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Synodontis schall look alike

Posted: 13 Mar 2021, 16:33
by Kryptic
I got this guy about 4 years ago in a Nigerian import with a name Synodontis sp. "Nigeria". The problem is that I don't know whether the fish was actually caught in Nigeria and thus given the name sp. Nigeria or was it caught elsewhere and just imported from Nigeria. I don't remember all the fish that were in the shipment but there were fish from all over Africa.
I originally tought this would be S. schall but since the fish hasn't grown larger than 17cm SL I don't think it is schall. Both Synodontis oumeensis and kogonensis would be otherwise good options but both of those species have more dorsal and anal fin rays than my fish. S. macrops has crossed my mind but I just don't think it is macrops.

Re: Synodontis schall look alike

Posted: 14 Mar 2021, 11:38
by Jools
It reminded me of at first. I can't really see the caudal fin. @Birger and @Dave Rinaldo are pretty clued up on these things.

Jools

Re: Synodontis schall look alike

Posted: 14 Mar 2021, 17:41
by Kryptic
Here are some more pictures I've got of him over the years. Although these pics are not the best for many reasons (mostly because they are taken with flash so they don't show the true colour of the fish) you can see some details like the fine spots on the upper half of his body and some of the markings on the caudal fin. You can also see how the fish has developed over time. I also did do a recount of the anal fin rays while loking through these pics and I was able to count 11 so that would actually match the descriptions of both Synodontis ouemeensis and kogonensis. So my question is does that dorsal filament count as a dorsal fin ray? If so then this might be a S. kogonensis.

Re: Synodontis schall look alike

Posted: 22 Mar 2021, 17:28
by Birger
I have had a couple of these in the past, I am still not sure exactly what they would be...I had one male with very long pectoral first rays...the other seemed identical except for this feature of the first ray.They were a great fish to keep .