Lake Tanganyika revision reveals Synodontis grandiops and lucipinnis are no more
A team of researchers have revised the Synodontis catfish of Lake Tanganyika in Africa, shrinking the number of valid species from 13 to 10.
The valid species list now consists of seven Lacustrine species:
Synodontis dhonti
Synodontis granulosus
Synodontis irsacae
Synodobtis multipunctatus
Synodontis petricola
Synodontis polli
Synodontis tanganyicae
And three riverine species:
Synodontis afrofisheri
Synodontis melanostictus
Synodontis victoriae
Synodontis grandiops is now considered a synonym of Synodontis multipuncatus, S.ilebrevis a synonym of S.polli, S.lacustricolis a synonym of S.tanganyikae and S. lucipinnis a synonym of Synodontis petricola. The biggest news for aquarists in the paper is that Synodontis grandiops, which was only given species status in 2006 by Wright and Page is now relegated to synonymy in 2024, meaning that multipunctatus is back to multipunctatus. Also that Synodontis lucipinnis is no more, with the species we thought to be lucipinnis actually being petricola all along.
Lake Tanganyika never ceases to amaze, with its age, size, great depth and over 200 endemic (mainly cichlid,) fish species. The paper also points out that the Lake’s synonyms are the only living example of lacustrine radiation within the Synodontis genus, as well as the origin of obligate brood parasitism, like we see in Synodontis multipuncatus, which uses mouthbrooding Ctenochromis horei to mouthbrood its own young, earning the common name of Cuckoo Catfish.
Citation
Gernot K Englmaier, Radim Blažek, Holger Zimmermann, Veronika Bartáková, Matej Polačik, Jakub Žák, Deogratias P Mulokozi, Cyprian Katongo, Heinz H Büscher, Lwabanya Mabo, Stephan Koblmüller, Anja Palandačić, Martin Reichard, Revised taxonomy of Synodontis catfishes (Siluriformes: Mochokidae) from the Lake Tanganyika basin reveals lower species diversity than expected, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, Volume 202, Issue 3, November 2024, zlae130, https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae130
Image credits Haps, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons and BillA, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
