2 Types of Synodontis multipunctatus?

[katatoniq]

My mate claims that there is a desirable "breed?" of multi and and a less desirable one.

He originally sold my my cuckoos and claims that there are more than one type of cuckoo (i think we are talking morphs more than species here).

He says that it is widely known that there are cuckoos from lake tanganyika and then there are the (less sought after) "rift lake" cuckoos that evolved seperately and apparently don't look quite as good as the tang cuckoos.

Can someone give me any information on this and if so is there a way to spot the difference? As at the moment I have 3 of his "tang cuckoos" and 6 "rift lake" cuckoos - or so he thinks.

Cheers!

[worton[pl]]

Hey,

rift lakes are probably Victoria, Malawi and Tanganyika and maybe few smaller lakes.
As far as we know there is no described species of cuckoo other than

Synodontis multipunctata

.

Recently a new species, similar to Synodontis multipunctata was described. It is

Synodontis grandiops

which also orgins from Tanganyika. It is not sure if S. grandiops is also a cuckoo spawner .

There is 11 described species from Tanganyika:

Synodontis dhonti

Synodontis grandiops

Synodontis granulosa

Synodontis ilebrevis

Synodontis irsacae

Synodontis lucipinnis

Synodontis melanosticta

Synodontis multipunctata

Synodontis petricola

Synodontis polli

Synodontis tanganyicae

In lake Malawi there is as far single species. It is

Synodontis njassae

From lake Victoria is

Synodontis victoriae

known. And probably few other, riverine species that sometimes enters this lake.

There is also a lot of human-made hybrids which usually looks a little bit like multipunctata.

Hope it helps.
Regards.

[katatoniq]

wow thats very handy information.

that grandiops looks almost identical?!

anywho, i just noticed on the PC multi page they talk about a southern and northern tribe. maybe this is it? Is one more desirable? He claims that you can buy his "good" ones for twice the price of the "not so good ones".

I'm confused.

[sidguppy]

don't forget that there are also several local varieties within s multipunctatus.

tanzanian specimen look different from zambians wich differ from burundi.
then there's also a larger form and a smaller form.
IMO the revision of tanganyikan syno's is far from complete.

good post, Worton, btw ;)

Kata; your friend might be talking about a true multipunctatus and a Tzech hybrid form. the latter is most often for sale as a genuine multipunctatus wich it is not. it's for sale at a fraction of the price from wholesalers to LFs, but the latter often have no scrupules of putting a firm pricetag on it and making a whopping profit by selling crap for genuine fish.

it's all in the margins unfortunately and this is the main reason hybrids are created; to bamboozle customers and make a swift buck by ripping them off while making just a fraction of the costs compared to having to import genuine chuckoo cats.

[Richard B]

Synodontis afrofischeri

is also found in lake victoria.

Any chance of a photo of one of his "tang cuckoos" & the other "rift cuckoos" you have so we can be absolutely exact with the info we provide?

[katatoniq]

well the only three "tang" cuckoos i have from him are @ ~3-4cm so they aren't really comparable but I will send anyway.






they are my full size ones, ill see if i can get a few good shots of his ones.

[Richard B]

Nice photos & genuine - certainly not hybrids

[worton[pl]]

Hey,

thanks Sid!
hmm there is an interesting article about fishes in lake Tanganyika.
Sadly for me only in french so I can, as a little kid, watch only images

Here it is:
http://tanganyika-cichlids.com/Les_non- ... anyika.PDF

Mochokidae - page 69 .

Hmm looks like afrofischeri like lakes since it also lives in Tanganyika

Regards.
P.S.
Of course you have to change * in word cichlid to proper letters ;).

[Bas Pels]

Still, nice pictures, I downloaded it although i harldy understand the language too

[drpleco]

what exactly are the features that differentiate s. grandiops from s. multipunctata? The dorsal of grandiops appears higher, maybe?

[Birger]

Hmm looks like afrofischeri like lakes since it also lives in Tanganyika

I think it says it has not been seen in Lake Tanganyika(but my French is very bad)

The Seegers book of the Lake Rukwa Drainage says S. afrofischeri presently is known from the Lake Victoria and Lake Kioga Basins including the whole Kageri drainage and Lake Nabugabu.Furthermore it occurs in the Malagarasi drainage. In the Rukwa Basin it has also been collected on two occasions from the Piti River.

An interestig point on the S.afrofischeri also is that Seeger's Catfish of Africa book shows a picture of one of these acting as a cleaner fish on a Haplochromis (or Astatotilapia) bloyeti