Synodontis Omias?

polkadot · Post by **polkadot** » 29 Jun 2003, 17:20

Are these Synodontis Omias? They're around 8" and quite aggressive towards one another. How do I sex them? The previous owner claim that he kept them for 5 years to reach this size! Do they grow that slow?

Post by **Silurus** » 29 Jun 2003, 23:00

Do you have a close-up photo of the humeral process (the bone on the side of the body just behind the head)? From what I can see, it doesn't look like S. omias.

Post by **Dinyar** » 30 Jun 2003, 02:16

Actually, you can see the humeral of the front-most fish quite clearly. However, I have no knowledge of Synodontis omias, so cannot comment beyond saying that experience suggests that many of these claims of exotic species IDs turn out to be unfounded.

Dinyar

SynoPetri · Post by **SynoPetri** » 30 Jun 2003, 08:45

I agree with Dinyar, but in this case I would say the fish look a bit like S. macrops.

Post by **Dinyar** » 30 Jun 2003, 15:19

Silurus claims that our pix of S. macrops in the Catalog are really S. frontosus, which is highly plausible, but as I have never seen a picture of frontosus, I haven't been able to convince myself 100%. We've had our "frontosus" for four years, and it does not seem to have grown beyond 11 cm, which is much smaller than the 30+ cm length Fishbase reports.

Anyway, I doubt the pictured fish is S. macrops/frontosus, as the humeral process looks different. Here is a photo of the humeral on our fish...

Dinyar

Post by **Silurus** » 30 Jun 2003, 15:26

I am almost certain that is not S. omias, since S. omias is one of those species with an ornamented humeral process.
I will consult my syno bible (Poll) when I return to the US and see...

polkadot · Post by **polkadot** » 30 Jun 2003, 15:41

Will try to take another closeup shot...Thanks

polkadot · Post by **polkadot** » 01 Jul 2003, 11:22

Here's a closeup shot.

Post by **Silurus** » 01 Jul 2003, 19:18

That's definitely not S. omias. I'll have an answer to its exact identity in 72 hours..

Post by **Silurus** » 05 Jul 2003, 00:40

The closest I can get to is S. obesus, but I cannot rule out the possibility that these are very large S. nigrita. Has anyone seen full-grown S. nigrita (at or near maximum size) to disprove me?

Post by **Dinyar** » 05 Jul 2003, 02:40

S. nigrita was also my first thought. I've seen some pretty large ones. But then there are lots of non-descript Syno species that look vaguely similar, so I hesitate to proclaim "S. nigrita" with conviction.

Dinyar