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I bought a 360lt tank last week - and with it i got given this catfish and i have no idea what it is -

I think its a "she" she's approx 6 inchs long - looks very fat-or is she full of eggs?
i was planning on putting her into a cichlid aquarium but...... dont want to hurt the fish if she's not suited for water or cichlids.
The guy who gave it to me was told it was a leopard cat - Any truth in this?
any info or suggestions would be great
Thanks guys
Terry

I'd say , although I'd be concerned about the shape/size of it!
What sort of cichlids were you considering?
Martin

she's about 6 inches long (15cm)
and she does look pretty fat - although im not sure if its fat or eggs -or something else ?
What do you think ?

cichlids-
all of them are not juvenile but between 2 to 4 inches
around 20 cichlids - yellow labs - female auratus peacock cichlids,some synodontis- i'll ad a pic onto this of it

nice looking tank, but I cannot imagine a syno in there. I'd worry the cichlids would injure her/him.

I do not know what kind it is, but it's a syno. Her/his belly is either just wayyyy eaten chubby or maybe something wrong. Can you fast her/him to see if it goes down? If not might be something wrong.

She/he is pretty.

She'd probably enjoy some caves to go in or a big pvc/abs pipe. Or some where to go.

Synos to my knowledge wouldn't be chubby with eggs I do not think. They egg spray together to breed. Both sexes can get stout from eating but yours just has big belly.

I have a friend with 3 of those ()guys in a community 90 gallon and they are all fat maybe some even more so than the one you have. Of course in fish stores they aren't that fat but after a year or two of being fed well his all got that fat and they seemed perfectly healthy other than being porkers.

Dont have a tendency to bloat?
What pH are you running the tank at?

oh.. i didn't think that was normal for them.

I didn't either, none of my are fat at all but I've owned them only for 1/2 year... they are fed good, they eat good, every other day along side all other synos of mine, they grow ok too, from 2-3" to 4-5" in 1/2 year, so mine are not close to the 6" mark of that guy - he/she looks pretty and healthy indeed except for the unsightly belly...

yeah, forgot, nice tank, indeed...

...before jumping to conclusions, please wait for other big syno guys to weigh in - Sidguppy, Richard B, Birger, Syno-kev, and Co. I am very far from these syno giants...

Mostly syno's with big bellies are a sign of overfeeding but with schoutedeni there is a possibility it could be gravid (more than any other syno sp - that i have experience of). When i lost a tank of fish, i dissected 2 schoutedeni corpses to find a plethora of eggs in the 2 deceased females i had.

cichlids-
all of them are not juvenile but between 2 to 4 inches
around 20 cichlids - yellow labs - female auratus peacock cichlids,some synodontis- i'll ad a pic onto this of it

This is a riverine synodontis and would not enjoy the conditions Rift lake fish prefer...she would toterate the conditions but would not like it. I find female S.schoutedeni to be fairly gentle and you can likely look forward to scars and ripped up fins if kept with these cichlids.

She looks like has had a pampered life and is in good shape except for being a bit obese...this can lead to problems but it is easy enough to slim her down a bit(even if containing eggs).

Birger

Guys this is great - thanks!
Im not going to put her in with the cichlids as i dont want her to get hurt .
One of our other tanks is a community tank with a mixture of gourami's some young red severums and a parrot that is fairly big- around 5-6" but not aggressive
on the bottom we have some pangasius ( i know they grow big but we took them from a guy whose tank was smaller still) and 1 upside down cat thats around 7" its pretty active - i may put the shoutendoni in with these
Would she compatable with the upside down cat we already have - or would they fight ?
Ph is a very stable 7 in the community tank - its 4foot long and 260 litres
Ill add a pic of the upside down cat and the tank.

Your "upside down cat" is a

The two may get along in this tank and may not...often when two synos in the same tank one may bully the other even if a different species. You will have to watch closely.

Birger

your tanks are bi-bi-utiful!

Birger wrote:but it is easy enough to slim her down a bit

unless she turns out a bully or a whizzing hoarder at the feeding times...

terrylen wrote:on the bottom we have some pangasius

IDS are mid-water fish, not bottom, AFAIK; yours is still small and they grow very slowly IME

Birger wrote:Your "upside down cat" is a Synodontis eupterus

yep

Birger wrote:The two may get along in this tank and may not...often when two synos in the same tank one may bully the other even if a different species. You will have to watch closely.

yep, yep, yep... 2 is often a bad number...

You definitely have a female S. shoutedeni on your hands. And she is very healthy. As birger said, this is a riverine syno. I would put her with the Syno. eupterus (which looks like a male) and watch closely. After making sure there are 4-5 good hiding holes; if her fins are constantly ripped I would remove one of the synos. Females in my experience are always chow hounds.

If all else fails you could mail her to me. But unfortunately, I live on the other side of the world

ok i do have another tank - i might be able to put her in to avoid the fights - i think !
i have a 4 foot tank that im raiseing some baby convicts in - the biggest is around 1 1/2 inch and the smallest around 1/2 inch, this is my first time raising convicts - and ive read that they can be a bit nasty with other fish - but bearing in mind their size what do you think?
Theres nothing else in the tank other than the convicts and there are about 14.
ph7 all other tests are good

If my 6-8" Synodontis decora is anything to go by, your small convicts should be safe - I had a 1/2" Corydoras sterbai in the tank (it escaped from a fry-net that got a hole in it), and it didn't get eaten...

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Mats

excellent - the convict tank it is then !
Victor, Richard,Birger, Naturalart and Mik - Thanks guys

and Matsp
Thanks bud!

have a 4 foot tank that im raiseing some baby convicts in - the biggest is around 1 1/2 inch and the smallest around 1/2 inch, this is my first time raising convicts - and ive read that they can be a bit nasty with other fish - but bearing in mind their size what do you think?

Keep in mind convicts will consider breeding at quite a small size and then can be quite nasty as you say...if two of the bigger ones are male and female do not be surprised if they pair up soon.

Viktor Jarikov wrote:I didn't either, none of my are fat at all but I've owned them only for 1/2 year... they are fed good, they eat good, every other day along side all other synos of mine, they grow ok too, from 2-3" to 4-5" in 1/2 year, so mine are not close to the 6" mark of that guy - he/she looks pretty and healthy indeed except for the unsightly belly...

well, I don't get to see my shoutedeni often (only one left) - he is a hider, but just to make me out a liar, he came out a few days back sporting the belly just like yours!!!

Tis the season !

Have you been feeding him mince pies??

I did not know what that was and now I do: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mince_pie

well, more like fish meal pies, apparently...

On a serious note, I wonder, like you, now if I am overfeeding or if this is their nature - all other Synos have normal bellies except for one big euptera named "Flus" (rhymes with news) that's been a pig in the last 1/2 year or so...

Hence, as a first guess, I'd say I am not overfeeding... I cannot keep my "Shut" (rhymes with moot) separately - he has to hang out with the syno gang...

Vicktor, I've been keeping S. shoutedeni for over ten years. As the males mature they will lose the big belly. The females generally are round. I think as long as one doesn't feed fatty foods your female will be fine. And once they get a certain size you may be able to see the pointed process on the males vent. On the females its round or smooth.

Thank you Naturalart!

naturalart wrote:on the males vent.

Gill cover? Anal pappila?

The "Vent" is the bit of the fish where the poo/eggs/sperm(milt) comes out. So you are basically looking for a "flat" or "pointy" bit. If you look through some of the Synodontis data sheets, and look at the "Sexing" section, you'll see a description of how this is done. It's pretty much the same for ALL synos.

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Mats