What type of catfish is this?

thebiggerthebetter

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thebiggerthebetter

Senior Curator
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Naples, FL, USA
Nice cats. You should be able to see that the two main barbles are bare ( plain and straight) and have no additional tiny branches like the others do. This will be the main way to tell between sp_hybrid 5 ( sp. Valentiana ) and decorus.
You can expect similar growth rate and size to multipunctatus, maybe an inch larger.
Decorus must sport:

-- branched mandibular barbels, as you said
-- dorsal extension (can be bitten off)
-- stripes in the dorsal and caudal (can develop a bit later, after 2"-3")
 

krichardson

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Not S. decorus, the tail pattern is all wrong. But close. Looks to be the hybrid Synodontis sp. valentiana, which is a hybrid between S. decorus and S. multipunctatus
A shop in this area had a few of those.Thinking at first that they were Synodntis decorus they caught my eye but they were labeled with some other fancy name.
I passed on them since they were not decorus.
 
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