches long, I consider them thriving.

Africa doesn't mean rift lake; it has rivers too, which are not necessarily as hard as the lakes. S. eupterus actually originates from rivers, such as the Nile and Chad, rather than any of the rift lakes. That said, S. eupterus is hardy enough to tolerate harder water.

[Bas Pels]

The Cong river basin has waters as acid as the Amazon basin has.

Not surprising, because in both cases we are talking about rainwater which fell on dead plant material, and was shielded from bedrock under it

[Jools]

Actually, the top image is much better than the similar one we have - any chance we can use it on this site? If so, please can you email it to me?

Cheers,

Jools

[sojapat]

On A lighter note They are swimming the right way up from Here
Sorry to wreck back to the topic