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Anyone any ideas as to what my syno's are? I have two the same, approx 6 inches. Sold to me as Leopard Syno's.

I m very tempted to say they are hybrids. This is based on the "leopard syno" id at the dealer which has been used for hybrids quite a bit. Although they are not as obvious as some other specimens i can't put a genuine species name to them - are the photos of the same individual or two separate ones. The first photo has characteristics of certain species that it clearly is not - given the many species that hybrids could be generated from, this looks like a variation i haven't seen before & i'm tempted to say petricola is one of the "parents" but the barbels are quite long - as to the other parent i can only say it's a more common non-lake syno.

Then again i might be completely wrong! Anyone else? Birger? Marc?

The pics are of the same Syno, one with better settings on the camera. I'll go and get a pic of the other. Both same size approx 6 inches

pics of the second syno and both together. notice the second has more spots especially towards the tail.

The very first pic seemed to show a more slender individual but these further picsshow it isn't so - i'm still leaning towards a hybrid specie.

I am with Richard on this one....unfortunately...but I would like to dig around some more, I really want to be wrong

One question...are they fairly active?
Looks to me like they are


Birger

They are very active, only occassionally do they hide away and chill out for a bit. Lots of charecter about them and always snooping into all nooks and crannys. They are also very friendly and very graceful. Birger, why do you say you want to be wrong about the ID/comments? My main concern is the potential size they may reach, although they have slowed down growing. By the way, I really appreciate the interest and help you guys offer here.

I do not know what type they are but they are beautiful!

I think hybrids ... note the white edge on the dorsal.

They are very active, only occassionally do they hide away and chill out for a bit.

Being active tells me they have lake syno tendencies

why do you say you want to be wrong about the ID/comments?

I would rather be wrong and have it identified as a real species than give the all too familiar hybrid identification

My main concern is the potential size they may reach

I think they may be almost full grown given the lake syno ancestry i think it is, my guess would be Tangy lake syno mixed with S.nigrita(adipose fin shape,pattern on tail and anal fin) or something similar.
But this is just that ...a guess.

Birger

You sure do know your stuff. Once again, many thanks.

Looks like a hybrid to me

i usually think the hybrids look awful..........but these fish are pretty awesome.

tomr wrote:i usually think the hybrids look awful..........but these fish are pretty awesome.

I agree fully with this- hybrid synos usually look "wrong" in some way, but they look fantastic.

There are some of the hybrids out there that look great & if you don't mind them being hybrids then that's ok

I would prefer them never to have come into being but that's only my opinion.

The fish you have has a petricola shaped head portrayed brilliantly in the first photo & as mentioned before the tips of the dorsal & pectorals are pale, hinting at one side of the parentage - the other is a less desireable species, non-rift lake, but i don't think nigrita as those offspring look different & are featured in cat-e-log as hybrid 2.

Richard B wrote:There are some of the hybrids out there that look great & if you don't mind them being hybrids then that's ok

I would prefer them never to have come into being but that's only my opinion.

Yeah no complaints there- I also prefer genuine species of fish, and also dislike selectively bred variants on principle.

Nice looker. Looks like multie in there and ocellifer. . Don't see petricola but who will ever know.

Thanks everyone for the great comments. I agree with what you all say about prefering non-hybrids etc, but when I got I was a complete novice (still am to an extent) but I do like these two. Not only do they look good, they have so much personality. Thanks again for all your help, I have been educated.

When I watched first picture it looks similar than S. courteti(shape of head, dorsal fin, colour), but in next pictures its something else, so coppered eyes with "normal" hybrid look I would say its hybrid too.

Hybrids or not, they are brilliant-looking synos. Our comments on hybrids in general relate to the fact that many fishkeepers like to keep "genuine" species rather than fish which could be a mixture of species (especially if the hybrids are fertile and can back-cross with the original parent species), but in terms of sheer looks, yours are as good as any synos I've seen.

Thank you Carp37