Upside Down Catfish
and other Species of Synodontis Catfish Click
here
now to buy Upside Down Catfish from us.
This video shows the dark silhouettes of two Upside Down Catfish swimming under a piece
of driftwood.
This video shows a Synodontis nyassae catfish resting on a big rock.
Here is another Synodontis nyassae catfish looking for something to eat.
Click on the images above.
Scientific Name: Synodontis nigriventris
Comments All Synodontis Catfish are very good aquarium fish. They get along well with other fish, and they're energetic, healthy, and interesting to watch. Many of
them swim upside down, when they are excited or hungry. The Upside Down Catfish, Synodontis nigriventris, swim upside down most of the time.
There are many species of Synodontis catfish and all of them are usually nocturnal, so they need a cave or a piece
of drift wood to live under during the day.
Be sure the rocks or pieces of pipe and everything else you put in your aquarium will not contaminate the water. Click
here to read about how to avoid contaminating your aquarium.
Synodontis Picture Gallery
The Upside Down Catfish, shown above, is swimming around the aquarium upside
down. Upside Down Cats are hardy and energetic, rarely bother other fish and are rarely bothered by other fish. They often live for many years. Click
here for more details about buying Upside Down Catfish and other wild fish from us. A very good aquarium fish.
Synodontis multipunctatus, shown above, whose ancestors lived in Lake Tanganyika in East Africa,
but this fish was born and raised on a famous fish farm. About 3" in this photo and can grow to be about 11" in a large aquarium with good care. A very good aquarium fish.
Synodontis eupterus, shown above, which was imported as a wild fish
from West Africa. This fish is now about 1.5" long and can grow to be about about 8" long in an aquarium. A very good aquarium fish.
So-called Leopard Synodontis that may be a hybrid. That is to say, it parents were different
species of Synodontis catfish.
The fish, shown above, was often incorrectly called a Synodontis decorus, which is close to the scientific name for this
species. English words do have gender, do they? But Latin words do, and the Latin word Synodontis is feminine, and so cannot be correctly paired with the masculine Latin word decorus.
So the correct Latin name for this species is Synodontis decora, and perhaps the common name should be the Decora Catfish, not Decorus.
By the way, whether an individual fish of this species is a male or female, the scientific name is still Decora. Confusing? Maybe so. Scientific names can be useful and helpful, but
if they annoy you, ignore them!
Synodontis is a huge genus of catfish species, and most Synodontis are very good aquarium fish. Some grow so big that they'll eventually need a huge aquarium, which is not so good for
most aquarists. But some Synodontis grow to only about 5" to 7". Decora Catfish grow to about 10", but some get as big as 12" long. That makes them too big for most aquariums, but about
the right size for really big aquariums ... think 250-gallons.
Like many fish species, all Synodontis Catfish will eat small fish that fit into their mouths. I put one 5" long Synodontis in an aquarium with lots of rocky ornaments and lots of baby
Mbuna Cichlids, thinking the babies would have lots of tiny places to hide. That night, when the lights were off, the Synodontis found and ate every baby Mbuna, and that was very disappointing!
It also illustrates the fact that Synodontis tend to be nocturnal and search the aquarium at night for food.
But Synodontis usually do not bother other fish that are too big to swallow, and Synodontis catfish have sharp spines that discourage most other fish from biting or eating them, so
Synodontis are often seen with aggressive fish like Cichlids in large aquariums, where they help by eating bits of leftover food.
Appropriate Home An aquarium with at least 29 gallons of water, an exterior power filter
with a BIO-Wheel, a maximum of 1/4 inch of gravel, and an
aquarium heater adjusted to keep the temperature of the water between 78 and 82 degrees F. Click
here for more about warm water aquariums.
Synodontis Catfish enjoy Cichlid Stones, which are hollow ceramic aquarium caves that make ideal
homes for Synodontis. Many Cichlids, Loaches, Eels, and Sharks also love these caves. Click
here for more about
Cichlid Stones.
Recommended Diet Floating Flake Food for Tropical Fish. Click here for more about feeding fish. I feed
these catfish a few live Black Worms every other day. Click here for more about Black Worms.
Size and Lifespan Upside Down Catfish can grow to 4" and sometimes larger. They live for 10 years sometimes longer. A friend of ours, Mr. Frank Dayes, got some of the first
Synodontis Catfish imported into the United States in the early 1950s and kept them for over 25 years.
