gotten a group of young S. schoutedeni
from Sallie about six years ago. Well, Eric
has now had a successful spawning from
these fish. A hearty congratulations is due
to him. Eric told me that he will be writing
an article on this event, and when I find
out where and when it will be published
I will let you know. If Eric puts any of his
fry on the market, you might be able to
get some and participate in keeping this
“Sallie” line going.
The Congo
A very good sign for 2007 was the
import of some interesting Synodontis
species from the Congo. The interesting
part was not the species per se, but the
size at which they were imported. I first
heard about this situation from my friend
Mark Soberman. He had let me know,
after a number of false starts, that an
importer friend of his from New York
had received a decent-size shipment of
fishes from the Congo. Included among
the fishes was a number of Synodontis
species that averaged about an inch (or a
little less) in total length! I had seen such
imports before, but it had been a real long
time. Included among the small imported
fishes were Synodontis decorus and S.
flavitaeniatus. These catfishes are so cute
at this size.
I did get to see some of these in fairly
short order. A wholesaler in my area
that I regularly frequent had purchased
some of these fishes from the same
importer. They were a very impressive
sight and the potential of getting these
fishes at such a small size and having the
experience of growing them up is one
well worth having.
So keep your eyes open for such
Synodontis catfishes in the coming months.
They will be worth the search.
Oliver Lucanus
Corydoras hastatus.
The Congo Project
The Ichthyology Department of the
American Museum of Natural History
(New York, New York) is involved in an
ongoing multi-year study of the fishes of
the lower Congo River. In conjunction
with this they have set up an active
website titled “The Congo Project.” This
is an outstanding site, and I heartily
recommend it to anyone with interests in
the fishes of this area. Of course, herein
we are mainly interested in the catfishes
and there is more than enough material
in this area to make us happy campers.
Mark Smith
Synodontis flavitaeniatus, one of the catfish gems regularly imported from the Congo.
From a photographic point there are,
in addition to pictures of preserved
fishes, some very nice field photographs
of fresh-caught, and subsequently alive,
catfishes—Synodontis included. Check
out this site at www.research.amnh.org/
ichthyology/congo. I think you will be
pleased. Don’t forget to add it to your
favorites, as updates are added as material
becomes available.
Family Matters
Those of you who regularly read this
column will know that the above heading
has been used more than once as a column
title. There has been a lot going on with
higher-level (i.e., family-level) catfish
taxonomy, and there is no question that
there will be additional such work in the
future. Some of this will be new, but there
are many proposals, thoughts, etc. that
