Two Lake Malawi Synodontis Species?

[MarkSmith]

Not sure if this topic has been broached before...

In my conversations Lee Finley, and having myself visited Lake Malawi, there appears to be two distinct species? of Synodontis residing in the lake proper, one that has larger spots and the other with smaller, more numerous spotting. Perhaps there are other phyiscal differences, but do not know what they might be.

Does anyone have any thoughts/opinions on this?

[sidguppy]

Synodontis njassae comes in at least 2 varieties; small spot and large spot

apart from the spots, the morphology and the size is virtually the same

the small spot is much more common than the very rare big spot

I do not know, however, if these are local varieties or if they exist sympatrically with each other

it is possible that other species have colonized the lake, and hence there's more than 1 species.

but the njassae is quite variable in pattern; no 2 fishes are the same.

in this, maybe the Synodontis njassae is exactly like the real Synodontis petricola from Tanganyika (as compared to the also variable S lucipinnis from Zambia) ; at least in Burundi, big spot and small spot petricola occur mixed at the same location and they will breed with each other; they have a wide variety in species at a single location.

[MatsP]

I think Dave Rinaldo posted that the fish that he'd sent a clipping to Jeremy Wright (at University of Michigan, I think) is closely related to S. njassae, but not the same species. This species, however, is not looking like either of the S. njassae species.

--
Mats

[Richard B]

My personal observations are that there are at 3 variations or species in Malawi.

1 - the beautiful few, large, bold spot type as shown in Sid's photos in cat-e-log which most closely resembles Njassae from Poll.

2 - the less distinct few medium spots type with a pale rust/sand colour as depicted in Sands CotW & the salamander book

3 - the grey many small spotted type , vaguely silverish in light environments.

These may be all a single species from different localities or some maybe separate. This has yet to be determined but Wright has hinted at more than one species in correspondence (Birger has this info as does Dave Rinaldo).

I summise that like Tangganyika, Malawi may in time give us many species.....

[Birger]

Richard, this is what you wrote last time we conversed on this subject and I still agree all are possibilities or at least variants;

I consider there to probably be 4 'species'

1 - The beautiful large spot streamlined silver fish with bronze sheen as in Sidguppy's photos
2 - The rusty brown cream fish pictured in Sands which used to be seen often in the hobby in the late 80's through to mid 90's
3 - The silver grey large spot type
4 - The small spot variety of type 3

We have to keep in mind though sometimes syno's from surrounding areas also get included such as when warton got fish brought in which were collected from "nearby" to a lake-fish supplier and they were riverine nebulosa and microstoma we thought.

It would not surprise me to find some variant of S. zambezensis (or even S.nebulosa) in the area (especially the south) as this species is variable and a quick look in Seegers book says there has not been much when it comes to ichthyological collections made in the eastward-flowing rivers of Mozambique. Some of these drainages may also connect to the lake itself and carry a syno of one sort or another maybe even one that does not venture into the lake proper. This is conjecture of course but it is interesting to think of the possibilities. I would have to look into this further.

On a side note I still think this little malawi cat would be interesting to work with, anyone have any further information on it.
http://malawicichlids.com/mw11017.htm

Birger

[Richard B]

Birger - the "type 3 &4" i had posted about previously i think are definately forms of the same species & i have not seen large specimens of the bigger spotted one so presume the fish increases the spot number as it grows & the spots reduce in size. The other 2 'types' seem to have subtle physical differences from the 3rd/4th one