Loaches Online Forum

i looked in their tank this morning and all the gravel from two corners of the tank had been cleared,
on watching them the female was like a bulldozer shifting the gravel with her head and tail.
i read the article about them and watched for the male to nuzzle the female which he obliged me by doing so.
there was also another big female in the tank now she's as thin as a rake.

question, does the female lose that much body mass?.

i took a few pics will post them as soon as ive uploaded them.

cheers
mick

Congratulations, Mick!!!
I wish I could find a few more ( I only have one female now) so I could spawn them again. They are a cool little fish.
I don't remember mine getting skinny after spawning, just a little thinner.
I'll have to see the pics to comment further.

here you are Jim.
first pic is the female that imo is thin, but was rotund yesterday.

the next few pics are i think the spawning behavior.




am i right Jim.?

mick

That looks like it might be spawning behavior.
Did the female fill the dug out areas back in? Or, did you notice any area that was was more level than it had been?
That, would probably indicate that spawning had taken place.
Sometimes they will start to dig a nest, then abandon it and then start digging again elsewhere leaving that pit without filling it in.
As for the sudden weight loss, I don't know what else would explain it other than spawning.
Now, keep your eyes open for the young. If spawning took place, they should start appearing in about two weeks. You might also see them in the gravel next to the glass before that.
Also, I see you have some schisturas in the tank.
That may effect survival of any young. Although, I had plenty of fry in a tank with two Schistura scaturgina and two S. corica.
If you have some clumps of java fern or something like that to help provide extra cover as well as grazing areas for the young, you might want to add them.
Keep us posted!!

thanks for the tip Jim, i'll put some extra clumps in, i'm having to shut down 8 or 9 tanks for a while for double glazing to be fitted so there are more than my normal amount of fish in the tanks.

mick

Looks totally typical breeding behaviour judging by those pics. To my knowledge only Jim and I have bred them in this continent. I know someone in Germany bred them a few years ago.

Fingers crossed Mick

Martin.

just an update i did'nt see any fry at all, but with the number of fish in the tanks at the mo i'm not surprised,
but from under the cover of the java fern out popped a juvenile of around an inch TL.
they must have been spawning before and i did'nt notice.
in my sewelia tank i also found a baby of less than an inch TL.

IYO how old would you put these fry at?

cheers
mick

As I remember, probably a month or so old Mick. They grow way quicker than Pseudogastromyzon for instance.

Martin.

cheers bud.
do you know about the size growth in sewelia's?, it's fully patterned now and like i said it's just under the inch mark.

mick

That's great, Mick.
I bet you will find more.

Congratulations, Mick! In my experience with the Sewellia lineolata, growth has been very slow (in a spacious tank with good feedings/maintenance regime) and going by one of my old S. lineolata breeding threads, my youngsters took 5 months to go from 5mm when I found them, to just over 21mm. After they reach 2cm+, the growth slows and they take ages to increase in length (although they tend to get wider).

Emma

thanks Emma, ive only found the one but most of the back of the tank is never touched and is well overgrown with plants and loads of bogwood.
i'm very happy just to see one but i'd love to see the eggs one day.

cheers Jim.

mick

Sewellia eggs, as well as L. disparis eggs are no larger than "." so they can be difficult to see. When my Sewellia spawn if I am lucky enough to see the eggs, they look like a puff of smoke.
I unfortunately ran accross some L. disparis eggs a few years ago while I was vacuming the gravel, otherwise I would never have seen them. Cheni eggs are much larger, more in the range of "o".
By the way, I just checked out the notes I took on cheni and disparis spawning several years ago and would estimate the age at about 6 weeks or so. They do grow much faster than cheni and sewellia fry.

Thanks Jim, it's good to know what i'm looking for.
here's a notsogood pic of the dispar baby, i tried to get a size comparison with the others but it stayed well away from them.


i tried to get a pic of the sewelia, all i got was a hazy shot of it's head popping up from behind a rock so i deleted it.

mick

That's a cute little fella.