killi69 wrote:One supplier is currently selling this as Microsynodontis Cameroon / M batesii. If the fish is really sourced from Cameroon then it ought to be batesii...
Could this be the one??
Hi Andre,
I'm no expert on synos of any kind, let alone microsynos. But now that you've posted this I've gone back and looked at all the other posts in this thread, and I've examined the CLOG photos of batesii and sp(1). If I'm right, then this is also sp(1), not batesii. Here's why I say that:
When I compare all the photos of sp(1), what I see in common is the coloration of the tail. Specifically, the tail appears to have what you could interpret/describe either as a single broad vertical band (roughly in the middle of the tail) that gets broken into an upper half and a lower half, or as two large pigmented arcing spots, one in the upper half of the tail and the other below it. Besides this feature, there is also a very thin faint pigmented vertical line posterior to this. The tail is also gently forked with very round tail tips.
By contrast, when I compare all the photos of batesii, I see 3 to 4 thin vertical stripes (all of about the same thickness) passing through the tail, and in the photos on PlanetCatfish, I see no visible tail fork at all. The drawing clearly shows a rounded unforked tail.
Now I look at the photo above. The tail in the photo shows a single broad vertical stripe broken in the center. The tail is slightly damaged so it's difficult for me to say there is or is not a fork. But based on the broad vertical stripe, I would suspect this is sp(1), not batesii.
I can tell that you've been searching earnestly for a while. So for your sake, I hope I'm wrong.
Cheers, Eric
P.S. Also, if this analysis is correct, then maybe it will help you in the future to confidently confirm species ID when you find fish for sale in stores or on-line, so you can avoid bringing home the wrong fish, and avoid passing on the right one.
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