Did you know fantastic help is an anagram of Planet Catfish? This forum is for those of you with pictures of your catfish who are looking for help identifying them. There are many here to help and a firm ID is the first step towards keeping your catfish in the best conditions.
There are so many hybrids around in the UK at the moment so this could well be one but it doesn't look like any i've come across so far, (& i've seen LOADS )
A better pic of the whole fish would certainly help us but i can't say one way or the other for definate at the moment
Lou: Every young man's fantasy is to have a three-way. Jacob: Yeah not with another fu**!ng guy! Lou: It's still a three-way!
Interests: African catfishes and oddballs, Madagascar cichlids; stoner doom and heavy rock; old school choppers and riding them, fantasy novels, travelling and diving in the tropics and all things nature.
I wouldn't say petricola, more like multipunctatus in their ancestry, but not a real species
real easy to take care for and not bad looking at all.
luckily these can only be "bred' by sticking needles in them, so don't worry about your tank being overrun by mutts.
if you want to breed a tanganyikan Syno, try looking at the fins when you buy them.
with few exeptions ALL tanganyikan Syno's have the characteristic black-and-white fins.
with some species this coloration is reverse (petricola and lucipinnis!), but it's there and it should be there even at 0.5" length or so
if the salesperson is talkin like ït'll color up later' and otrher nonsense like that, he's trying to scam you. don't fall for it.
even species wicvh turn drabby brown when mature (the real polli for example) are stunning when young with very obvious black and white finnage.
While I have your attention can I have more bites at the cherry/more questions?
Is there a way of calling up photos of just all the Lake Tanganyika Synodontis?
Is there a way of calling up photos of just all the Lake Malawi Synodontis?
Why do breeders make Synodontis hybrids?
I kind of understand it in cichlids. You can do it by accident, you can do it to make new colour mixes that sell well (and are often sold as new wild types) but Synos? All the hybrids look so similar to the real species (but not quite as good?) and it is just as hard work as breeding pure, yes? so why do breeders do it?
Why do breeders make Synodontis hybrids?
I kind of understand it in c*****ds. You can do it by accident, you can do it to make new colour mixes that sell well (and are often sold as new wild types) but Synos? All the hybrids look so similar to the real species (but not quite as good?) and it is just as hard work as breeding pure, yes? so why do breeders do it?