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Danny Blundell (1) Hippocampus Bildarchiv (5) David Mashall (2) Serge Mevellec (1) John P. Sullivan (1) Jorge Garcia (1)

Aquarium Care: This is quite an aggressive Syno and can grow quite large. Its certainly not in the same league as S. schall but never the less still a bit of a 'grump' when housed, especially with its own kind. A better environment for it would be with large Cichlids and even a Lake Tanganyika tank setup would do fine as S. acanthomias is very tolerant of different water conditions and so a higher p.H. factor would not faze it too much. If housed with other Synodontis I would give it a large tank (4ft or above) and give them plenty of shelter from each other and then monitor them to see how they will interact with one another. I find it to be a trial and error in keeping Syno's together, some get on fine, while others will not tolerate a certain species/individual, so watch for a few days when introducing, and have another tank ready if you are spotting any problems. Diet: Will eat any foods given to your other tank inhabitants and will also take flakefood that floats to the botom. Feed also tablet foods and frozen bloodworm which they find a favourite. Some form of vegetable content would also help to keep this "Syno" in tiptop condition. Etymology: acanthus, thorn; omias, perhaps from the Greek omos, shoulder or humerus, referring to humeral process armed with spines (name may also refer to S. omias, to which this species had incorrectly been identified). Remarks: A good identification factor is the tip of the humeral process being adorned with spines which makes it look ragged looking. The last thumbnail image shows this trait. This is a good identifier for this species.

Black-Spotted Synodontis

Synodontis omias, Synodontis depauwi, Synodontis pfefferi

Mochokidae

Africa: Congo Dem Rep. Type locality: Boma et Léopoldville.

30.5cm. (12¼ins)

22-24°C (72-75°F)

6.5-8.0.

Ferraris, C.J. Jr., 2007. Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types. Zootaxa 1418:1-628.
ScotCat Factsheet: no. 75; Sept. 2002.