Synodontis Petricola

[SynoPetri]

Hi,

my name is Georg and I come from Austria. At the moment I am planing a tank with syno petricola. Can you give my some advices about this fish? How can I be sure that the fish I will buy is really a Petricola and not for instance a polli?
Please tell me everything that you know and that is important.
Sorry if my english is not perfect sometimes.

[Sid Guppy]

EVERYTHING???
You might check the thread "synodontis petricola: breeding in caves" in this division.
And check the Cat-e-Log; Synodontis petricola comes in a few varieties; the one usual encountered is S 'petricola dwarf'; also known as S cf petricola.
The easiest way to separate them from a young polli is the white edge on front of the dorsal spine; polli has a dark dorsal spine.
Also:
adult poll's are big brown vaguely spotted syno's with a coppery eye, a broad mouth full of needle-like orange teeth, very thin, short whiskers and a stubby body.
adult petricola's (be they dwarf or burundi petricola) have a grey ground color, a white belly,white thin whiskers, many black spots and a more stretched shape. They are smaller too, usually.
Both have white edges on their pectoral spines when juvenile; but in petricola the whole spine is white, in polli only the front edge; and it disappears when maturing, whereas petricola keeps this spine white or at least very light colored and very conspicious too.
The eye of petricola is even smaller than the eye of polli.

[Sid Guppy]

Small mistake:

adult petricola's (be they dwarf or burundi petricola) have a grey ground color, a white belly

I meant to say: a white belly with black spots.....
polli has a brown belly with black spots when mature.

The only Tanganyikan syno with a TRUE white belly (no spots) is Synodontis multipunctatus.

[SynoPetri]

Hi SG_Eurystomus,

Thank you, the thread "synodontis petricola: breeding in caves" is very informative!