Synodontis eupterus biting corys?

bslindgren · Post by **bslindgren** » 26 Jun 2007, 23:14

I have two S. eupterus in a community tank (33 gal). The biggest one is around 4 inches long, and tends to be quite bossy. I have noticed that my Corydoras sterbai (which are wonderful Cory's by the way) often have what looks like bite-marks on their back. The main suspect to me is the larger of the two Synodontis cats, but I do also have a bushynose Ancistrus that gets a little testy at times. Does anyone have any thoughts on this or similar experience?

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 27 Jun 2007, 16:57

large eupterus can and do get nasty to small catfishes, esp non Syno's.
for some reasons smaller Syno's are fine (petricola's for example), but other catfishes can be nipped, damaged or even killed.

same goes for large ocellifers. I've known Syno's of this size and character to damage and kill tiny Corydoras, Schilbeids (Pareutropius buffei) and kill even young Lophiobagrus (!). the last ones are slimey and toxic, but that didn't stop them.

it's simply not an ideal match. best choose for the one species you like best and ditch the other. this will not stop by a re-arrangement of the tank or even an upscale.

you're not the first one with this issue.

in a way it still surprises me, cause in general these medium large riverine Syno's are fairly ignoring to other cats. but for some unknown reason a lot of Syno's like to pick on Cory's.

bslindgren · Post by **bslindgren** » 27 Jun 2007, 21:30

sidguppy wrote:large eupterus can and do get nasty to small catfishes, esp non Syno's.
for some reasons smaller Syno's are fine (petricola's for example), but other catfishes can be nipped, damaged or even killed.

in a way it still surprises me, cause in general these medium large riverine Syno's are fairly ignoring to other cats. but for some unknown reason a lot of Syno's like to pick on Cory's.

Thanks for that info. The interesting thing is that I have two smallish C. aeneus, and they don't appear to be touched. The C. sterbai are quite large - perhaps the Syno sees them as a threat. Anyway, the S. eupterus may be too large for my tank in the long run, so there is no question who gets ditched if that is what I end up doing!

bslindgren · Post by **bslindgren** » 15 Aug 2007, 00:26

Update - I moved the Syno's to a 120 gallon tank at my place of work. They should be a lot happier there. There have been no more scars on my C.sterbai, so I think the Syno's were definitely the culprits.