PlanetCatfish.com

Does anybody ever see these guys around? While working for the fish Dept at a pet store I came across some listed for $10 bucks wholesale; I was a little skeptical since I had seen them listed on an internet page at one time for $75. I went ahead and ordered 6 of em but they turned out to be a variant of Syn. congicus. I'm not ready to get any right now but I was just curious on how difficult it is to get them.

They are fairly rare as synos go. Sometimes, the somewhat similar (and much cheaper) <i>S. brichardi</i> is sold as <i>S. ornatipinnis</i>.
I have seen even <i>S. decorus</i> sold as <i>S. ornatipinnis</i>. You sure those are <i>S. congicus</i> and not <i>S. decorus</i> you have? The real <i>S. congicus</i> looks a lot more like <i>S. nummifer</i>.

S. ornatipinnis comes from around Mbandaka, the capital of Equateur province and a port on the Congo river a couple of days by barge upriver from Kinshasa. Due to the continuing civil war in the Congo, Mbandaka is periodically inaccessible.

Some hormone bred S. ornatipinnis do appear in LFS at quite reasonable prices, but generally, the fish is either seldom available and very expensive when available, or is some other species sold as S. ornatipinnis.

Dinyar

As I've said in an earlier posting, my ornatipinnis turned out to be an angelicus with squiggles rather than spots.

But that should be dead easy to see; because ornatipinnis, like many spotted syno's, has darker spots on a lighter background; whereas angelicus is the only syno AFAIK wich has lighter spots on a darker background.....

Yep they were Syn. congicus "Varient 1"; that is if the Aqualog African Catfish Collection is correct. Its on page 58 lower left. I found a site where a lady supposedly had tank raised ones http://www.blackwater.50megs.com/ornat.htm

The fish in the Aqualog Photoaltlas identified as <i>S. congicus</i> and <i>S. congicus</i> Variant I are not <i>S. congicus</i>. Variant I differs from the true <i>S. congicus</i> in having a different color pattern (<i>S. congicus</i> has a pattern like <i>S. notatus</i> or <i>S. nummifer</i>) and a triangular humeral process (<i>S. congicus</i> has a rounded one).
It looks a lot more similar to <i>S. decorus</i> (sans the dorsal fin filament) and is either that or a closely related (undescribed?) species.

I checked out Syn. Nummifer on this website. Much better pictures than the Aqualog atlas had of Nummifer. Yep thats what they were, I took them back to my store 6 weeks after. They were cool fish and did really well. I was just kinda upset that they were shipped as ornatipinnis.

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