Had this catfish for ages but never 'ID'ed it!!!!

[Annief]

Felt sorry for this catfish in my LFS,not a very good place for fish at all and had a bad experience there when I first got my tank years ago (but thats another story) . It was all on its own, plain glass tank, nowhere to hide so I went against my usual 'not to buy on impulse' rules and bought it. Over a year later it has grown a fair bit, gets on fine with my Green phantom plec, rams, gouramis and other asst fish. Fairly shy, hides behind its bogwood unless food is around, does a quick round of the tank then goes back. Ive never really been able to find out exactly what it is being not very 'up' on catfish. Been meaning to put it on here before now but just never got round to it. Is it a Synodontis schoutedeni perhaps? It has the joined up lines and tiny spots on its fins. I do have a couple of pics of it but got to make the files smaller to post so will add them shortly.

[sidguppy]

without pictures this is impossible to do.

[Annief]

Heres the Catfish!!

[MatsP]

Looks like a variation of


I suspect it's a hybrid - the long first spine of the dorsal fin indicates S. euptera as one parent, I'd say.

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Mats

[Annief]

To be fair its not a very good Pic, Im going to take a couple more later. Just cleaned the gravel and done a small water change so hes a bit spooked, I know he will be out later when I put his pellets in

[MatsP]

It would help if you could get down level with the fish as well, rather than taking the picture from a higher position than the fish is at. As it is, it's hard to see the proportions of the fish, as it's a bit distorted by the angle of the camera.

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Mats

[Marc van Arc]

Pretty sure it's

Synodontis schoutedeni

[Annief]

I thought so too. I ve looked through lots of pics and its the only one that looks like mine!! Its such a striking fish and I havent seen any other one with the squggly lines and very fine dots on the fins. it has very long barbels at the front and is a very fat looking fish, which would tie up with the description. Ive just tried to take a pic but its not having any of it and refuses to budge. The best time is the evening so I will add some more pics to this post as soon as I am able and once someone has definately id ed it for me I can check Im looking after it properly

[Birger]

Pretty sure it's

Synodontis schoutedeni

Looks like a young S.shoutedeni to me as well.

Birger

[MatsP]

I bow to the experts.

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Mats