PlanetCatfish.com

hello all, i am new to this board. i have a question. i have a tank with african chiclids and i was wondering if i could house a Synodontis nigriventris & what i believe to be a Synodontis eupterus (lace cat) together or would they fight? i would love to hear what you all think. i absolutely love my upside down guy, he's pretty funny.

Hi there

It depends on how big the tank is, what sort of c*****ds they are, the water conditions,
the comparative sizes of the 2 synos you have.

Nigriventris are better kept in a group & stay relatively small (3 inches) whereas eupterus gets to 8" and both are riverine species that are not really suitable for what most people call an african c*****d tank - ie malawi or tanganyikan. Check out specific info in the cat-e-log section - it's got everything you will need to know

the tank is a 40G, but truth be told the lace cat is only in that tank because my brother is in the middle of building a stand for his 60G. the upside down is about 2" where as the lace is about 6 - 7". i have ciclids from late malawi

If you keep the Malawians at the water conditions they should be (hard, alkaline water), that doesn't make ideal water conditions for those syno's. That's not to say they can't live there for a while (or even a long time), it's just not the ideal conditions for them.

--
Mats

Lace Cats (S eupterus) are sturdy and well capable of living in Malawi-tanks.
usually they're pretty "Mbuna-resistant".

Upsidedowners however are not; this gentle tiny Syno will be ripped to pieces by the much more belligerent Mbuna's; it also adapts far less to the hard, alcaline water of a Malawi-tank.

Some riverine Syno's do fine in Rifttanks (Malawi, Tang) and cichlid-tanks; S nigrita, S obesus, S eupterus, S angelicus, S schall, S robbianus etc.

others however are unsuitable for such tanks; S nigriventris, S contractus, S brichardi, S robertsi, S flavitaeniatus etc.