Loaches from Rakhine state.

[Emma Turner]

Hi all,

These little beauties arrived last night under the "Burmese Spotted Red Finned Loach - Schistura sp. rakhine" name tag. Sorry the pictures aren't the best, these were taken whilst they were being acclimatised - will try for some in-tank shots later in the week:













What do we think? No red on the fins (yet?), they are approx 2" TL and very elongate compared to other Schistura species I have seen.

Emma

[Diana]

Very long, but nice looking.
I wish your store was closer.

[bslindgren]

I wish your store was closer.

Yeah, any chance of some cloning of Emma with store??

[Graeme Robson]

Very nice! And also very Nemacheilus like.

[mickthefish]

hey don't forget Steve peeps, he works bloody hard at the shop.
and no you have to come over to the UK instead.

And they are an intresting looking loach, quite pretty .

mick

[Emma Turner]

Some new pics. They are obviously still a bit skinny, but they are feeding well now. These loaches are really difficult to photograph as they are small and very active, burying under the sand if they want to. They remind me of Acantopsis in some respects, but Schistura/Nemacheilus in others.









Some of the following shots aren't all that sharp, but I included them so that you could see the beautiful blue iridescence along the rear half of the flanks:





Dorsal:











Can you see the one that is peeping out from beneath the sand?









Hope you enjoyed the pics. I wonder what species this is

Emma

[plaalye]

They're beautiful little fish! I wonder if they are typically thin? It will be interesting to see how they look in the future.

[Jim Powers]

They certainly are cute little guys.

[fhm_usa]

cool...That's a lot of loaches.

[Keith Wolcott]

Very nice! I like the one with sand on his head.

[Graeme Robson]

Where is TDO when you need him......

Anyone have his e-mail address.

[helen nightingale]

that one with the sand on its head should go on the funny pictures thread.

they are so pretty

[Emma Turner]

Thanks guys, they are cute aren't they.

Where is TDO when you need him......

I have summoned him from the pits of hell

[The.Dark.One]

I have risen.......

They look to me like a Nemacheilus, not a Schistura. They appear to be in the same complex as N. masyae etc. The closest described fish I can see is N. pallidus (look at the fish in image 7 of the second batch of images), however, that species tends to have markings in the dorsal and caudal, which (at least at the moment) are absent in these fish.

I have checked similar species in Yunnan, and they don't seem to match any of them.

Anyway, if they are from Rakhine, this places them some distance away from Yunnan (although I think it is covered still by the Irrawaddy delta, the same one that runs through Yunnan and into Myanmar) and also to the known distribution of N. pallidus (Thailand, Cambodia).

I think the rivers of Manipur, India may drain into Rakhine state via Chin state. I've checked the 'Indian' suspects and can't seem to come up with any.

SO - could be an undescribed species, allied to N. pallidus. It would be helpful to see them as adults, that might give me more of an idea.

[Emma Turner]

Thank you TDO, I will dig for more info and post here if I find out any more.

Emma