PlanetCatfish.com

1. Does S. angelicus really grow to a size 55cm!!(TL). I never have thought that until searching through FishBase.

2. One importer has S. budgetti on their list. It grows to a size 40cm and litterature says it is very aggressive Syno. Any personal experiences of this catfish?

1. I've never seen an angelicus over 25 cm, and I doubt they get to 55 cm.

2. Never kept budgetti, but I have kept schall and macrops, which are similar. The macrops is a very peaceful and community type fish if it isn't kept with other large, aggresive synos. We kept ours with a large angelicus for years, and daily sparring matches took place, with one or the other covered in scratches and gashes. As soon as we took the diabilicus out, the macrops' personality changed, and became quite peaceful. The schall, on the other hand, was hell on wheels (fins). Probably the only syno we've kept feistier than angelicus. It jumped tank before it had a chance to get really big.

Rusty

While I do not know about 55cm(22") I can say for a fact that they can get more then 25cm(10"). The reason I say this is I have five of them, 3 are all around 8"(20cm), one is 12"(30cm) and the other is just over 13"(32.5cm). The 13" fish has been with me since 1988 and has steadily increased in size from her original 4"s.

I've never seen an S. angelicus bigger than 30 cm, though if Dark says he/she has, I'll take his/her word for it.

(Would love to see some pictures of your fish, Dark. They sound spectacular.)

In any case, FB's claim of 55 cm is certainly wrong.

Rusty is right about S. budgetti belonging to the "Schall complex". Gets large, so you should have a big tank if you want to keep it successfully long-term. (For a 14 year old kid, Rusty, you sure know a lot. Where did you learn all these things?!)

In my experience, it's not that easy for vendors andd hobbyists to distinguish fish in the Schall complex from one another, so I'd take the vendor's ID of S. budgetti as a preliminary suggestion rather than a firm conclusion.

(Maybe we can get Silurus to weigh in on the characteristics of S. budgetti and the "schall complex"?)

Dinyar

Dinyar, I understand your skeptisism, never would have believed it myself but the tape does not lie. Here are some pictures for you to look at: http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/tippmann_dad ... sh&.view=t There are a few of the synos in there. That tank is 72x20x22 that they are in to give you some point of refference. The top of the pot is 6 inches across as well. We were talking total length and not standard length. The tail on the big one is 3 inches by itself.

darkangel, Those are some very impressive photo's! how long have you been into fish?I take it by the name you use you'r a woman I have never seen a woman so into the hobby .I think it's awsome!!!!!!I wish my wife was.. maybe divorce her and MARRY YOU?????? how many tank's in you'r fish room?

Sorry to disappoint you oneoddfish but I am a male. The name is an old one from when I had a CB. Thank you for the praise on the fish. I have had fish non stop for the last 20 years and on and off for 6 before that. I married a very understanding lady, she puts up with my fish and even goes to auctions and conventions with me. My real name is Frank and if you want to know more about me you can read an article I wrote in TFH in the January 2001 issue on synos. I have 50 tanks right now and I am into cats and wild type livebearers, mainly xiphophorus species.

Although I have seen a couple of synos around this size , ive never seen angelicus more than 35cm, anything is possible I suppose. All of the budgeti I have had have been aggresive which can be said of several synos. How old do you think those angelicus are, they still show excellent colour which is unusual at this size

STINGRAY, the largest has been in my possesion since 1988, next one since 94, next two since 98 and smallest one since 2000. Maybe there food has something to do with their colour? They are fed trout chow as a base with a variety of other frozen, live and flake foods. I have never seen any others this big so I had no idea they lost their colour as they aged. The biggest one is just around 32.5 cm( 13inches) as I said earlier. This is from tip of nose to end of tail. I did not know they were not always this big. The books have their sizes all over the place. I have seen it listed from 6" to 12".

We've got one S. Angelicus (very small at the moment) but went to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago where they have two 10" ones still with great colouration (as seen by darkangel). Looking forward to ours growing up.

Right, I'm off to get the trout pellets then!!! My Angelicus is only 2" at the mo. Thought they were slow growers but it's grown three quarters of an inch in 2 months!! Lovely fish and gr8 personalities to boot