Anybody keep Synodontis Eupterus

Hi i have just been given one it is about 15cm. I don't want to put it into my community tank just yet. The only other option i have is to put it into a 10l tank, will it be ok for about a week in the small tank. I only have about half an hour to get ready for it. Any info you guys have about this fish will be very helpfull.

 

I know they are quite active

 

Why not put it in the community tank?

I can't imagine it would be a problem.

 

Habitat Information
Distribution White Nile, Chad Basin, Niger, Africa
African Waters, Chad
African Waters, Nigeria Rivers, Niger
African Waters, Nile, Upper Nile, White Nile
pH 5.6 - 7.5
Temperature 22.0-26.0°C or 71.6-78.8°F
Other Parameters Undemanding.
Husbandry Information
Feeding Bloodworm, Sinking Catfish Pellets, Doromin
Furniture Lots of rock caves and bogwood. Likes open spaces to patrol in the twilight / dark. Ensure the fish do not hide near a heater; they can burn themselves which leaves a nasty scar.
Compatibility Peaceful. Can be kept singly or in groups given adequate refuge for each individual. A large multi-branched piece of bogwood is ideal.
Suggested Tankmates Most medium or large community fish. Although commonly available as such, not a good species for the small community tank. Anything smaller than 3foot / 1 meter long, go for Synodontis nigriventris instead.


this is taken from planet catfish
and from what i have read they can be moody , a 10L tank 25 x 20 x 20? is really small for a 15cm fish

 

I have one in my predator tank and it seem to be doing fine.

 

Ja but its got bigger fish to bug and not in a 10 ltr tank

 

I kept mine for some time with smaller fish, such as blockhead cichlids, African butterflyfish, Polypterus as well as other smaller Synodontis species - he didn't cause any problems other than with the other Synos, and that was only when food was in the tank.

 

The 10l tank is only to quarinine the fish before adding it to the community tank.
I will be putting it into the 3ft tahk when i'm sure it;s ok.

 

I think it should be ok because these fish are not that aggressive and they only come out at night by the looks of my one any way. but this is just my opinion because my Synodontis Eupterus acts like that, this is not to say yours will be the same.....

 

Thanks a stack guys, very helpful info. When i picked the fish up he was bigger, +-18cm so i decided to take the chance and add him to the big tank. There was also another fish i got some kind of algae eater not sure what it is.

 

post a pic maybe some one here can ID it for you.

I know this is off topic but I have to say it.....
I went into a petshop and there were a couple Synodontis Eupterus in the tank so I asked the what were the prices of them and the helper did not know what I was talking about????? I showed him what I wanted and he said they were Kuli Loaches..... and he argued with me, so I just left.....
thought I would share this funny ordeal.

 

Funnily enough, there was also S. eupterus and Kuhli loaches being kept in the same tank at my LFS, and I'm pretty sure I overheard someone calling the catfish a Kuhli loach!! :bigsmile:

 

Ouch!! LOL,, wonder if the LFS could be trustworthy hiring people like that? If you didn't know any better there could've been some sad tales turning up, which I actually pressume happens anyway. But yes, we got a Synodontis with two pleco's, and have added some Malawi's and a Congo Bilchir with them, and don't have any trouble from him at all. Luckily the tank seems fine now too,, had a scare over the weekend.

 

Carpingfem, luckliy it wasn't a staff member saying that in my case, otherwise I would have said something to them!

 

Ok back on line after three days of trouble. My @#$%%* landlady didn't pay her water and lights so i've been sitting with out power since monday morning just after eight. I informed her at 12 when she came home, she didn't sort the problem out, she packed up and left for Pretoria. Leaving us in the dark. After a mad run around i organised a generator to run my tanks and fridge on. The landlady is coming back tomorrow to a big surprise..... i have in the mean time found another flat and will be moving out tomorrow ( this is not the first time it has happened and i'm sick of it ) Luckily i don't have a contract with her.
Back to the topic at hand i have tried to load pics but i can't seem to shrink them enough. ( you guys might have guessed - i'm not very good on a pc ) I will keep trying.
The other fish is a 12cm chinese algae eater.

 

A - to shrink your pictures - download a program called IrfanView - probably the BEST freeware graphics manipulator around. Load IrfanView, open your picture "File Open"
The click on "Image" "Resize" and click the 640x480 button, click OK
save it and you are done..

you can get Irfanview here :
www.irfanview.com
One of the nice things is will take a RAW image from a camera and do everything you want..

 

How on earth can people be like this???? I mean, what the hell was she thinking? You can't leave people in the dark!!!!! I would have been seriously LIVID myself!

Good to hear that you managed to make a plan for your fish though!

 

Another easy option is downloading Picasa, which does auto-resize and uploading to Web Albums for easy sharing with the rest of us.


Is the Eupterus the same as the upside down catfish? Because now all of a sudden my Upsidedown which I thought was something else, looks very much like this one.

Bloody hell I thought it was an Angelicus all along, but apparently I don't pay hardly enough attention to these things.

Will have to take pictures of the Syno's in each tank tonight and figure out who is who, and what is what.

 

There are a lot of similar looking Synodontis in the hobby, and what is worse is that there are also several hybirds appearing here and there as well. The most common hybrids I've seen are those of a S. eupterus mixed with another Syno. Even the hybrids of S. eupterus have the 'feathers' on their dorsal fin.

Maybe you could post up a pic of your syno, SauRoN, so we might be able to help you ID it?

 

Yeah I'll take some tonight, seems I never manage to get shots of these okes in my general one.

The one in my Malawi tank has the strong boney dorsal fin, but he is about 5 years old by now, but he is less "spotty".

The one I got with the new tank, looks more like the Eupterus, but without the boney fin.