I have 2m and 3f grannies in the tank. I have a 3rd male, but he is too pretty to put in with the group. He's ink black with super long barbels and fins, so I don't want him messed up by those big females. I have had this group for about 5 years and they have been in with spawning Tanganyikan cichli...

Update: In the excitement of seeing the Synodontis eggs, I failed to notice that the frontosas spawned today also. Did a cuckoo spawn occur? Again there is good news and bad news. This is a young group of F0 frontosas (C. gibberosa, Moba). Zaire Blue Frontosas are notorious egg spitters that do not ...

Hey Sid, I just got home from work and saw something I've never seen before. All of the Synodontis in my 300 gallon frontosa tank were out and frantically about in the middle of the day feeding. The frontosas were gobbling down food frantically, too. The giraffe cat was vacuuming up something like h...

Thanks for the compliments on the photos. Here are a few more I've converted. You can see that the C. gariepinus does not look very happy. :lol: http://users4.ev1.net/~greg_pierson/yellowbilledstork3.jpg http://users4.ev1.net/~greg_pierson/yellowbilledstork4.jpg http://users4.ev1.net/~greg_pierson/y...

Wow, they get big! And they have a very wide distribution. Thanks for the I.D. There were also pelicans and fish eagles feeding on these. It was quite a sight to see.

The locals call all catfish barbels. This attrocity ocurred in the South Luangwa National Park, Zambia. Any ideas as to which species this is? The Yellow-billed Storks caught about 100 of these in a drying pool. They were about 10 to 12 inches long (25 cm +). I wish I could have brought several live...

jolly_polli wrote:Greggo, are they becoming the same color as Granulosus exept for the with on the fins?

No, I would say that they are different. The granulosus range from a dark charcoal to ink black coloration. The dhontis are more of a medium gray so far. This may change as they get older.

The top photo above is S. tanganaicae, the bottom is S. dhonti. Armke's has many misidentified Synodontis on their website, beware. Here are two photos of S. dhonti losing their spots. It is a very slow transition. I have had these specimens for almost two years and they have grown about 1/2 inch in...

Here is another store with an excellent selection of cichlids and catfish:

http://www.ultimatefish.com

HH, do you think that the max size of 8 cm for P. punctatus listed in Aqualog could be an error? Or do I have a new species?

Thanks

Sid, you are right. It does look exactly like the Aqualog photo of A. punctatus. The only problem is that Aqualog states that A. punctatus' size is 7-8 cm. Mine is already 15 cm. My fish is showing a number of mood patterns. It ranges from brownish orange (upset or frightened) to whitish (foraging t...

Here is another shot that shows its entire length:

Here's a new giraffe cat I have. Note the interesting mottled pattern on its head and back and the rows of black spots on its side which is different from the normal reticulated pattern. Also, the red eyes are not redeye from the flash. It is about 6". http://users4.ev1.net/~greg_pierson/NewGir...

Hi Sid, I believe your photo is S. dhonti. It appears to be at the size where it is starting to go dark and lose its spots. It seems to be a slow process going from a S. multipunctatus color pattern to solid gray without spots. Compare the two in this photo of mine: http://www.planetcatfish.com/cate...

One thing I HAVE learned is that there is enormous local variability in all Tanganyika Synodontis species (which should not come as a surprise to Tang c*****d enthusiasts). Even the ichthyological collections of major museums are hopelessly confused. Dinyar This is very true as there are specimens ...

I saw this fish twice the first six months I had it. http://forum.planetcatfish.com/viewtopic.php?p=35746#35746 Both times were late at night. I could see a small pile of waste underneath the hole it would hide in, so I knew that it was feeding nocturnally. Over time it came out more frequently. Now...

Thanks for the replies. It's good to know for certain what it is. Three of these arrived at my LFS mislabeled as L25 by the collector. I wish I would have bought all of them as it is one of my favorites.

I've had this for nearly a year now. It was labeled by the collector as L25 and clearly it is not. It looks similar to the photos of L600 in the Cat-eLog. Any ideas?

Thanks

Doug wrote:

Do you mean this photo, Greggo?

Yes, that is the photo. It's a poor quality photo, but its all I've got. I cannot provide an updated photo as I no longer have the fish.

The eyes of the above photos are too large to be S. petricola and the dorsal is short as well. This looks like a S. polli type to me. There seems to be geographical variation in S. polli, just like with S. petricola. I have just seen a recent import of over 200 lake Synodontis that were collected ov...

If you look in the cat-elog section you'll see a photo of a small S. granulosus with spots. It is one of the F1 hybrids. When I bought it, it was 2". At the time of the photo it was 3". One year later, it was 6". That is about 10 times the growth rate of wild grannies. It never did de...

I need to find someone that can do lab cultures and other diagnostic test on aquarium fish. Preferably located in the USA. I get a nasty, reocurring disease in some of my cichlid tanks that is incurable with any standard aquarium medications. If anyone knows of someone that can do this type of diagn...