Synodontis vs. Pleco

[Yoemen]

Anyone have experience with Synodontis cats? I saw some for the first time in my LFS, lace catfish to be specific, and they looked really cool, I was wondering how they compare to Plecos. Anyone got any info?

I am also confused about the size of Lace cats. I have seen they get 5 inches in length and that they get 1 foot in length....

[Mudfrog]

I can't comment on the lace catfish but I do have a couple other species of the Synodontis catfish. They make great clean up crews are prefer to hide pretty much all day. It's been my experience that most Synodontis cat's max out at 6" or less, planet catfish shows that the "lace" catfish max's out around 6.8"

I think you would be happy with them, they are fun to watch when you actually get to see them.

[RTR]

My Synodontis types, S. ocellifer and Brachysyndotis batensoda,are each 8-10", heavy bodied, and are not cleaners at all.

But then, I don't consider most Plecos that size cleaners either, they ususally create a lot more mess than they clean up.

[mysis]

yeah plecs are messy ones, also plecs can get aggresive to each other and if you are getting big ones then 1 per tank is enough. with syndontis, i have 5 syndontis eupterus and they are out all the time. i find that they are really hardy and are great fish. i would prefer to have syndontis overa plec any day.

[Debra Mark]

We have seven eupterus, with the biggest about 10"....they do like to hide, but come out often to eat and fight with each other....lol. We also have a small angelicus and a small multipunctatus. I highly recommend synos!

[fish_breeder_05]

I have three synodontis. they are great! I would recommend both because the pleco doesns scavene through gravel it cleans glass. the synodontis should take care of the gravel. add a few loach or an earth eater or 2 and you should have a nice cleaner crew