old Synodontis ID

[Stan]

Hello,

this guys have to be 14-15 years old now. They are about 20cm and quite aggressive toward each other. I suppose them to be hybrids but I'm not really sure.

Stan

[Silurus]

Looks like a hybrid, if you ask me.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Welcome, neighbor. I'm no expert but a bunch of mine, which look pretty much/identical to yours, have been ID'ed by the experts as hybrids too. These are the most prevalent syno hybrids in the US and sold commonly as "jaguar" syno and under other names - almost every LFS has them. The pic is a bit too dark to be 100% certain but I am presuming Silurus is 99.99% certain (Now, he IS THE expert.)

[tomr]

It looks great. Too bad if its a hybrid.

[Stan]

Thank you! Now I can be sured they are hybrids.

@Victor: thanks for welcoming . I never seen them in the german stores. Do you know who are the "parents"?

[Viktor Jarikov]

Interesting. The common presumption is that the majority are produced in Czech Republic and some say there is a production in Russia. Just something I read here and there. I am sure other countries are involved. If these fish are absent in Germany, does this mean they are banned there??? Hybrids are a hot topic here with some people losing their cool easily when discussing it. Just beware.

I could only guess that the parents of your fish might have been euptera (more definitely, probably a mother - big = lots of eggs, cheap), maybe an ocellifer... maybe a decora or multipunctata/grandiops, etc. because they aim to produce a spotted... "jaguar"-type spotty fish...