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I have just inherited 3 synodontis from someone who bought a tank but didnt want the fish so I said I would have them but my tank was not quiet ready so I was a little worried but I had no choice but to put them in. they have gone into a 260l tank with ocean rock and slate that has been running for 3 weeks. The first night seemed fine, second they went really quiet and crammed themselves behind the rocks, so I did a water test and the nitrite and amonia was a little high - nitrite was 5 and amonia was 0.5 used amonia reducer and did a 30% water change added some bacterlife and some acclimol and put in some aquarium salt too. Now they are moving a bit more but one of them has started to get patches on them where the colour is fading. They also seem to be breathing a little fast to me but not sure what the norm is for them - tried to take picture as best I could so you can see what I mean. Did another water test tonight and the amonia is at 0 and the nitrite is down to 1. It is now almost all white and has happened in the space of an hour or so! Please can you tell me what maybe wrong and what else I can do?

Hi Cheryl & welcome to Planet Catfish

Initially the tank wasn't mature enough for the fish as ammonia & nitrite should be zero. It sounds like you have started on the right actions with combating the water problems - further small & frequent changes combined with upping the aeration should help.

Your syno (Euptera) has quite a deformed face as it is extremely blunt & may be the sign of a poor quality fish. Also this species is very adaptable but the tank set-up seems less than perfect as coral & ocean rock 'produce' hard alkaline water suitable for rift synos whereas this fish is a riverine species. It should adapt to this set-up though.

There are a couple of "types" of synos going white. Your fish looks to have rubbed it's body on rough decor or sand, perhaps combined with irritation of initial poor water - if this is the case it should recover in time.

The other sort tends to start with a whitening of the lateral line then lead to bold white body blotches which seem irreversible. The cause of this is not fully confirmed

Thanks for getting back to me - The wierd thing is that this fish changed colour in less than an hour and since adding an air pump and turning light off she/he has gone from being almost entirely white to being dark with less patches than when the photos were taken about 2 hours ago. I dont understand???????? This tank was actually being set up for cichlids specifically Lake Malawi Cichlids will these fish be ok with cichlids?

This fish will be fine with cichlids, but it's ideal water conditions is not African Rift-Lake. There are several synos that DO come from the African Rift Lakes, but this is a riverine species, which means that it lives in one (or more) of the rivers of Africa. [If memory serves, S. euptera lives in many rivers, but I could be wrong]. African rivers tend to be neutral or slightly acidic pH 6-7, whilst the rift lakes are quite alkaline (the opposite of acidic) - pH 9 or so - that may not sound a lot, but 3 pH "units" is 1000 times more acidic or alkaline depending on which way you go. Combine that with the fact that ammmonia is more toxic at high pH, that would explain a lot!

Many fish also have a "stress colouration", which is what they show when they are "unhappy" with something.

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Mats

yes i can agree syno eupterus is a fresh water river fish ( neutral ph ) although they will adapt to slighty harder water they are not really happy above 7.5 ph which malawis are kept at and better in a neutral water setup.
best move them before they die !