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A couple of years ago a ‘mixed bag’ of wild caught Synodontis species arrived at the Petland aquatic retail outlet at New Earswick (a suburb of York). Martin Echarri, whose family own the outlet, was ‘first on the scene’ as these fish arrived and put aside a beautiful crème coloured little Synodontis to take home for his own aquarium. A couple of days later I paid a visit and was able to view this ‘new Synodontis’ while still in the shop. As I have an extremely keen interest in these fish I became excited as to the identity of this particular individual but did not tell Martin exactly what my instincts had told me. I wanted to have the chance to verify this initial recognition through textbook pictures and photographs. It did not take long for me to get in touch and, after phoning Kevin Webb to check that this Synodontis had small eyes and banding to the tail, I confirmed with Martin that we had a Synodontis katangae in our midst and that this was the first katangae, as far as we know, available to aquarists’ in the Ryedale area for at least 30 years - if ever. Location... Synodontis katangae is found in the Congo River basin with the largest population occurring in the Luombwa River system of Angola. The largest known specimen had a body length of 240mm. The pectoral fin bones of katangae are said to resemble thick boomerangs. Identification The background body colour goes through a small number of ‘life stages’ and in adults is light grey-purple. I have seen drawings and photographs of katangae that show fish with neat rows of tiny spots upon their bodies, others showing fish with up to 18 large black spots spread over their bodies whereas our katangae has a much lower number of body spots that are ‘bunched’ towards the caudal peduncle. Perhaps the spotting, as in Synodontis zambezensis, changes with age? Living specimens are often confused with both Synodontis ocellifer and Synodontis ornatipinnis. To tell the difference between katangae and ocellifer look at the caudal peduncle, as in katangae you find a bar absent in ocellifer and look at the eyes that in katangae are much smaller. The confusion with ornatipinnis comes through their identical body structures, and eyes, but ornatipinnis has a zebra patterned body as opposed to spots. The caudal pattern of katangae is also slightly different from that of the other two species.  Reproduction As a river living Synodontis, reproduction takes place during the rainy season when rivers flood out into grasslands creating ideal conditions for extra food resources for adults and microscopic foods for their fry to gorge upon. The majority of riverine Synodontis scatter dark coloured eggs among the vegetation with the hatchling fry left to fend for themselves. Update A few months ago Martin asked if I would take the katangae into my care so this lovely fish is now with me and is housed in a 36x12x15” aquarium alongside several fellow Mochokidae and medium-sized Central American cichlids. If harassed the katangae will look after itself but, in general, is very placid. Copyright Text and photograph by David Marshall. |
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