I'm hoping Mongo or Larry may have a chance to weigh in on this.

About three or four weeks ago I get a Syn. Nigrita for my juvie Haps tank. I drop him in and he seems pretty content, not even hiding that much.

A week later I finally see him for the second time, just for a moment. Contrast this to my Synodontis Eupterus, which -- just as Mongo predicted -- after about 3 days began putting in regular appearances at the front of the tank whenever food was suspected to be around.

After not seeing the S. Nigrita for two more weeks I did a cleaning and rock rearrangement tonight, and here was old Syn. Nigrita, swimming around happily in the light as if he did it all the time. But this is a guy who has been invisible the last 2 weeks! B)

Is this normal S. Nigrita behavior? Was I naive to expect S. Nigrita and S. Eupterus to have more similar personalities?

Thanks!

PSO, that is one of the few species of syno that I have never been able to find in my area. So having never had the honor of keeping them, I'll hazzard a guess. Looking at the fish on "PlanetCatFish", its pupils appear to be larger than the eupteris or even petricola (sic). With having a large eye (pupil) I say it probably is more comfortable in the darkness of the caves of its habitat, only coming out to feed. Most catfish are nocturnal hunters, which you already know...we may have a novice reading this along with us. So my recommendation is to reduce to light out put on the tank and see if that dosnt make your little guy more active. Another thing you can do is use an "out side" light source. If I want to get good pics of my eupteris, i will turn off the tank lights and use a lamp on the other side of the room to see, then you drop in a liitle food...brine shrimp works wonders here...and the catfish usualy comes right out and is swimming along the front of teh tank looking for tidbits. I hope this helps, sorry I dont have more experience with these guys. Good luck!

The original post on this thread is from late June. 7 weeks later, mid-August, the Syn. Nigrita this afternoon for the first time showed up feeding in the shadows of the tank during the day. In the meantime I saw him only once, when I tore down the tank to snare a holding female and took out every rock.

We'll see if it's 6 weeks till his next appearance, or if he gradually grows less shy. He's still less than 2" in size.

Glad to hear he's starting to get out and adventure!

Maybe you should get some of those cool blue moon
lights that allow you to see your noctornal creatures
at night!

I love the lighting and the mood it puts in the room!

4 weeks later: the Syn. Nigrita (alias Lace Catfish) is now starting to put in several appearances per week, always just after food has been delivered.

So the advice I received was good: "He's a Synodontis. Give him dark caves as a juvie and he'll eventually get comfortable and venture out into the light once in a while."