Upsidedown Catfish Tank Mates?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Thanks. I'll look into them :) hopefully I can move him soon and get a pic for a positive ID. Thanks heaps for answering all my questions. :)
 
So after looking at more pictures of syno subspecies than I ever thought could have existed, I'm thinking Felix might be a hybrid. I've looked at pics of S. nigriventris and Felix's eyes look like they sit further towards the back of his head than S. nigriventris. On top of that his "blotches" start becoming "squiggled stripes" down near his tail.. If he is a hybrid I'm thinking he may possibly be an S. nigriventris mixed with potentially a S. batessi or a S. contractus..

He's been eating well for the last few days, if he keeps it up I'll move him on Saturday and finally get a few pics.. Is there anything specific that I can look for to know if he's a hybrid? :)
 
Glad to hear the little guy's back to feeding.

You can familiarize yourself with this http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=28659&hilit=hybrid+syno+thread

One common trait of hybrid synos is a dip behind the head.

Pedantic note: genus consists of species, rarely a species can be split in subspecies which may be until taxonomists figure species / genus out. I am not aware of any syno subspecies. Synodontis is a genus with great many species.
 
Thanks, I'll try to memorize that link and report back, and I'll have a sqizz around his head and look for a little dip. Thanks heaps for answering all my questions and for all your help. :)
 
I only hope to help.

Yeah, at 1", it may not be easy to find that dip. You may need a nice close-up or a fair picture and a magnifying glass :) Anyhow, we'll await for the planned photo-shoot.
 
Yeah I couldn't see any dip in his head. It's Tuesday atm, on Saturday he will join his new temporary tank mates, and finally get get out of the tiny glass box. :D not that the tank is tiny compared to him, if there was a '50ltrs per inch of fish' "rule" no ones tanks would be overstocked imo. But I wouldn't like living in a tiny glass box regardless of my size, I'd at least like a semi decent size glass box lol.

I'm guna acclimatise him in a 25ltr tank, so I can get some decent pics, I'll have the magnifying glass on hand as well, and probably use the hubbys phone to get pics as his camera is way better than mine. :)
 
The lighting is crucial, more so than the camera kind.
 
I'm guna have to bodge something up to get better lighting, I might ask a friend if I can borrow her overhead flash for an hour. :)
 
A-ah, the overhead flash. The cream de la cream of fish photography lights... I had more humble ideas in mind but this would do too :)
 
So, I couldn't get a clear enough pic of him during the move either, he just didn't want to stay still. However, I think I have a positive ID on him.

I was at the lfs the other day and seen a heap of catfish that look just like Felix, I asked the guy if he know what they were, he told me nigriventris. I asked him how he could be so sure and he said... HE BREEDS THEM!!! Every fish in that tank was offspring from his USD cats. I asked him why they look different to other nigriventris and he said they were a "zebra kudu" or "kutu" variant or something like that, which is apparently more popular down here or something.. I also asked if he'd be nice enough to come round and help me ID mine, he was, and he confirmed that I had exactly that.. He also told me that if I can get a bigger tank for them, that he would swap me out a few more juvie USD cats for my next brood of silver dollar eggs, which is fine by me, I normally let the corydoras eat their eggs coz I can't be bothered with fry. So, yeah, things seem to be looking pretty awesome right now. I'll continue trying for a video (these end up clearer than pics) just to confirm again, but I trust the blokes knowledge on catfish of any kind, and if he breeds them to sell, I assume he must have a decent idea what he's talking about. :D
 
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