SYNO I.D. HELP

[syno-kev]

Hi everyone just picked up a couple of synos from the LFS.
they were in with some mixed malawis and un-named
here are some picks

[Birger]

Any chance of a better side view?

Birger

[syno-kev]

i will try again tonight,

i just had a look at the syno catalogue list page and it does look very much like multimaculatus ,
very interesting if it is this one as it says its from Zaire !
is this odd to come in with lake malawi shipment and are things actually being shpped out of the congo now ?

[Birger]

What is the current length?

[syno-kev]

new pics,
approx 9 to 10 cm long.

[jippo]

If it is W/C maybe an undescribed species. I've heard they have catch some brown synos from Malawi several times, of course these could be some riverine synos too.

Caudal fin looks wrong with multimaculatus. I don't know if juvenile rufigiensis has spotted pattern, only photos are from adult specimens.

[syno-kev]

it was hard getting info out of these people to try and locate the original of the shipment and no one there seemed to be able to give me a direct answer ?
but they did have a large selection of malawi/tang C******ds so i am guessing these came in with this shipment as they were all in the malawi tanks and they did have about 30 of these synos over 3 or 4 tanks.
the dorsel fin seems short as you can see in the early pics and i do agree the multimaculatus seems to be the wrong call be me and in fact that one looks more silvery in base colour.

ahh well who knows may even be a bloody hi-brid as shops do ship tank bred malawis from the far east.

[Richard B]

and they did have about 30 of these synos over 3 or 4 tanks.

Hmmmm - if they had 30 of them, & they aren't particulalrly a generally attractive fish (unless you are a syno enthusiast) i wonder if the retailer would buy in such an amout of wild-caught & therefore more expensive fish as opposed to 30 cheap hybrids???

I assume nothing but feel a strong element of doubt at this time

[syno-kev]

well i will grow them on a bit and see how they look they are only in my 2 foot holding tank so it is easy to catch & get rid of them if i decide they are hybrids.
cheers
kev

[nfrost]

imo these look like njassae, but it is hard to tell and with there being a lot of malawi/tang stuff it would make sense. I would assume just as lake tang cats do, lake malawi cats would probably have a lot of variation within a single species as well.

why don't these look like njassae to anyone else?

[Richard B]

imo these look like njassae, but it is hard to tell and with there being a lot of malawi/tang stuff it would make sense. I would assume just as lake tang cats do, lake malawi cats would probably have a lot of variation within a single species as well.

why don't these look like njassae to anyone else?

I'm certain that njassae categorically don't have the black tail bar markings these specimens exhibit

[syno-kev]

i will take some new pics later today as they rest near a plant in the corner of the tank and i should be able to get a better natural picture with fins out etc.

[Richard B]

I feel the black tail bar markings should help us narrow the search to any described species but this doesn't seem to be the case -it has a very vague resemblence to

Synodontis sp_hybrid(2)

, which i know shows massive varience but i feel this is something else

[syno-kev]

here is the best pic i can get .

[MatsP]

Varying size spots, V-tail matches the sp. hybrid 2 like Richard says.

--
Mats

[Birger]

I have been giving the benefit of the doubt but I just can't match it up with a genuine species.

Birger

[syno-kev]

yes i do agree and i must admit i did think that was the case - bloody hybrids ,

i will be passing them onto another shop to swap for live food or plants etc.