PlanetCatfish.com

I recently got 4 of these beautiful fish.
The previous owner told we S polli (Wildcaught).
I do believe him, but some additional imput from you guys would be great ;)

Sorry about the quality of the photo's, but I'm not a photographer lol

The 2 species seen in the photo's are the presumed S polli and S lucipinnis

I'd wait for some of the other, better experts, but I think this synodontis lucipinnis. A close relative of the Petricola.

Most fish in the picture are, as mentioned, S lucipinnis ;)
But there's one bigger, with different markings, bigger/wider mouth, orange teeth.
And I've put one in a close up picture, hoping to show it better.
They are physically very different from my 18 S lucipinnis

Unfortunately I would like a better image of the fish in question before giving my opinion of an ID

Birger

Tanganyikafreak wrote:Most fish in the picture are, as mentioned, S lucipinnis ;)
But there's one bigger, with different markings, bigger/wider mouth, orange teeth.
And I've put one in a close up picture, hoping to show it better.
They are physically very different from my 18 S lucipinnis

Yeah, I was thinking on that one. I don't think they're Polli, based on the light coloring and bright white on the main spine of the dorsal fin. It also doesn't seem like they're petricola, because of how wide the mouth is. But like you said they have orange teeth. So they may just be a different strain of Polli, very similar to last picture in the Cat-eLog. How big are they? That might give us a better understanding of what they might be. Yours are different than all of the ones pictured in the Cat-eLog. Very interesting cats though.

Trent

Thanks for the input Trent.

Their body, mouth, etc is very similair to the fish in this topic
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 13&t=26993

The only difference in length is that my fish are around 7 - 8 cm and the ones in that topic were 15 cm.
The colours of my fish, meaning the spots and greyish colour seem to be fading away somewhat

Greets Martijn

in my opinion, none of the fish in the pictures you supplied look like the ones in that thread. Just my opinion.

I think the previous owner was correct. I breed both species and the larger fish looks very much like the S. polli I breed. Great fish that live forever. I had my wild adults for more than a decade before starting to breed them. Sexing them is typical for any of the Tanganyikan Synos. If you are not sure, I can upload a picture of a male.

richb

Thanks Rich
If you want to upload a photo of your polli's,that would be great

How does this compare to your fish? Both of us need work on our photographic skills.
Here is a pic of a female. I was using a macro lens and have no depth of field.

There are a lot of similarities, however, with my fish the head is more like those in the picture below

I think you're right. The head shape is quite different. So...maybe not polli?

I suppose it is a S polli, since the fish in the picture was 'classified' as S polli in the previously mentioned topic

I would call this a Synodontis polli for sure...many also get fooled by the varying colouration these fish can have, either as juvenile or the different shades they can have when mature from very dark to a nice golden color what I think is dependant on dominance...to the point some have thought they had different species.

Birger

Thank you for your input Birger, much appreciated ;)

I'll see if I can post some new material of my fish asap,
In an attempt to take all doubts away

Here a picture of a deceased specimen (at the previous owners' house)