Synodontis ID, potential S. Ocifeller?

[BadGaskets350]

First post here, thrilled to find this site because I've been a catfish fanatic my whole life.

Picked up this syno from a shipment of S.nigriventris but clearly is something different.

It's barely 1.5"/38mm long and definitely nocturnal. Hides in a driftwood hole all day.

Resembles pics of S. Ocifeller but I'm not experienced enough at identifying the less common Synos.

[Jools]

It's a joy you're here! This looks like S. ocellifer to me. Might be farm raised, but the yellow fins tends towards a WC fish.

HTH,

Jools

[BadGaskets350]

Hmmm. Any idea how quickly they grow? He's eventually going into a 120 gallon 4x2x2 but based on what I'm seeing, that's still a temporary home for him.

[Jools]

From small about 1" per six months, more if lots of space and food. A 4x2x2 would be a fine home for one. What do you plan to keep it with?

Cheers,

Jools

[BadGaskets350]

I'll be keeping it with an eclectic community of medium sized cichlids and other catfish around a neutral pH.

The 120 will be connected to several other tanks (75g, 80g, 29g) all on a common 50g sump. All the other tanks and sump will be in a utility closet and very lightly stocked, there mostly to add water volume and act as a sanctuary or grow-out tank.

[BadGaskets350]

Well, crud, this fish is just utterly gone. It's not hiding, I've checked the couple pieces of driftwood, and there's no dead fish anywhere so perhaps it jumped out and flopped somewhere hidden. Either way, this stinks.

[naturalart]

Have you checked your 'furniture' (ie. driftwood, ornaments) thoroughly? Syno's can lock themselves into small cavities and not let go for periods of time (or at least until they can't breath). Take the furniture out of the tank and set it on a towel. Wait a few minutes, it might just fall out of the hidey-hole on its own, or you can put it back into the tank and it will swim out on its own because it doesn't want to experience being pulled out of the water again. Hope this is the case for you, good luck!

[BadGaskets350]

Yeah actually I did check it, there's 2 hug hunks of driftwood that he could hide in and I inspected them out of the tank thoroughly whilst doing maintenance.

It's possible he's somewhere else but there's not much else in that tank

[BadGaskets350]

Ha! Well, apparently I suck at hide-n-seek. Despite the fact that I inspected ALL the nooks and crannies of the driftwood, he's still in there. I decided to take a nocturnal peak, and here's what I found hiding behind the driftwood.

[Jools]

Good news!

Cheers,

Jools

[BadGaskets350]

Ok so this guy has grown to about 1.5" and got moved into a 120 gallon today. Looking very healthy and not quite as secretive as it used to be. Still not exactly a party animal.

I'm thrilled at how this one is turning out!