Synodontis Njassae

5thSFGroup · Post by **5thSFGroup** » 21 Mar 2005, 13:10

I was wonder if S. Njassae would get along well with large Malawi Haps such as Dimidiochromis and Nimbochromis? What length do they (Njassae) grow to in an aquarium?

The tank will be a 125G and i was thinking maybe 4 Njassae but i know next to nothing about these catfish.

Any problems with my idea?

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 21 Mar 2005, 16:16

Actually these are the best suited Malawians that go with S njassae!

less agressive than Mbuna, less boisterous, and of course; Mbuna need a veggie-based diet (although they're not as bad as Tangy Tropheus with diet) and Haps/Utaka's a proteinrich.
wich benefits invertebrate-eater S njassae. Good food for njassae includes: bloodworms, black worms, white mosquitolarvae, shrimp-bits, chopped mussel, krill, mysis, daphnia, flake-food and small sinking granules such as sturgeon-food.

njassae's reach 6-8", and they're easy going, a bit shy and very very social. In a group they show swimming behaviour wich I haven't seen in any Synodontis-species, save for pre-spawning behaviour in some Tanganyikan species. They're like Characins or marine reef-fish; the uniformity in movement is truly stunnning!

IF you can afford them, buy at least 4 or forgo the whole thing.
As single or duo you won't see them, and then it's a waste of money.
the pics in the catelog were taken by me from a fresh import straight from Malawi at Verduijns.

they're the true Synodontis njassae; if they don't resemble that fish; you're being ripped!
because this species is rarely imported (probably not popular to catch these), importers/wholesalers/LFS often try to sell other Syno's (including a whole range of Tzech hybrids!

) as being "njassae".....
you might end up buying a nigrita or ocellifer with a "njassae-pricetag".....

5thSFGroup · Post by **5thSFGroup** » 22 Mar 2005, 08:44

sidguppy wrote: because this species is rarely imported (probably not popular to catch these), importers/wholesalers/LFS often try to sell other Syno's (including a whole range of Tzech hybrids! ) as being "njassae".....
you might end up buying a nigrita or ocellifer with a "njassae-pricetag".....

Do you (or anyone else) know of a reputable online dealer who sells them? I just spent 2 hours going through many Retailer reviews on the Cichlid-forum and failed to find any. I may have to settle for a Tanganyikan Synodontis species but i would prefer Njassae since this tank will only have Malawi Haps and i would prefer a Syno from the same lake.

5thSFGroup · Post by **5thSFGroup** » 22 Mar 2005, 08:47

Why does the Cichlid word get censored?

Dave Rinaldo · Post by **Dave Rinaldo** » 22 Mar 2005, 09:16

The answer is in the FAQ here

Tom · Post by **Tom** » 23 Mar 2005, 03:44

exotic-cichlids.com lists them.

5thSFGroup · Post by **5thSFGroup** » 23 Mar 2005, 09:14

Tom wrote:exotic-c*****ds.com lists them.

I did notice that but i thought that they were too low cost($16.00) for a Synodontis that seems to be rare in the hobby. I also noticed that they didnt offer a clear photo of what they were selling. They did have a fuzzy picture in their photo gallery http://www.exotic-cichlids.com/S.%20Njassae.htm does it look legitimate? They seemed darker than the ones in the Cat-elog but it may just be because of poor picture quality.

What about a dwelling? I'm new to catfish and i was thinking i could use a slightly elevated piece of flat rock (slate?) that the catfish could fit into but the Haps cant, am i on the right track?

Any photos with examples of a good catfish dwellings/hiding spaces would be appreciated.

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 23 Mar 2005, 10:58

that's a hybrid, not a njassae

so I rest my case

I'm not trying to pull you off; but in my 3 decades of fishkeeping I can count the times I've seen genuine S njassae on both hands, and have fingers to spare....
why this is so, I have NO idea, but the fact is; most LFS/wholesalers rather rip you off then go through the -maybe difficult?- motions of getting TRUE njassae.......

