Synodontis longirostris (Cont)

[pickles4601]

This is continued from my "Madtom with worms" thread:

i got this little guy from Petsmart for 4 bucks. They had him labeled as

Synodontis longirostris

but some were questioning that as i was. Here are some decent pix:

[Richard B]

This is a cheap hybrid & nothing like genuine longirostris.

[Viktor Jarikov]

In all my scouting endeavors, NY, CT, NC, I've never seen a longirostrus for sale. Petsmarts, Petcos, and the likes'd be the last places I expect to find an interesting fish. Also, while their dept managers may know their fish, their assistants far more often than not know next to nothing about fish. You'd be lucky to find one that, when said "synodontis", understands it, more rarer, knows it is a kind of catfish, further rarer can spell it, and next to never, can tell differences between even most common of synos. Most of these kids were selling ice cream or packing groceries in their prior employments.

[apistomaster]

In my small community the only independent fish and pet shop has had these and they are quite variable in the degree of spotting patter and not very expensive so I thought I was finally seeing the frequently discussed Synodontis hybrids. Now I am certain.
I do not know very much about African Catfish except the Smaller "dwarf" Electric catfish I shipped in a couple of times. At only 4-5 inches they had a jolt at least as strong as touching your tongue to a 9 volt battery. I had to try that as a kid as a rite of passage, I guess.

[pickles4601]

Hahaha I figured I'd get yinz going. It kinda looked like the pix if syno.long. but I assumed it wasn't.
Definatly right about the high school girl scooping fish. When I asked for "one of the synodontis" she scooped a "salt and pepper" cory. She sqid "hows this one?". When I told her that wasn't syno, she tried to assure me it was.....silly girl. Wrong continent!
Perhaps that's why they were reduced from $15 to $4....

Can you explain, to my untrained eye, how you know its a "mutt" and not a true Longirostris?

Any thoughts as to why he swims in fast circles on the bottom if the tank instead of a straight line? Hes NOT flashing or rubbing on anything, just makes small, fast circles every now and then.

[sidguppy]

Can you explain, to my untrained eye, how you know its a "mutt" and not a true Longirostris?

first: all longirostris are wildcaught.
even the smallest in the trade are likely to be at least 4".

second; because all the longirostris are wildcaughts, it's a rare species, but these you can buy for a dime and a dollar at every petshop in the world.
well, almost. they're all over the place, not just in the States ;)

third: the true longirostris is "snouty". it has a distinctive elongated shape and gives an unmistakable "horse head" impression.

fouth: the longirostris is covered with many small spots; spots wich have contrasting borders, not large vague fuzzy spots.

compare the shape of this with your fish:


the long horsey head:

[pickles4601]

I figured the snout thing was it. I guessed "longirostrus" was Latin for long nose. Could be wrong.....

[MatsP]

I figured the snout thing was it. I guessed "longirostrus" was Latin for long nose. Could be wrong.....

Longirostris is indeed meaning "long nose", technically "long rostrum" (rostrum being the area of the nose and mouth on the head).

--
Mats

[Richard B]

We only ever had a couple of Longi's come into the shop when i was in the trade & were £60 each & that was late 80's - lots of genuine species were available (for a price). I know of less than half a dozen others that were genuine in the UK in my 30+ years of fishkeeping

[panaque]

We only ever had a couple of Longi's come into the shop when i was in the trade & were £60 each & that was late 80's - lots of genuine species were available (for a price). I know of less than half a dozen others that were genuine in the UK in my 30+ years of fishkeeping

Trimar have one on their stocklist at the moment for 125GBP: http://www.tropicalfish.org.uk/stocklist.htm
I haven't seen it but they are usually good at identifying their stock and it says it's wild and rare...

[Richard B]

We only ever had a couple of Longi's come into the shop when i was in the trade & were £60 each & that was late 80's - lots of genuine species were available (for a price). I know of less than half a dozen others that were genuine in the UK in my 30+ years of fishkeeping

Trimar have one on their stocklist at the moment for 125GBP: http://www.tropicalfish.org.uk/stocklist.htm
I haven't seen it but they are usually good at identifying their stock and it says it's wild and rare...

Yes - i believe this one is genuine(if it is still there), (another poster who knows his stuff has confirmed this) & this is included in my total number in my previous post. MA Wembley had one a coupla years back too.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Wow. That sounds rare indeed. Too bad for me as these guys grow big, ~2'.

[Richard B]

Wow. That sounds rare indeed. Too bad for me as these guys grow big, ~2'.

@ Viktor - have you considered Syno Acanthomias? Tough, large & superficially similar to Longirostris but more available

[TP]

With regards to the fish at Trimar, there is mention of it and a small picture in this months issue of Practical Fishkeeping in the shop section. It looks pretty snouty.

Richards suggestion of the acanthomias is a good one, mine is great.

[sidguppy]

that's a pretty neat stocklist...they even label hybrids as hybrids wich is honest

there's a pleurops in there!
if you like a real odd syno wich is gentle, active and grazes as much algae as a pleco; you can't get better than those.

[syno-kev]

A guy in south wales selling 2 x longirostris for £125 each which is double what the one at Maidenhead Aquatics Wembley sold for and last i heard he had sent it to one of the major dealers to sell for him ,
he did post a mail on here last year asking for value and identification so this maybe the same one ?

[Viktor Jarikov]

Richard, thank you! Also thanks for the helpful email about larger synos.

Panaque, thanks, indeed nice stocklist and the Company's website has a real nice feel to it. People know their fish and care about both the fish and customers.

Syno-kev, what's the striking syno in your avatar? Real? Almost too pretty to be real...

[syno-kev]

that is syno-decoras i have one about 8 inches in my main tank they also call it the african clown for obvious reasons !

but be aware of hybrids on this as theres hundreds around at the smaller shops but if you go to one of the shops that specialize in catfish you should find a genuine one.

also checkout my personal favorite syno-flaviteniatus the pyjama catfish much harder to find and they are very slow growing but live in excess of 30 years mine is about 4 inches now and only a baby its about 7 or 8 years old at a guess,
but theres lots of nice synos you just have to be very patient to find the rarer ones as sadly the best ones i prefer are in central africa and congo regions and not much coming out of there .

cheers
kev

[MatsP]

Discussion on S. flaviataenata continues here:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =8&t=31098

--
Mats