Syno i.d. please

[syno_Haps]

Hey everyone, although this is my first post i have came over to planetcatfish for your help. I've had this syno cat for about 3 years now, and never knew what it was. I've looked through the cat-elog but nothing seems to match what it looks like. So here are a few pictures.





Here are a couple pictures i took a hour ago, i put the cat in a smaller tank to get a couple better shots.





Any suggestions please.

[naturalart]

Looks like cuadovittata or haugi in my humble opinion.

[MatsP]

I'm pretty convinced it's NOT S. haugi. The adipose fin is longer than in the adult

Synodontis haugi

.

Also, I'm starting to form the opinion that S. haugi has never been available in the trade. There is ONE of the fishes endemic to the Ogowe (Ogooue) river basin that has a keeper, and I'm far from convinced that is correct either.

Ogowe river fishes - this list shows fish that occur in the Ogowe river, but also fish that have a wider distribution. If you click on the ones with kepers (i: x, k: y) - if k is not zero, you have to check if the distribution is Ogowe, and you'll find that only

Synodontis albolineata

has ONLY Ogowe as distribution, and has a keeper.

This could be wrong in three different ways:
1. The keeper has misidentified the fish.
2. The distribution of S. albolineata is wider than the Ogowe basin.
3. The registered keeper isn't actually keeping the fish, but using the register as a "wish-list".

--
Mats

[jippo]

Looks like cuadovittata or haugi in my humble opinion.

I would say caudovittata, everything match. Very nice species

[Richard B]

Synodontis caudovittata

agreed

[MatsP]

Can you e-mail the pictures to me, mats at planetcatfish dot com, and copy webmaster (Jools), and I'll add those to the Cat-eLog.

I will need your full name and user-name in the e-mail as well (and make sure you are clear what the fish is, as I've got several synos in my inbox at almost any given time...)

--
Mats

[Birger]

It is refreshing to see the ID of a genuine species, they look to be in good shape .

Also, I'm starting to form the opinion that S. haugi has never been available in the trade.

This statement would be generally true and the fish is as you say generally not available...but we have here at PC seen some unusual or seldomly collected syno's come through over the years.
Which is nice as there could be a surprise around the corner any time and keeps me looking in back corners and under decorations anywhere I go.

Birger

[Dinyar]

Same fish as this

Synodontis frontosa

. Whether it's really Synodontis frontosa I don't know, but I've kept this fish for more than 10 years, and I'm quite sure it's the same fish.

[MatsP]

It is refreshing to see the ID of a genuine species, they look to be in good shape .

Also, I'm starting to form the opinion that S. haugi has never been available in the trade.

This statement would be generally true and the fish is as you say generally not available...but we have here at PC seen some unusual or seldomly collected syno's come through over the years.
Which is nice as there could be a surprise around the corner any time and keeps me looking in back corners and under decorations anywhere I go.

Birger

Agreed. I'm not ruling it out altogether that they will turn up once in a blue moon (or once in several blue moons). But I still think that if we only have ONE keeper of ONE of the Endemic species in Ogowe, it's clearly not something that is getting exported...

I'm not saying "give up trying" or "give up looking", but rather that the "convincement factor" [I just made that up! ;) ] needs to be so much higher than for fish that are from areas that have common export to the trade.

--
Mats

[Birger]

If I was to chose between

Synodontis frontosa

and

Synodontis caudovittata

I would have to go with S.caudovittata on this one, the absence of spots and the olive color in it's base colouration especially apparent when stressed but seen as well in the first picture where it is much darker brown with olive on the underside.

Birger

[syno_Haps]

its nice to put a species name to the fish. Thanks for the help,

Can you e-mail the pictures to me, mats at planetcatfish dot com, and copy webmaster (Jools), and I'll add those to the Cat-eLog.

I will need your full name and user-name in the e-mail as well (and make sure you are clear what the fish is, as I've got several synos in my inbox at almost any given time...)

--
Mats

I will get those pictures to you. Anything to help out, and return the favor.

[syno-kev]

i have the syno-frontosus and he is light grey in colour about 8 inches long,
very nice friendly fish and good with other synos !

[Birger]

It would be real nice to have the shot of the male in the first picture as well for the Cat-eLog...that is the way I think S.caudovittata should look like when feeling good about itself.

[MatsP]

I have another couple of photos, just got on with some of my own work.

--
Mats