PlanetCatfish.com

Hi i have been keeping rift valey cichlids for about 5 years now along with these fish i have also had variouse cat fish from the lake however i purchased some about 3 years ago as Syno Petricola from a shop in Belgium he had the fish in a tank marked up as mixed Syno's.
Well after a few months i discovered that i didn't have petricola!!! but a cat fish which was like syno Multipunctatus however i have frends who have and breed Multipunctatus but they are different to the ones i have. My fish are smaller in size they are about 3" to 4" total length I have been told by one source that they are called Zambian Gold eyes but can find no reference to this species
so does any body know what i have??? I know they coockoo spawn because i am breeding them with some Malawi cichlids but it would be nice to give them an official name.

many thanks

Winston Damerum.

The official name is "Synodontis multipunctatus". Fish from the south of the lake (Zambian waters) look a little different from those from the North. "Zambian Gold" sounds like an illegal substance to me, but I have heard similar names for Zambian S. multipunctatus.

Dinyar

Thanks but where is the official information about this sub or infact could be new species?
i don't think this is just a colour variation as it is half the size of any of my frends Syno Multipuncs and seems to be more active in the tank.

I'm not sure what you have in mind for "official information". I'm not even sure I can point you to a lot of unofficial information. But take a look at the pix of S. cf. multipunctatus in the Planet Catfish Catalog. This fish should not IMO be called "cf. multipunctatus", as it's pretty clearly a multipunctatus, just a regional "tribe".

Dinyar

I second that; most 'species' of multipunctatus are pretty much the same, except size and backgroundcolor, and sometimes the yes are smaller too.

AFAIK there are two "species" of Synodontis multipunctatus; they can be separated by their fry and belly-pattern:
#I: one (the big boisterous whitish fish we know as multipunctatus) has black fry -when it's still in the cichlid mouth- once it leaves the host, it's a tiny spotted syno, complete with white edged fins and all.
#II: The other has orange fry with two "V" markings on top, but this one too, is changed into a mini-multi once out of the host. It's a smaller species when mature and very yellow in color. It's got spots on its' belly! (S multipunctatus is famous for having a white spotless belly as sole Tangsyno...)

I know several variations of S multipunctatus, but since I never saw fry from those, so I don't know if they're species I or II ....