30 yo synodontis petricola?

[Chonk]

Hey there, just a coincidental stumbling across this forum.

Anyhow I was speaking to my granda tonight he's 85 years old and has been keeping fish from he was a youngster I'm not just talking one tank he has a hut he built with 20+ tanks and all sorts of tropical fish and has a library worth of books and when talking about the fish uses the fancy 20 letter long names that go over my head lol, he was even was a judge for some of the Northern Irish shows before they died out or atleast the ones he enjoyed.

Anyhow I was chatting with him tonight and gutted to hear he is considering giving up the hobby due to my grand mother's Ill health and him finding it harder to go out these cold nights and mornings to tend to the fishtanks , he's been shrinking his collection and giving away most of what he has to some of the younger people who keep in touch with him regarding the hobby . I'm trying to convince him to atleast setup one big tank inside so he has atleast something ! .

Now the interesting part(maybe...). He has a catfish! He believes is a synodontis petricola. The thing is i named this catfish pepsi as a very young kid (I'm 27 now) as I thought petricola sounded like Pepsi-Cola. I knew he had been kicking around as I always looked for him when I visited and before lockdown was the last time I was in the fishhut. he popped into memory during our chat so I was curious if he's still there and going strong and believe it or not he is , now he is atleast 27 because my granda has had him since before I was born and believed to have been 3 years old before my granda saved him from the fate of the toilet bowl ... I'm not joking a gent had met with my granda and offered him what was in his tank before he was flushing them so of course he took them and pepsi has been living the best life since. I've just been doing some googling on the species and see it mentioned an average lifespan of 5years ? And also found a post on another fish site of a gent who had a catfish from a seemingly similar family 25 years old. That was from 2011 and there was a reply from someone directing to here to keep you lot up to date. So I thought given the hobby and intrest of you guys and intrest myself I'll get some photos see if all these years has pepsi not Been a Pepsi-Cola or is he a freak of nature lol.

If you got this far through my slog of ramble congrats , the bad news is no photos as of yet I'm just typing this while it's fresh in my mind and also showing my granda how the internet works bless him. Stay tuned I'll try my best to get some photos by the end of next week when time and convenience permits as he spends most days visiting my nan in a care home and I wouldn't dare go into his fish hut unattended that's always been the big rule ,

Have a good one
Ben

[aquaholic]

Great story! Welcome to the forum.
I've sent you va private message.

[Chonk]

Thanks bud !,

Don't seem to see any messages from you

[Viktor Jarikov]

That piqued my interest for sure! Thank you for sharing and will look forward to the visuals.

[kvnbyl]

I have a group of five S. Petricola who are at least 26
They are so old they have gone to almost all dark brown, you can just make out the spots

[Viktor Jarikov]

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