Featherfin squeaker

Care at a glance

Overview

The featherfin squeaker is a striking, mostly peaceful catfish usually kept on its own, since it does not require company of its kind and can be territorial with other bottom catfish as it grows. It mixes well with medium to large, robust tankmates such as bigger tetras, barbs, West African cichlids, and gouramis, but is too large for a nano community. It forages over the bottom at night, sometimes turning belly-up to feed. Offer sinking pellets, frozen foods, and vegetable matter. Give it sand, driftwood, and shaded caves, and a tank around 170 liters or larger.

In the wild

Synodontis eupterus lives in the rivers and floodplains of the Sahel and White Nile region, recorded from Nigeria, Mali, Chad, and Niger, where it shelters among wood and roots in warm, gently flowing water. Keep it at 22 to 27 degrees C with a pH of 6.5 to 7.5. Furnish a soft sandy bed to protect its long barbels, with bogwood, rock, and PVC caves for daytime cover and open space to swim. Good filtration, a moderate current, and steady oxygen keep it in condition.

Good to know

This squeaker in the family Mochokidae commonly reaches about 20 centimeters in aquaria, with wild fish recorded larger. Adults develop a tall, feathered dorsal fin of branched rays that gives the fish its name, while juveniles are more plainly finned. It carries the family's bony head plates and locking spines and can right itself to swim upside down. Breeding is not documented in home aquariums.

Did you know

Young featherfins look plain, but as they mature the first dorsal fin grows into a tall, lacy plume of branched rays. Like several African squeakers, this fish will sometimes swim and feed upside down beneath wood and the water surface.

Related species

• 

  Bigeye squeaker

  Synodontis alberti

  7.9 in (20 cm)40 gal (150 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)

• 

  Ocellated squeaker

  Synodontis ocellifer

  7.9 in (20 cm)53 gal (200 L)73–81°F (23–27°C)
• Common syno

  Synodontis nigrita

  7.9 in (20 cm)55 gal (210 L)70–82°F (21–28°C)

• 

  Lake Malawi syno

  Synodontis njassae

  7.5 in (19 cm)40 gal (150 L)73–82°F (23–28°C)

• 

  Brichard's synodontis

  Synodontis brichardi

  6.3 in (16 cm)50 gal (190 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)

• 

  One-spot synodontis

  Synodontis notatus

  9.8 in (25 cm)53 gal (200 L)72–81°F (22–27°C)