I picked up these guys today, deep
Water Hap and protomelas labridens. This tank is pretty much completed I think, I’ll probably get a small group of Synodontis multipunctatus at some point tho
I love deepwater haps. As far as haps go, I only like giraffe cichlids (
Nimbochromis venustus) better.
You'll want to stay away from
S. multipunctatus. Here's why.
If you look at books and other literature prior to the early to mid 2000s, you'll find that the maximum length for
S. multipunctatus is listed as being either 5 to 5.5 inches or 9 to 11 inches. This is because two species were being imported as
S. multipunctatus: true
S. multipunctatus and
S. grandiops. True multipunctatus reach 10 inches or so as a maximum length while grandiops reach 5 inches or so. S. grandiops wasn't even described as a different species until around 2005 (I can't remember, but I know several species were described in that paper). Until they are adults, they are very hard to identify by sight alone due to little external difference. The differences are primary with internal anatomy and adult size. To make matters truly confusing, some workers believe that there are probably another species or two that can be separated from both of these. Anyways, even today if you order "multipunctatus" you can't be sure of which you're going to get because wholesalers don't pay attention and don't care. They just want to sell their fish. A group of 5 inch grandiops would fit fine in your tank, but I'm guessing you don't want a group of 10 inch true multipunctatus in a 75 gallon tank.
As alternate choices, I'd recommend
S. petricola,
S. lucipinnis or
S. polli, in that order. Petricola is usually just sold as petricola, lucippinis is usually sold as the dwarf petricola, and polli is usually just sold as polli. Respectively they max out at about 5 inches, 4 inches and 7 inches. Any of these would be a better choice for a 75 gallon tank, but if you get the polli I'd suggest you might only get three instead of four or five. In my experience, dwarf petricolas seem to be a little more sensitive to active fish (they become skittish), and polli can lose their silver with spots color and turn dark gray or black.
I have kept all five of the above. The only species beyond these five that I've seen offered for sale with any frequency is
S. granulosus, another 10 inch species which can also turn black with age. I've never kept it. The other five species of synodontis in Lake Tanganyika all get at least 10 inches and I've never seen any of them for sale that I can remember. One of them even pushes two feet in length, if I remember right.
WYite