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Synodontis Omias?
Posted: 29 Jun 2003, 17:20
by polkadot
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?
Posted: 29 Jun 2003, 23:00
by Silurus
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 <i>S. omias</i>.
Posted: 30 Jun 2003, 02:16
by Dinyar
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
Posted: 30 Jun 2003, 08:45
by SynoPetri
I agree with Dinyar, but in this case I would say the fish look a bit like S. macrops.
Posted: 30 Jun 2003, 15:19
by Dinyar
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
Posted: 30 Jun 2003, 15:26
by Silurus
I am almost certain that is not <i>S. omias</i>, since <i>S. omias</i> 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...
Posted: 30 Jun 2003, 15:41
by polkadot
Will try to take another closeup shot...Thanks
Posted: 01 Jul 2003, 11:22
by polkadot
Here's a closeup shot.
Posted: 01 Jul 2003, 19:18
by Silurus
That's definitely not <i>S. omias</i>. I'll have an answer to its exact identity in 72 hours..
Posted: 05 Jul 2003, 00:40
by Silurus
The closest I can get to is <i>S. obesus</i>, but I cannot rule out the possibility that these are very large <i>S. nigrita</i>. Has anyone seen full-grown <i>S. nigrita</i> (at or near maximum size) to disprove me?
Posted: 05 Jul 2003, 02:40
by Dinyar
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