Upside-down Catfish

[Genesis]

anyone own one? can you give me any information about them?

 

[Fishy412]

get 4-6 inches. like to be kept in groups of at least 3. like meaty foods. mostly nocturnal unless kept in a biggish group. synodontis Nigrita probly a tank size of between 30-45 gallons depending on how many you want to keep

 

[Callum]

they prefer tanks with caves and other hiding places

 

[CFC]

If you are the true upside down catfish Synodontis nigriventris then females dont exceed 4" and males get no larger than 3". They are very shy and nocturnal, i have a small group of 3 them in a 25g tank and rarely ever see them without the use of a night vision aid.

 

[andywg]

Just to clarify a point, a large number of fish stores will label pretty much any fish of the Synodontis genus as Upside Down Catfish. This means an adult size from 2" to 6"+ depending on the species.

 

[bunjiweb]

Or even bigger, the Angelicus and Decorus can reach 8 and 12" respectively.

If they look like this:

Then they are the ones that stay small, Synodontis nigriventris.

However there are various larger forms of the upsidedown catfish that get much bigger, such as the brachysynodontis batensoda which gets to at least 7" in an aquarium. If your fish shop has mis-labeled them then they could be virtually anything as all synos I own go upsidedown at least some of the time, especially in caves and under bogwood.

Ben

 

[Genesis]

they are almost completely brown with some faint marbeling (white)

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

What size are they currently? Very young synos tend to have a marbled effect on them which is very attractive. They lose it in place of spots of varying frequency colour and size depending on the species. I'm wondering if you're seeing baby angelicus though with that colouration. They grow up to be bullies. Best not being with other synos as they'll harass and stress them out. A good place to check out the different speices of syno is here. If I see anything similar I'll post it. Need to look up my two newbies. Found a beautiful red tail syno!
Hugs,
P.
Edit:Is the syno something like this?
All the syno species turn upside down on occasion when swimming or at rest, hence why they get lumped into the same pocket of Upside down catfish. Only the nigriventis spends all it's time swimming upside-down though.

 

[Genesis]

they are Synodontis Nigriventris