5thSFGroup · Post by **5thSFGroup** » 23 Mar 2005, 13:54

sidguppy wrote: I'm not trying to pull you off; but in my 3 decades of fishkeeping I can count the times I've seen genuine S njassae on both hands, and have fingers to spare....
why this is so, I have NO idea, but the fact is; most LFS/wholesalers rather rip you off then go through the -maybe difficult?- motions of getting TRUE njassae.......

I never knew that they (Njassae) would be so difficult to obtain.

What do you recommend as an alternative? Multipunctatus? I know its not natural but how would they do with Malawi Haps?

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 23 Mar 2005, 17:43

any Tanganyikan Syno will be fine; but if you don't want breeding behaviour of your Malawians to be disrupted, best go petricola/polli/"polli White"/dhonti etc.

multipunctatus is the Chuckoo-Cat; a broodparasite, and they will try to dump their eggs in with the Haps.

but I would search a bit farther if I were you; maybe there suddenly IS an importer that sells you the genuine article, and -as you can see in the catelog- it isa very beautiful fish.

good luck!

Tom · Post by **Tom** » 23 Mar 2005, 20:46

On Dec. 25 I started a topic on that exact picture. My ? was on the ID of that picture. Both Silurus and Corybreed said that was indeed S. njasse. You actually replied to the topic. Now you say it's a hybrid. I'm completely confused.

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 24 Mar 2005, 11:37

that IS confusing indeed!

I cannot remember the discussion, nor the pic.it stroke me as hybrid material due to the ugly shape of that little fish; it's very coppery color and the bulging head.

strange to read that I once said it was a njassae; because if I look at it now; hybrid comes to mind.maybe the fact that since then, I've seen many hybrids and some of them almost exactly match that pic....
that must be the case; when I wrote my reply to your original post I hadn't seen any of those Tzech critters.

5thSFGroup · Post by **5thSFGroup** » 24 Mar 2005, 12:35

sidguppy wrote:but I would search a bit farther if I were you; maybe there suddenly IS an importer that sells you the genuine article, and -as you can see in the catelog- it isa very beautiful fish..

I will try to wait a few months before i try buying an alternative. I dont think i'd be interested in breeding Haps so i may go ahead and try the Cuckoo-Cat to observe its odd breeding behavoir (if they breed) if i cant find Njassae.

Thanks for the replies, i learned a lot in this short tread so far.

What about my earlier question on what type of cover i should provide these fish if any? I have no experience with catfish and i would really appreciate anything i need to know to sufficiently house them in my Hap setup since aquascaping has never been one of my strong points.

All opinions welcome.

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 24 Mar 2005, 15:19

they like roomy caves and semi-vertical rockwork. the more, the better!
unlike catfish that dig out holes (like Lophiobagrus for example), or the kind that wedge themselves tight in a crevice (like Dorads), Syno's are very active and agile.
they're "cruisers", often constant in motion, and rarely hiding in a cave all day (unless you keep 1 or 2).

exactly the same cave that would give a female ahli or venustus a nice hiding hole, wioll benefit the cats.

what species of Haps are we talking about?
sanddwellers like Placidochromis? rockdwelling livingstonii or something? open water cruisers?

5thSFGroup · Post by **5thSFGroup** » 25 Mar 2005, 02:14

sidguppy wrote:what species of Haps are we talking about?
sanddwellers like Placidochromis? rockdwelling livingstonii or something? open water cruisers?

The top 2 sure Haps will be Dimidiochromis and Nimbochromis and i will build around them. I was thinking of providing caves mainly for the catfish and leaving the haps to be open water with large bolders and stones similar to johnlabbe's tank on the cichlid-forum

He won the tank of the month for Febuary.

Do you think sandsifters would bother the catfish?

Even though i would get at least 4 or more Catfish (so they wont hide too much) i was guessing that there would still be times they would like to hide.

I was guessing i could use flat rocks glued on top of some smaller stones on both ends of the 6' tank so they would have cover close by at both ends. I was hoping that i could build them low enough so that a Catfish could fit but a large Hap couldnt, i could probably modify that idea by using 2 pieces of flatrock (glued to PVC?) to form a slightly vertical angle.

If you tell me that wont work or it is a bad idea then i wont do it.

5thSFGroup · Post by **5thSFGroup** » 25 Mar 2005, 04:39

I dont know what happened to the picture....it worked when i first posted it.