Common names:
Lake Victoria squeaker
None

Taxonomic tree
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii (ray-finned fish)
Order: Siluriformes (Catfish)
Family: Mochokidae (Squeakers or upside-down catfishes)
Genus: Synodontis
Species: Synodontis victoriae (Boulenger, 1906)
Number of Occurrancies: 289

Etymology(based on Scharpf & Lazara, 2017)

• Synodontis: an ancient name for an undetermined fish from the Nile


• victoriae: of Lake Victoria in Uganda, type locality

Synonyms: click here to view synonyms on FishBase

Type locality: Buganga, Uganda, Lake Victoria. Lectotype at British Museum of Natural History (BMNH)

General identifcation features of family Mochokidae: Mochokidae is easily distinguished from other catfishes by the presence of branched mandibular barbels, and the absence of nasal barbels. Note that families Auchenoglanidae and Malapteruridae also lacks nasal barbles, but the mandibular barbles are not branched. Only one genus, Synodontis, occurs in Ugandan waters. Synodontis fishes have pectoral spine that is articulated by means of a complicated joint so arranged that the spine can be firmly locked into its erectile position. This spine can inflict a painful wound if not handled with care. Synodontis are refered to as talking fish because of the grunts and squeaks produced when the fish is taken out of water. The sounds are produced by the movement of the pectoral fin spine.

Distinguishing characters for the species

• Diagnostic: 16-21 mandibular teeth; greyish-silver colouration with black spots


• Body depth contained 3.75-4.5 times in standard length


• Maxillary barbels reaching the posterior tip of the humeral process, or accasionary, somewhat beyond


• Mandibular barbels with slender branches


• Depth of the humeral process contained once to 1.5 times in its length


• Dorsal fin with a spine, weakly serrated on its posterior face, and 6 or 7 branched rays


• Distance between last dorsal fin ray and the origin of the adipose fin contained 1.33-2 times in the length of adipose fin


• Pectoral spine moderately serrated on its outer face in small fishes and only feebly so in larger individuals; strongly serrated on the inner face

Distribution in Uganda: Lake Victoria and its affluent rivers, Lakes Nabugabo and Kyoga, and the Victoria Nile

Occurence: Native

Habitat: Benthopelagic (and prefers soft bottoms although it also occurs on hard substrates); in lakes, it is commmon in open waters although it occurs in shallow waters too. In Lake Victoria, it is most common in waters more than 20 m.

Feeding: Facultative feeder (diet varies with habitat and prey abundance). Mainly small gastropod molluscs and insects (especially chironomid larvae) particulary over had substrates. The species can extract the flesh of snails without crushing their shells.

Biology: Rarely grows beyond 35 cm standard length, but reaches about 10 cm fork length (FL) between year 1 and 2. The size at maturity varies between sexes; females mature at a smaller size (8-10 cm standard length) compared to males (10-12 cm standard length). Sex ratio is biased towards more females than males. Fecundity ranges between 1500-15799 eggs. Spawning takes place throught the year, but peaks during the rainy months (April-June and September-December). 

Economic importance/End use: Seasonally abundant, but forms an important subsistence fishery.

IUCN conservation status: click here to view synonyms on FishBase

Threats: Fishing, Nile perch predation

Main references

• Greenwood PH. 1966. The fishes of Uganda. The Uganda Society, Kampala. 131 pages.


• Sharpf C, Lazara J.K. 2017. Fish Name Etymology Database v4. www.etyfish.org


• Witte F & van Densen W.L.T. 1995. Fish Stocks and Fisheries of Lake Victoria: a handbook for field observations. Samara Publishing Limited, Netherlands