PlanetCatfish.com

Just had this fish advertised locally by someone at ~7" and all grey. The single dorsal extension made me think it was perhaps a female S. euptera, but the colouring has made me not very sure at all!

Those barbels look rather long too, a similar relative size to those on my adult Synodontis notata, making me wonder is this could perhaps be a less common species, such as S. budgetti. But then those dorsal and pectoral spines look quite chunky too, bringing up the possiblity of S. schall to my untrained eye.

This is unlikely to be euptera, since all the dorsal-fin rays tend to have extensions in this species (not just the first ray/spine). I'd say budgetti looks to be the closest.

Thanks Silurius, sent the seller an e-mail to get a few more details, including the essential "is this photo the actual fish for sale?"

Absolutely gutted to report I found Troy and one of my Synodontis brichardi trio (female I think) dead last night just before bedtime, after being alerted something was wrong when another S. brichardi was desperately trying to stay at the water surface and my Distichodus group were gasping heavily.

I can only guess it was the heatwave we've had in Southampton since just before last weekend and unusually, I stupidly didn't lower the water level on the the 6-foot tank as per normal during heatwaves, so that the filter outputs were right at the water surface to improve oxygen levels in the raised ~29C temps.

Big water change when I was about to go to bed and a half dose of emergency amounts of Seachem Safe due to temps as per instructions, everyone else looks to be OK this morning including the Euchlichthys trio, I've started up the vibration-noisy Eheim Powerline XL for more surface movement for the next few hours and I'll do another water change later.

The adage of worry when settled fish act unusually rings so true my experience.

Wow, that really sucks. I'm sorry for your loss. I've lost Scleromystax during a heat wave before. It was an awful feeling as I couldn't cool the water effectively.

Better luck going forward,
Eric

Sorry to hear that. Wouldn't the symptoms of insufficient DO manifest gradually as the temperatures have been rising gradually? I know it doesn't happen for all fish, didn't happen with my RTC, Jau catfish, TSN x achara hybrid.

Great follow through.