Availability of Synodontis flaviataenata

[The.Dark.One]

also checkout my personal favorite syno-flaviteniatus the pyjama catfish much harder to find and they are very slow growing but live in excess of 30 years mine is about 4 inches now and only a baby its about 7 or 8 years old at a guess,
cheers
kev

I haven't seen flavi's for a while now. How much do they tend to sell for these days?

[MatsP]

They definitely had some at Aquajardin a couple of weeks ago. And I think I saw some when me and Alex were at Wholesale Tropicals. Maidenhead Aquatics at Oxford (Wheatley) has had them pretty regularly too.

I don't remember what the prices were, but nothing extreme, £15 or so, I'd guess. I think MA Oxford has them at under £10 for decent size (3" or so) ones [although I haven't been there for several weeks, so they could be sold out].

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Mats

[Viktor Jarikov]

that is syno-decoras i have one about 8 inches in my main tank they also call it the african clown for obvious reasons ! but be aware of hybrids on this as theres hundreds around at the smaller shops but if you go to one of the shops that specialize in catfish you should find a genuine one.

I've had a genuine one for 0.5 a year - Richard B and Co helped ID it as genuine - all 6 barbels (both maxillary and mandibular) are branched, extension on dorsal. He was pretty but yours is just hands-down breathtakingly amazing! Mine did not have that many clear-cut stripes on his tail and the spots were messier - yours look like his pattern was painted! The pic is real nice too.

also checkout my personal favorite syno-flaviteniatus the pyjama catfish much harder to find and they are very slow growing but live in excess of 30 years mine is about 4 inches now and only a baby its about 7 or 8 years old at a guess

Yep, I love them too. I have a 2" one now. Lovely, lovely guys they are. Wow! That's slow!

central africa and congo regions and not much coming out of there .

Why? Wars/unrest? No infrastructure? State regulations?

I haven't seen flavi's for a while now. How much do they tend to sell for these days?

"The Fish Place" in Buffalo NY got ~10 2-inchers for $20. Appears consistent with Mats' report. They must be rare here too - that store is the only one I've seen them at so far and they have not had any in over 8 months.

[MatsP]

central africa and congo regions and not much coming out of there .

Why? Wars/unrest? No infrastructure? State regulations?

Mostly completely unstable political climate. Infrastructure may also be a problem because of the political instability. In the eastern side of Congo, where it borders to Uganda and Rwanda, there's been a lot of war-like activity - I wouldn't call it official war, more like different local groups fighting each other. There was officially war in Congo between 1998 and 2003, and I guess you could argue that it's just not finished in the eastern parts, despite a peace treaty being signed in 2003. If I understand it right, since 1998, 5.4 million people have been killed, most of them in the eastern parts of the country. So fish caught in the rivers are more likely to end up on the dinner table than in the fish-shops, because the people have very little to feed on. John Sullivan from Ithaca university is in Congo to capture fish for scientific purposes, and he's caught a few interesting ones.

There is a blog by John Sullivan here:
http://uptheriver.net/

And photos, including some fishes, here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnandthe ... 395095350/

[I'm splitting this up, as it's not really relevant to S. longirostris...]


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Mats

[Viktor Jarikov]

Very good and educational. Thanks Mats!

[jippo]

I have seen tank full of flavitaeniata at Germany. I am not sure but as I remember they have bred this species several years.

[Bijn]

I have seen tank full of flavitaeniata at Germany

can you specify this a little bit, Germany is not a little country with only one fishshop

[MatsP]

Jippo sent me a link to his Picasa album. The shop, I think, is Aquarium Dietzenbach, and it's a wholesaler (grosshandel in German) if I understand correctly.

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Mats

[jippo]

Jippo sent me a link to his Picasa album. The shop, I think, is Aquarium Dietzenbach, and it's a wholesaler (grosshandel in German) if I understand correctly.

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Mats

That's the place. The owner of that wholesaler has bred more synos than nobody else.

[wrasse]

wow! thats news to me - tankbred S Flavitaeniatus.

Were hormones used, d'ya think?

[sidguppy]

hormones or no, these are genuine......

[jippo]

If they are tank bred it has been done with hormones. But the owner is very much against hybrids so he breed only genuine species.

[Scleropages]

If they are tank bred it has been done with hormones. But the owner is very much against hybrids so he breed only genuine species.

I've got a question for you regarding what you said here. What do you mean by the first sentence? When you say "they", do you mean the S. flavitaenata in the picture of this thread? Or, do you mean all S. flavitaenata? Or, do you mean something else? Just want some clarification. Thanks.

[MatsP]

There are very few Synos that are known to breed in captivity. So I think "they" in this place does refer to S. flaviataenata, but it would apply to nearly all, if not ALL Synos that are captive bred.

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Mats

[sidguppy]

if not ALL Synos that are captive bred

several species of synodontis breed just fine, without any hormones

Synodontis lucipinnis
synodontis petricola
Synodontis sp "polli White"
Synodontis multipunctata
Synodontis grandiops
Synodontis sp "golden Eye"(this is a variety or related species of multipunctata)

the following species have also been bred without hormones, that I know of:
Synodontis nigriventris
Synodontis nigrita
Synodontis granulosus
Synodontis schoutedeni

adding those who have spawned without hormones but no viable offspring or at least only rumours:
Synodontis njassae
Synodontis polli (own breeding effort)
Synodontis sp "Giant petricola"
Synodontis contracta


that's a fair list of species bred or almost bred without hormones and that's only what i know of, there might very well be more.

a closely related species also bred without hormones is
Mochokiella paynee

[jippo]

If they are tank bred it has been done with hormones. But the owner is very much against hybrids so he breed only genuine species.

I've got a question for you regarding what you said here. What do you mean by the first sentence? When you say "they", do you mean the S. flavitaenata in the picture of this thread? Or, do you mean all S. flavitaenata? Or, do you mean something else? Just want some clarification. Thanks.

I mean tank full of flavitaeniata in the picture.

[MatsP]

Fair enough, there are a number of Synos that are sometimes bred without hormones. Still, you list some 15 or so species, and there are 127 species in the Cat-eLog, so it's a relatively low number of species that are bred without hormones. Of course, I think part of the reason few are bred in captivity in the first place is that there aren't that many people that even keep more than one of a given species. And single fish are very difficult to breed... ;)

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Mats

[Scleropages]

several species of synodontis breed just fine, without any hormones

True--especially of the Tanganyikan species you listed. That's why I asked Jippo what I did. I wanted to make sure I knew what he (or she) was claiming, exactly. Not necessarily baiting Jippo, just trying to clarify. And, thanks, Jippo, for clarifying.

BTW, from what I've been researching for my Synodontis angelica breeding project, I've gathered that the synos are highly sensitive to changes in barometric pressure. Spawning triggers (i.e. - big water change with temperature drop, other spawning fish in same tank for pheromones, proper diet, proper tank decor and substrate, etc.) must coincide with a big storm (or other large change in barometric pressure). Everything is timing. Where have I heard that before? Ha!