Brown Synodontis

[Kryptic]

I finally decided to register here and ask you what do you think this syno is? I bought her few years ago as a rescue. She is around 24cm SL and my guess is that she is either S. nigrita or rebeli. I'm pretty confident that she is not a hybrid but who knows.

[bekateen]

@Birger, any thoughts?

[Viktor Jarikov]

To a superficial glance, I'd guess a hybrid because I don't recall any genuine species having the same spotting on the body and in the fins, same size and same density of spots, while I have seen plenty of hybrids fitting this description.

But with the recent numerous additions to the syno genus I can't be so sure without looking through all available photos.

I hope a serious expert will chime in. I am very far from it.

[Jools]

Again, no expert, but I don't see any hybrid characteristics in here. My first thought was

Synodontis robbianus

but

Synodontis dorsomaculatus

and

Synodontis obesus

are closer in terms of colouration while still being roughly the right shape.

Jools

[Kryptic]

Thank you for all the replies. I think I forgot to mention that those fotos are taken with flash to show her pattern a bit better. Below is a pic that shows her true colour and a close up of her mouth/barbels, if that offers more help. Dorsomaculatus seems to be a good option, only thing is that size since my specimen is 10cm longer than what is reported as the max lenght for dorsomaculatus. Obesus is one that I have been thinking but something about the humeral process and adipose fin seem slightly off. Maybe I'm just overthinking that and it is a obesus.

[Viktor Jarikov]

I'd trust Jools over myself for sure but thought I'd point out - all three proposed species linked above feature bands or regularly arranged bands of spots in the caudal fin, which to my eye the fish in question doesn't feature at all.

I submit this is a pretty shallow observation.

[Kryptic]

Yeah I have to agree with you Viktor, the pattern is little off on the fins. This is partly why I was originally suspecting that she is S. rebeli because in its description in Seegers' The Catfishes of Africa it says "...with numerous irregularly distributed, roundish black spots of around pupil to eye size. These extend all over the head, body and fins." The pictured fish there does also remind my fish, but I'm still quite unsure if my fish is actually S. rebeli.

[Birger]

I woud go with it being a member of the rebeli/obesus sort of complex.
Very hard to distinguish and I would not be surprised to hear there are more species.