Loaches Online Forum

Thought I'd share some new pics of our S. Lineolata, aka Alien. They were taken about an hour ago by Hanna (not Montana).

that is one stunning fish bud, how big is it?, as it looks a full grown specimen.

mick

mickthefish wrote:that is one stunning fish bud, how big is it?, as it looks a full grown specimen.

mick

Yeah he's really gorgeous! I haven't measured it, but somewhere in the range of 6-8cm, so I guess he's about fully grown. Strange thing is that we've never actually seen him eat. We've had him for about 2-3 months, so we know he's eating something. We don't have alot of green algae, but I guess he's eating some other algae on the roots. We put in wafers, and feed with brine shrimp, mosquito larvae, cocktail shrimp, and flakes.

The markings along the back are atypical for s. lineolata aren't they Mick?

plaalye wrote:The markings along the back are atypical for s. lineolata aren't they Mick?

Yeah, very. That was the first thing I noticed. Very nicely marked female.

Martin.

Hehe...I bought 2 for 6 quid! A really big one too. What's the upper limit in terms of temperature that these can take? For your information, they are in a 36 inch tank with 2 filters...one of which is boggo 1800l/h internal filter. Pretty well oxygenated, I would say.

saint_dracula wrote:Hehe...I bought 2 for 6 quid! A really big one too. What's the upper limit in terms of temperature that these can take? For your information, they are in a 36 inch tank with 2 filters...one of which is boggo 1800l/h internal filter. Pretty well oxygenated, I would say.

We have our tank at just over 25C. Too warm, yes, but we have angels in the same tank, and if we lower it more, they'll refuse to eat. Alien doesn't seem bothered though.

beautiful specimen.
the dorsal markings are a little uncommon Jim. I have some similar specimen.
what is more interesting is the size: are they really large Jonas?
the first time I saw XL lineolata of 8 cm! in autumn on a stocklist I ordered them by curiousity in germany on condition of a exact mesurement. no specimen left(?) and then it changed to 7 cm, now at 6 cm. tdcaquatic noticed in seriouslyfishkeeping-forum on 26 december specimen of 3 1/2 inches for england. "larger than a thumb".
more than 100 conserved specimen since 1846 show not more than 55 mm.
so I still can't believe it. as long as I have no clear mesurement. then we would know. fact is that fully grown specimen are are very broad, mine too. I have a biotope-picture where there is a very broad one amongst others in a group.
large spotted as mentioned too in that forum are on sale. these I saw myself: larger than my 7.5 cm male. impressing!
cheers charles

I'm not sure of the size, and I've just eyeballed it. It's probably smaller. If they weren't so hard to catch, I could measure it.

Martin Thoene wrote:Yeah, very. That was the first thing I noticed. Very nicely marked female.

Martin.

How can you tell the males and females apart from each other? I know that the shape of the head is different, but are there other signs as well?

Have a look here Jonas.
http://www.loaches.com/species-index/sewellia-lineolata

I don't know why the link didn't copy the first time? I think you found your way but here it is.

Yeah, it's definately a female. My girlfriend told me that she had looked in to it, and that we had a male. Now I know what to look for!

My girlfriend shot a video of Alien, and I thought I'd show you. She made it black and white because she said that she couldn't see him because of our yellow water (we've got some roots)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38GQHjcbais

you can see how unusual her markings are on the vid. very nice alien.

mick

Thanks! I've Googled a bit, and I haven't seen any Sew. who looks like our one.