Cuckoo cats.
- Thread starter UncommonPleco
- Start date
I have had multis in most of my tanks. They are great scavengers and very active for the most part. Ive never had them get bigger then 6" really 4-5". Ive seen many differences in the actual length listed for them. My lfs has had success breeding these and their current breeding group is over 6years old and they are at max 5". Id say get 5 or more. Every time I've gotten 3 2 gang up on 1 and then you have 2. Every time I've gotten 5 they have all been good and are more active and tend to group together more. I'd go no smaller then a 75. They are incredibly active and need the length and width id say 120 would be better even, both standard. A pair of cichlids would be a nice addition and if they are mouth brooders you may entice your synos to breed also. Ive never had mine breed but like I said my lfs has and they dont even have them with cichlids. I got my current ones elsewhere but got 3 and again ended up with 2. I was going to get a few more but fell in love with the Valentini they had instead. I know Valentini are hybrids of multi and decorus but they looked really cool I got 3 they are complete hidders. As for warer parameters ive had them in a lot but seem to do best in harder water with a ph in the 7s.
Big cities like Toronto have it all and then some more 
Anyhow, statistically 99 times out of a hundred you will get a S. grandiops being passed up as a multipunctatus. They are hard to tell apart from one's memory but when placed side by side, they can be told apart. See Planet Catfish for more.
Their max size differs too a bit. This is probably the reason you see such different numbers cited here in this thread alone.
Their biology is close IIRC.
I'd do as big a group as you can. They adapt to a wide variety of waters. It is best to keep any fish in something that's close to their natural water or not too far off.
Anyhow, statistically 99 times out of a hundred you will get a S. grandiops being passed up as a multipunctatus. They are hard to tell apart from one's memory but when placed side by side, they can be told apart. See Planet Catfish for more.
Their max size differs too a bit. This is probably the reason you see such different numbers cited here in this thread alone.
Their biology is close IIRC.
I'd do as big a group as you can. They adapt to a wide variety of waters. It is best to keep any fish in something that's close to their natural water or not too far off.
lots of great information. Just read some great articles on Synodontis Grandiops.
Thanks to everyone.
Thanks to everyone.
Interesting, I've never seen that. Probably because in this province one of the long standing planet catfish members supplies most of the shops with multi's and lucipinnis. I have personally never seen a multi over 6", including many wild caught specimens.
Could it be one of the PCF resident syno experts Birger by any chance??
IIRC he is a Canuck. I am stating the current understanding picked up from Planet Catfish and all the credit goes out to those super guys.
If I recall correctly, it had only been relatively recently since this came to light - the gradiops being marketed as multipunctatus, perhaps within 5 or at most 10 years. Before that these fish either weren't split into separate species or this widespread occurrence in the trade had not been brought to light.
I agree that I've never seen either a grandiops or a multi over 6". The 10" cited by Brian UncommonPleco as picked up from somewhere on the net, looks to be from FishBase and PCF. So should be trustworthy. If so, such giants must be very rare, like 8' humans.
Anyway, I must also correct myself - grandiops is a twice smaller fish with a max size cited at 4.3" SL (excluding the caudal fin), so probably ~5"-5.5" total length to the tail tip, not fork base as scientifically defined, while a multi is cited to reach 8.7" SL, probably ~10" total length.
https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/species.php?species_id=710
https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/species.php?task=&species_id=95
BTW this came out timely
Evolution of brood parasitism by Synodontis multipunctatus
https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=46966#p314829
No, but that was a good guess. 
The breeder is Syno321. He's not the only source of multis, we see WC specimens of most of the African synos as well, but he has been supplying a lot of the retail outlets between Edmonton & Calgary for I would guess the past 20 yrs or more. Paul is a great guy, with a real passion for cats.
As far as max size, the largest I have ever heard of for a multi is 7-8", and that cat was approx. 20 yrs old. So certainly some can get beyond 6", but it's probably not as commonly seen at that size as most people don't keep them that long. I doubt that anyone has ever owned a 10" TL multi, if they have I would love to see one up against a ruler.
The breeder is Syno321. He's not the only source of multis, we see WC specimens of most of the African synos as well, but he has been supplying a lot of the retail outlets between Edmonton & Calgary for I would guess the past 20 yrs or more. Paul is a great guy, with a real passion for cats.As far as max size, the largest I have ever heard of for a multi is 7-8", and that cat was approx. 20 yrs old. So certainly some can get beyond 6", but it's probably not as commonly seen at that size as most people don't keep them that long. I doubt that anyone has ever owned a 10" TL multi, if they have I would love to see one up against a ruler.
