Real Synodontis njassae?

Oliver D. · Post by **Oliver D.** » 26 Nov 2006, 18:23

Hi!

IÂ´ve bought two S. njassae. The seller says wild caught.
Picture, made by a friend:
http://www.simsoli.com/data/media/4/njassae.jpg

And a picture from the seller:
http://www.tropicfishcenter.ch/images/S ... jassae.jpg

More pictures on Tuesday...

What do you think?
Real one?

Thank you and best greetings,
Oliver

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 26 Nov 2006, 22:01

These are two different fish, right?
The pic of the seller shows a true njassae imo.
The other specimen seems too dark and its spots seem to large as well.

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 26 Nov 2006, 22:10

That's exactly what threw me off as well in your PM Oliver.

but the humeral seems to match.

I've seen hybrids sold as njassae but usually these are even more highbuild than your fish and have big spots on the head. your fish does have the proper spotted pattern; large on the sides, small on the head.

let's see what HH makes of this; I'm stumped.

Post by **Silurus** » 26 Nov 2006, 22:16

It deosn't look like a njassae to me. There is a certain amount of variation in this species (see this post), but your fish appears to have a shorter body (head is 3 times in SL vs. about 3.5 times in other pics of njassae).

Oliver D. · Post by **Oliver D.** » 28 Nov 2006, 20:32

Hi,

thanks, for your answers!

Today IÂ´ve received the fishs and make new photos.

Both:

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 28 Nov 2006, 20:43

sure nice Syno's.

but as HH already said; your fish are quite shortbuilt for njassae; I've seen true imported njassae's several times and all of them were much more elongated gracile fishes, quite thin with pointed heads.

IF it's a hybrid then 1 parent could be njassae.
perhaps it's njassae x ocellifer??

compare your fish to the slender beauties I pictured HERE

Caol_ila · Post by **Caol_ila** » 28 Nov 2006, 21:36

Hi Oli!

Spontanously I would say these are two different species.
What immediately strikes the eye is that the whiskers of fish1 are much shorter than these of fish2. Also the head shape of the darker fish looks a bit weird.

Oliver D. · Post by **Oliver D.** » 07 Jan 2007, 18:58

4 more...

http://www.simsoli.com/data/media/4/nja2.jpg
http://www.simsoli.com/data/media/4/nja1.jpg

More photos follow in some days/weeks...

lfinley58 · Post by **lfinley58** » 07 Jan 2007, 19:39

Hi Oliver and all.

I agree with Marc, HH and Sidguppy that the second fish in the initial post agrees well with the original description of S. njassae.

I have seen the first fish in direct imports from Lake Malawi and have considered for many years that it is an undescribed species. Max Poll had examined such a fish that I sent to him and he noted that it was "similar" but possessed a number of different characters when compared to S. njassae. Some recent work is again suggesting, or questioning, the presence of a second and undescribed species in the lake. I personally think that this will turn out to be the case...when someone decides to closly examine the situation.

Lee

Real Synodontis njassae?

Real Synodontis njassae?

Syno njassae