PlanetCatfish.com

Here is a brief description of the fish

LENGHT: around 9"
COLOUR: Dark Green with black spots on the fins and upper body.
DESCRIPTION: Looks like a plec of some sort but has long barbels and a smaller dorsal fin. It is a quite active fish and feeds happily on algea waffers. It isn't an agressive fish but seems to enjoy chasing one of my loaches around my tank.

When the previous owner gave to me he said that he didn't know what it was. The one thing i'm sure of it that it must be about 5 or 6 years old or even older as i'm the 3rd person to have this fish.

I will get a photo ASAP. Any help would be great!

Not this, by any chance?

No It's more like a common plec but with 3" barbels. also the colourings are alot darker

Feeding on algae-wafers is hardly an indication of what kind of fish it is. In my big tank, ALL fish try to eat algae-wafers: Pictus cat, Rosy Barb, Satanoperca leucosticta, Corydoras, Brochis and of course the actual target Loricariidae... The only fish of mine that doesn't try to eath algae wafers are my Danios in one of the small tanks - probably because they swim a little bit too much "at the top of the tank", rather than because they are actually not interested in the taste.

I think a photo of the fish would be needed to identify it. It's very hard to tell what fish it is, without at least having some sort of visual keys.

--
Mats

Just Thought i would get the ball rolling to find out if any one could help. Going to get a photo asap

That's fine - it's just that your description isn't unique enough to get a hit directly, and unfortunately, there's too many different fish that MAY be close to yours - MANY are some sort of brownish/greenish colour with dark spots [although there are many more that aren't].

--
Mats

Do you have any ideas on a family name for a plec with barbels?

Here's a couple of questions:
1. What is the body like: Smooth or "scaled" [Catfish don't have real scales, but the "plecos" for example have bony scutes that protect their body], shiny or matt?

2. Can you count the rays in the dorsal (top) fin? Do not count the branches if the rays are "y-shaped", but the actual "trunk". The number of these can if nothing else RULE out some of the fish that are otherwise possible. A rough estimate can also be useful (say, around 5 or more than 20 would tell use something more than we know now).

3. How long is the fish in SL (Standard length - nose to the very end of the "flesh" on the body, but without the actual caudal (tail) fin?)

4. How high is the body of the fish, in proportion to SL?

5. How wide is the body of the fish in proportion to SL?

6. Where is the body the widest, at the head or further back?

--
Mats

1. smooth and matt in colour
2. 6 or 7
3. 8"
4. 1.5" to 2"
5. 1.5" to 2"
6. Rear of the head around the gills

Let me guess: some of the barbels are branched?

Does the fish look something like this?
http://www.scotcat.com/mochokidae/s_nigrita4.htm

(Wow, there isn't a single half-decent picture of an adult Synodontis nigrita on the entire net!)

Yeah! Pretty much spot on mine is slimmer, darker in colouration and only has a left eye. Mine must be a real monster if it's 9" long.

Thanks alot!

is there a larger catfish like Synodontis nigrita?

There are 96 species of listed in the "Cat-eLog" of Planet Catfish. http://www.fishbase.org contains 119 valid species (172(from memory) with synonymes).

Some of those will be fairly similar. But they do grow to around 170mm (6.7") SL, so you're within that range if your fish is 6-7" in SL. S. nigrita is also one of the more common species of Synodontis and that makes it likely that it is indeed that species...

--
Mats

Oh yes, there's dozens of species of Synodontis, many of which grow very big, but nigrita is among the more common and grows to about 10" total length.

Unfortunately I can't find a single good photo of an adult S. nigrita, most pictures show youngsters. They do turn very dark.

You can browse through Planetcatfish's entries for Synodontis and see if you find a match:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/fa ... mily_id=13

Cheers!

It's great to finally know what it is!

Good skills mike. I was totally confudled.

I'm going to get some more fish on friday and on my list are 4 or 5 pictus catfish that are about 2" long at the moment. I'm also getting some barbs but they should be fine as they are a shoal fish. do you think they will be all right in the tank?

Is the Syno the only fish in your tank currently? If not, what else do you have?

What size tank is it?

What type of barbs? - There are barbs that grow to 12"+, others that are fully grown at 1"?

I would think that the Pictus would go OK with the Syno, that's no problem as I see it.

You will have to choose a barb that isn't too small, or it will be live-food for either the Syno or the Pictus cats...

--
Mats

The barbs i'm going to get are tigers and red line torpedo. can't see them being eaten as "Old one eye" isn't the fastest fish around (unless he's eating!) i feed him on red dragon fly lavas and algea flakes.

Ok, you still haven't told me what size the tank is (or at least I can't see it in the posts in this thread).

Red-line torpedo = Puntius denisonii which grows quite big (6 inches TL or so), and needs a fair amount of swimming-space - they are fast swimmers...

Tiger barbsb = Puntius tetrazona. They can grow to around 2.5-3", but usually stay smaller. You need a group of 7 or more, as they are pretty aggressive, and in smaller groups the aggression will not be kept within the group, and end up attacking other fish in the tank, nipping fins etc.

I don't think either would be at risk from being eaten, unless they are "newborn".

--
Mats

240 litres (43" long 16"wide and 22" deep) with lots of space. The 8 tigers are about 1 inch long got them friday along with 4 pictus cats.