Decorus or not Decorus, that is the question

[terrylen]

Hi guys,
I have a few species of african catfish that id like to check their ID,
This first one i bought 3 of as Syno Decorus
What Think you???

This is one of the 3 i bought as Decorus??

[Birger]

These are hybrids...first giveaway, if you look at the pictures in

Synodontis decora

compare the humeral process(the pointy thing above the pectoral fin) in yours it is long and pointy where it should be broad and blunt.

Birger

[terrylen]

Thanks Birger- after hovering over the decorus pic i can see straight away that they look very different. Would there be a danger of these guys breeding with some petricola i have in the same tank?

[MatsP]

Thanks Birger- after hovering over the decorus pic i can see straight away that they look very different. Would there be a danger of these guys breeding with some petricola i have in the same tank?

Seems unlikely. Aside from a few species (one of them being S. lucipinnis which seems to be what your other fish are) that breed with any regularity in captivity. There are some other species that have been bred once or a few times in captivity, but that's still quite rare. So far, I'm not aware of anyone breeding S. decora, and hybrids are produced by injecting one or both with hormones - something I expect you are not planning to do... There are no known records of breeding hybrids with themselves or other species (other than what we suspect is hybrids made in "factory" by crossing an already hybrid with an unknown other parent).

--
Mats

[terrylen]

Thanks for the info mat- I do have another pair of synos in the same tank (apart from the hybrids and the syno lucipinnis).
I bought them around 6 months ago from a breeder as a breeding pair of syno petricola, when i bought the breeding pair they were in a tank of their own with a lot of syno babies- if you dont mind id like to check whether these are lucipinnis or petricola
these came from a different supplier than the hybrids and the lucipinnis. at the time i also bought what i think are chocolate zebra plecs ( he was selling them as leopard frog plecs)
heres a pic of what i bought as (Breeding pair of Syno petricola)

[Birger]

Synodontis lucipinnis

that last pic it has strange markings but these can be very variable.

Have a look at this it may help you http://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworl ... lucipinnis

Birger

[terrylen]

Thanks Birger- The article was great! but it still left me wondering about the juveniles i have on my other post- the photos are a bit clearer on that- these arent the offspring of this adult pair (unfortunately

[Viktor Jarikov]

Hi guys,
I have a few species of african catfish that id like to check their ID,
This first one i bought 3 of as Syno Decorus
What Think you???

I'm no expert (Birger is) but I think that in addition to the humeral area being different, decorus should have stripes on the caudal - yours does not; Cat-eLog shows big variability in the dorsal coloration but the tail stripes are a must, I think...


also decorus should have all 6 barbels, including the 2 maxillary ones, branched, not only the 4 mandibular ones and should display a nice dorsal extension (unless bitten/torn off but should grow back)...