Loaches Online Forum

i'm a happy man now,
at last i can see the fences in one of my male lineolata's as he was enjoying a feast of tubifex worms.

the fry that i saw a bit back is either houdini or it's been eaten.

if anyone has got a pic of their breeding tank for these, could you please let me see a pic of the setup as i think i have a far better chance of saving the young in that.

cheers
mick

Hi Mick,

That's great news. How many do you have in the tank? I think a good sized group (including more than one male) helps with spawning success.

Here is a pic of my old 3ft long river tank (which was of strange dimensions) complete with manifold, where they were spawning like mad:


And this is the current 4ft long river tank (again with manifold) that I transferred everything except the Amano shrimp over to:

(that was taken last year, the Cryptocoryne balansae have really taken over since then).

In the new tank, the only species that I know have bred are the Sewellia sp. 'spotted' and my Crystal Red shrimp. No sign of the S. lineolata getting down to it so far.

Hope this helps,

Emma

Impressive looking chap, Mick!

thanks Emma, you have an artistic eye for setting up your tanks.
i'm bloody useless at that. great tanks by the way.
i have nine lineolata's in mine and by looks alone there's more females than males, 6 to 3.
have you ever seen the eggs?

mick

Nice fish, Mick!!
Good luck with the breeding.
Just make sure you don't have any danios in the tank. They sure love the eggs.
I have seen the eggs before when mine have spawned. They are extremely small, almost looking like fine bubbles in the current flow.

Thanks, Mick. I've not seen eggs in any great detail, but I have witnessed the S. lineolata spawning from a distance and under blue moon lighting. They swam up towards the surface, belly-to-belly, with pectoral fins intertwined and I saw a release of something fine into the current (which I had presumed were both eggs and milt). The eggs must be pretty small as quite a number of these little 'uns did end up starting their lives in the filter. Seeing as I still have a predator in the tank (the lone old-timer and FAT Schistura balteata) I think that I did the right thing in increasing the amount of cobbles in the tank which gives the eggs and tiny youngsters more of a chance.

Emma