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In Tanganyika C*****ds in their natural habitat by Ad Konings, there is a photo labelled S.Nigromaculatus on page 248. It appears to be different from the individuals in the cat-e-log & other info sources - more distinct pattern etc although the specimen is not in an ideal orientation. Is this a correct ID or something else?

I'd like some opinions, if anyone has any. Cheers

Richard B

Konings is a cichlid-man, the captions on the pics with eels and catfishes are mostly wrong.

in the first edition of Back to Nature S multipunctatus and S petricola are mixed up, but it's not that hard to see wich is wich.....

on page 248 there are 2 Syno's labelled incorrect:
nr 6 is not a S dhonti but a S petricola; S dhonti has a black dorsal spine, not white.

and the fish in pic 7 is one of those S polli related fishes; the heavy build, small coppery eye, huge upper lip and short thin barbels all point at S polli. the markings are weird, but remember that juvenile polli's are highly contrasting black and white fishes with beautiful vermiculated pattern on the body.
adults are brown fishes with darker brown spots. this one looks like it's right in the middle of that transition.

S nigromaculatus has a bodyshape not un like S njassae; it's streamlined with a pointy snout, a narrow mouth, long whiskers, big eyes, big fins. your typical riverine fast moving Syno'.

not like the stubby heavybuilt rubberlipped small-eyed syno's from the S dhonti-polli-petricola-tanganicae-group.

Konings is a c*****d-man

To his credit Ad is also the first to admit this during his talks and will say he does not know the cats very well.

Birger

true.

I met him personally 2 months ago and he's a very sympathetic easy going guy, really cool.

and he knows his cichlids; he had a fascinating presentation about the feeding habits of Riftfish complete with video's and all. liked the Bagrus meridionalis footage alright