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We have a common Syno eupterus, who is about 7 years old. We also have 2 other (related) unknown Synos in the tank, about 2 years old. Is it possible for the 2 different species of Synos to breed? The eupterus suddenly has a huge belly. I am not even sure if they did breed if the fry would actually survive or maybe be all females.
I have included some photos of both species, you can see the larger eupterus is very fat. Sorry they are a bit blurry.
We do not know what species this other, less spotted Syno is. Thanks!

i dont know what the other one is either, but it is very nice. I dont think they will breed together.

Is it possible for the 2 different species of Synos to breed?

Having syno's breed is an uncommon occurrence in itself...so you should have no worries about them crossbreeding

The hybrid syno's that have been out circulating around are hormonally induced man made manipulations

So to answer your question I guess it would be possible but I would really doubt it would happen without these manipulations

Birger

Hello, thank you. Yes, I didn't think they could, it's just this common Syno's stomach is now huge, which you can see in the photos, his/her stomach was flat until recently.

The other 2 I can not identify, but they are siblings, the 3 of them always whisker each other out of hiding spots, which is fun to watch.

The eupterus has an interesting history tho. He/she has survived 3 moves, one all the way from Detroit to Las Vegas. Then periodically he gets these weird scale infections and he'll lose a bunch of scales. Over the summer he got this infection and it was so bad, all the skin/scales on one of his anal fins came off. It was a bone sticking out, I felt really bad, then the bone fell off and he was without an anal fin. Then you know what? He REGENERATED that anal fin! I didn't even know that catfish could do that! He is fine now, except the pregnant looking stomach

He is fine now, except the pregnant looking stomach

The most likely cause of this is being the most dominant of the three it gets first choice at the food...or maybe it has discovered the food put out for the pleco shown or maybe a spawning from other fish,but definitely keep an eye on it.There have been more than a few pictures of eupterus that look like they have swallowed a marble so it is not uncommon.

The other 2 I can not identify

I have been trying hard to convince myself your other two syno's are "not" hybrids but I can not do it
Hopefully someone else can....

Birger

Would more photos help? I'll try to do some more of them tonight. I got them at Petsmart, they are a little smaller than the eupterus.

The other 2 very much look like hybrids, possibly with ocellifer in the mix somewhere - note the hump between the head & dorsal on the more spotted of the two.

Synos have become gravid in hobbyists tanks but spawning is not common & "natural" hybridisation is extremely unlikely.

Anyway, I had the same bloat belly problem with one of my Synos. However, this problem persisted until the poor fish died... So it might, MIGHT be a disease...


Guanlong, the lurker.

yes i can confirm the bloated eupterus picture is gut block ,
i have seen it before in books but not experienced it with my synos maybe someone on here can suggest a treatment for it ?.

It does look like the belly is food-full rather than gravid. If it is a blocked gut - what has caused it? Do you feed beefheart? Do you only feed dry prepared food? As a "treatment" for a blocked gut you could try feeding copious amounts of daphnia which can have a laxative effect.