Synodontis njassae?

[Ladybugzcrunch]

This gal (I think) is between 6 and 7 inches from nose to tail tip. Browsing the catelog the closest I could get is Synodontis njassae large spot. She is pretty aggressive and will chase my mbuna around. She also killed the school of tetras you see in picture 2. She looks much better now then in the pictures, her fins got all tore up when she decided to poke them through the bag on the way home from the LFS! I also have fattened her up a bit. I think she has reached her max length as she has not grown any visible amount in 6 months. What do you think?

[MatsP]

Looks like

Synodontis decora

, but the spotted tail and the dorsal extension are wrong - this makes me believe that the fish is a hybrid species, formed by using hormones to make two different species breed together. One of the species is probably a true S. decora, and the other one is likely something with smaller spots.

I do have 4 S. decora - they do get a fair bit larger, but grow quite slowly after they reach about 4-5".

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Mats

[jippo]

Not njassae, it's hybrid decora. Looks very much genuine decora but caudal fin should have stripes not spots. This is the first hybrid that I see which have branched maxillary barbels.

*edit: you were faster Mats but at least we had same opinion

[Ladybugzcrunch]

This is the first hybrid that I see which have branched maxillary barbels.

Thanks for the ID. What does this mean?

[MatsP]

It means that it's a "good fake". Maxillary barbels are the ones on either side of the mouth (rather than the ones underneath the mouth), and most species of Synodontis (including S. njassae) have NOT got branches - "bits sticking out" - on the maxillary barbels, only on the mandibular barbels.

To learn more about the different "bits" are called on the catfish, have a look at the "Catfish Anatomy" under the "Help!" menu just under the "PlanetCatfish" logo at the top of the page.

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Mats

[Ladybugzcrunch]

Very helpful thank you! Hopefully it is mixed with something small as the profile says it can get to be over 10 inches! My mbuna will be snacks!

[MatsP]

They are not really predators, in my experience. I have a 3/4"

Corydoras sterbai

in the same tank as the my S. decora, and it's been in there since it escaped through a hole in the breeding net at about half it's current size. And my largest decora is between 6-8" long (total length). Of course, that's the true decora, not a man-made replacement. So it's a bit like saying "rubber behaves this way", and then realizing the rubber is not real rubber, but plastic.

By the way, your fish in the background of picture 2 looks like Tiger Barbs, which isn't a Tetra (Characin family), but an Asian Cyprinid fish (related to Carp). They may well have been terrorising the fins/barbels on the catfish - in India where they come from, there are larger catfish that is definitely "the enemy", so their natural behaviour is to go after fish with barbels and flowing fins, and bite them...

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Mats

[Ladybugzcrunch]

They are not really predators, in my experience. I have a 3/4"

Corydoras sterbai

in the same tank as the my S. decora, and it's been in there since it escaped through a hole in the breeding net at about half it's current size. And my largest decora is between 6-8" long (total length). Of course, that's the true decora, not a man-made replacement. So it's a bit like saying "rubber behaves this way", and then realizing the rubber is not real rubber, but plastic.

By the way, your fish in the background of picture 2 looks like Tiger Barbs, which isn't a Tetra (Characin family), but an Asian Cyprinid fish (related to Carp). They may well have been terrorising the fins/barbels on the catfish - in India where they come from, there are larger catfish that is definitely "the enemy", so their natural behaviour is to go after fish with barbels and flowing fins, and bite them...

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Mats

Barbs, I knew that and feel silly now The cat got them at night, I heard splashing and could see the silhouettes in the dark. She picked them off one at a time. She did not eat them just rammed them into a stupor or chased them out of the water into the lid of the tank. She never bothered the 1 inch brisslenose pleco in with her so I think you are right about the enemy thing. Hopefully she will not bother my mbuna, I think she is very pretty.

[Richard B]

This is a variant of the "valentine" hybrid, which gets as big as decora without question (i've seen 9 inch SL)