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Recently I've been seeing more and more tank raised Synodontis decorus being available for sale.

My question is, are they likely hybrids or the real deal? Are they bred using hormone injections or have Synodontis decorus actually bred in captivity?

My LFS has received probably 200 1-1.5" juveniles from Taiwan, and I saw recently that Blue Grass Cichlids has small ones for sale at $4 usd each http://bluegrassaquatics.com/aquatics/c ... corus.html

Are they the real deal or hybrids? Personally I only like to keep pure pedigree fish which is why my two current S. decorus are wildcaughts...

~Ed

Hey,

look genuine to me . It is really great to see so big school of this fish . I've always seen few specimens and because of low number they were always shy and hide. And here they are so active, cruising a tank - great

Regards.

I have some serious doubts about these being "the real deal"

check out Synodontis decorus

the body has spots, not stripes, only very small juveniles have spots wich can be connected

and very small juveniles do not posess the long dorsal filament; this evolves when the fish get larger

dunno about these, smells wrong somehow.
I think these are decorus x brichardi. this would explain the bodypattern.

I have some serious doubts about these being "the real deal"
check out Synodontis decorus
the body has spots, not stripes, only very small juveniles have spots wich can be connected
and very small juveniles do not posess the long dorsal filament; this evolves when the fish get larger
dunno about these, smells wrong somehow.

Sid makes some accurate points - these fish have proper decorus barred tails not like the frequently seen hybrid called valentine/valentina etc but look small individuals & the earliest i have seen dorsal filament extension is on 4" W/C SL individuals.

The site in the link has photos of grandiops labelled as petricola which is a BAD error of identification which should be understood in the trade i'd have thought. (maybe the lucipinnis/petricola mix-up & multi/grandiops mix-up are forgivable?). This makes me think they perhaps are not catfish/syno knowledgable???

I hesitate to say 100% they are hybrids as they could be a regional variation of decorus, but like Sid i have that funny feeling.....

Hey,



so many good looking Synos. I didn't notice this specimen with filament - there is only single one. But again tail fin looks like it should looks like :/. Maybe just a Taiwan brood-line with stripes? :]

I've looked at this dozens of times now & i'm still not sure either way.

Reading Seegars has reminded me of the supposed striped form that Boulenger described as S. Vittatus, & that the body can be longitudinally striped or no body pattern at all - so no firm decision from me i'm afraid, it's not often but i'm sitting on the fence for this one

hey Richard

I got exactly the same problem, mate
those bloody hybrids spoiled it for good for us. there are so many varieties nowadays and a lot of them look like real and often pretty Synodontis.....

the point is; there are many many more hybrids for sale and few if anyone bothers to breed genuine species. they all go in for the money grab and use needles with hormones and mix up everything

there obviously must be some egotrippin going around from the "I'm playing for god, making new animals" thing.
I don't get it, but I'm gettin' old.

so these days I tend to mistrust baby Synodontis at all occasions, except when it's vlear to spot they are genuine, like the pics of the baby granulosus with the black and white fins and ofcourse for those species that readily breed without syringes, like petricola and multipunctatus.

these "decorus" just don't look normal to me. too many bands and stripes......this shouldn't be a striped fish at all.
the real decorus is a spotted fish.

by sidguppy on Tue Jul 22, 2008 12:16 pm

got exactly the same problem, mate
those bloody hybrids spoiled it for good for us. there are so many varieties nowadays and a lot of them look like real and often pretty Synodontis.....

the point is; there are many many more hybrids for sale and few if anyone bothers to breed genuine species. they all go in for the money grab and use needles with hormones and mix up everything

I totally agree - with these decorus i'd love them to be genuine but i have such a bad feelin'

With so many new hybrids surfacing it is putting a real downer on synos, including some genuine ones..... ie a brown/grey specimen (maybe with fine spots) turns up, it's something 'experienced' syno fans aren't familiar with, what is it, punctifer, arnoulti, eburneensis, budgetti, comoensis, geledensis etc or is it petricola x nigrita () or f1 x nigrita or an f2 hybrid x nigrita - cos the output will change at every further generation ading even more to this unholy mess - it REALLY P%**£* ME OFF - sorry, getting a bit carried away on my beloved GENUINE synos

Marduk wrote:My LFS has received probably 200 1-1.5" juveniles from Taiwan, and I saw recently that Blue Grass c*****ds has small ones for sale at $4 usd each http://bluegrassaquatics.com/aquatics/c ... corus.html

Are they the real deal or hybrids? Personally I only like to keep pure pedigree fish which is why my two current S. decorus are wildcaughts...

~Ed

Have you check maxillary barbels from the fishes in your LFS? Can there be branched maxillary barbels if they are hybrids? I haven't seen it with hybrids so correct me if I'm wrong.

I hope that these decorus are real ones, those are still juveniles so there doesn't have to be individual spots yet. Mine 12cm wild caught juvenile all spots are still connected like the biggest decorus in video so I would say there is good chance that they are real.

http://www.amazon-exotic-import.de/Gall ... ecorus.htm
There is spotted and little bit banded juveniles, mine is from same place.

by jippo on Tue Jul 22, 2008 3:14 pm
Have you check maxillary barbels from the fishes in your LFS? Can there be branched maxillary barbels if they are hybrids? I haven't seen it with hybrids so correct me if I'm wrong.

Does anyone know if hybrids (where one parent is a decorus) have branched maxillary barbels? I can't say i know

Good point here jippo

jippo wrote:

Marduk wrote:My LFS has received probably 200 1-1.5" juveniles from Taiwan, and I saw recently that Blue Grass c*****ds has small ones for sale at $4 usd each http://bluegrassaquatics.com/aquatics/c ... corus.html

Are they the real deal or hybrids? Personally I only like to keep pure pedigree fish which is why my two current S. decorus are wildcaughts...

~Ed

Have you check maxillary barbels from the fishes in your LFS? Can there be branched maxillary barbels if they are hybrids? I haven't seen it with hybrids so correct me if I'm wrong.

I hope that these decorus are real ones, those are still juveniles so there doesn't have to be individual spots yet. Mine 12cm wild caught juvenile all spots are still connected like the biggest decorus in video so I would say there is good chance that they are real.

http://www.amazon-exotic-import.de/Gall ... ecorus.htm
There is spotted and little bit banded juveniles, mine is from same place.

I don't know much about the anatomy of catfish let a lone synodontis so I have no idea what you're referring me to look for...

My two Synodontis decorus (the healthy one I have and the sick one I'm currently treating with Triple Sulfa and metronidasole) have individual spots and the one has a trailer on its dorsal fin.

Here's a picture from davesfish.com (where I got mine) of the batch that the first one came from:


The ones at my LFS look similar to the one in the bottom picture, but have more spots than the stripe things:


I have a huge feeling that they are hybrids since every cichlid my LFS gets from Taiwan are hormoned to the point of sterilization or OBVIOUS hybrids (for example they brought in Red Empress (Protomelas taeniatus Namalenge Isl.) and Dimidiochromis compressiceps hybrids...some had the Dimidiochromis head and red empress body, others had the Dimidiochromis body and Protomelas head...).

BlueGrassCichlids is a pretty reliable source from fish I have heard, but when I spoke to the guy on the phone he said he wasn't sure but that he got them from a wholesaler in California.

~Ed

Marduk wrote:I don't know much about the anatomy of catfish let a lone synodontis so I have no idea what you're referring me to look for...

Only three Synodontis have branched maxillary(upper) barbels and one of these is decorus. So if fishes in your LFS has branched maxillary barbels it's possible that they are real, maybe bred with hormones but still not hybrids. http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/im ... ge_id=2279