Hello, I was wondering if you could answer a question for me about the upside down catfish. We have had
ours for almost 14 years, can you tell me how long or how old the oldest upside catfish in captivity is or how long we can expect ours to live. I know for us
it won't be a pleasant experience when it does die, but was wondering how long we might have left?
Thank you for your help,
Mrs. Lee Ann L.
Reply. Hello Lee Ann. Thank you for reporting about your Upside Down Catfish
(UDC). You've had it for 14 years, so it's older than that. It was probably at least one year old, when you got it. That is just an estimate. If so, your UDC is now over 15 years
old.
As mentioned above, Mr. Frank Dayes, told me he kept some types of Synodontis Catfish for over 25 years, and I saw those Synodontis, but I was never sure what species
they were. Your UDC is a Synodontis nigriventris. I think it may live for several more years and maybe for many more years.
Good luck with your fish.
The advertisement, shown below, links to
this advertiser's web site.
Click
here
to verify our "PayPal Reputation",
which shows we have been selling on PayPal since 2002,
and we've sold items to thousands of satisfied customers.
Holliday Gift Idea
PayPal Gift Certificates
Click on
the orange button, just below, to buy
a PayPal Gift Certificate for
someone, who loves pet fish.
Best Selling
Books
Click here
now to order The Simple
Guide to Freshwater
Aquariums, a bestselling
reference, offering an
easy-to-understand look at
setting up and maintaining a
successful first freshwater
aquarium.
Click here
now
to order The New Marine
Aquarium: Step-By-Step setup
and stocking Guide, the best
selling book about starting
a new marine aquarium.
Click
here
now to order 500 Freshwater
Aquarium Fish: A Visual
Reference to the Most
Popular Species, a beautiful
book, lovingly written and
illustrated, with
information for the beginner
or the longtime enthusiast.
Click here
now to order Fancy Goldfish:
A Complete Guide ... by Eric L. Johnson,
DMV, and Richard E. Hess. The most
encompassing and thorough treatment of the
fancy goldfish hobby to date. Hardcover with
176 pages.
•
Unlimited FREE Two-Day Shipping
•
No minimum order size
•
One-Day shipping for $3.99/item
•
Unlimited, commercial-free, instant
streaming
of 5,000 movies and TV shows.
•
Join Amazon Prime for $79/year. Click
here
now to learn more about Amazon
Prime.
About our Fish Photographs ...
Almost all the photographs and videos, shown on this web site, were taken
by us in our aquariums of our fish. Compare the healthy,
beautiful, energetic fish in our beautiful aquariums to the
fish in our competitors pictures. Their fish often look thin
with clamped fins and poor color.
We buy the highest quality fish, produced by the best fish
farms or caught by the best collectors of wild fish, then we take incredibly good care of our fish in our beautiful aquariums. If you compare the pictures on this site to our competitors pictures, you can instantly see, our fish and aquariums are better!
;^ }
Will the fish you get from us look like the fish in our pictures? No! This is similar to buying kittens and puppies, that will change as they grow to become cats and dogs. We stock and ship fish that are the ideal size to sell. Not so small that they will not do well when shipped. Yet not so big that they have become much more expensive. The fish in almost all of our pictures were young fish like the ones we have for sale that we raised up, and you can too!
How
to Customize
this Page
If this web page looks too small or too narrow, hold down
the keyboard key marked "Ctrl" then press down on the key
marked +, and this web page should get bigger. If you overdo it,
and this page gets too big, hold down the same "Ctrl" key
and press down on the key marked - to make this page
smaller.
Repeat, until this
page looks just right to you. In this way you can customize
the appearance of our website in your computer. This tip
will work simultaneously on all the pages in this website,
and your computer should remember what you've done the next
time you come back to this site, unless you're using an
ancient version of a browser. ;^
o
The advertisement, shown below, links to
this advertiser's web site.
IMPORTANT:
Your use of this website constitutes your acceptance
of our Privacy
Agreement and Terms of Use including our Disclaimer.
Click here to
read
our Disclaimer, and click
here to
read our Privacy Agreement.
Click
here for
our street address, phone number, fax, and email
address.
Click
here for information about advertising on this website.
AquariumFish.net
is not affiliated with
AquariumFish.com.
