Loaches Online Forum

I thought I'd share a few pics of my juvenile Sewellia lineolata now that they've been transferred back to the tank where they originated:

Little and large (undersides):


Underside of one of the larger juveniles:


And again, but in 'old money'


"Hello Dad"


"Get out of it!"


Hope you liked them, I'm sure more will follow later.

Emma

Great pictures Emma

Cute!

My cheni babies got to a size now where adults consider them a threat and will see them off a rock.

Martin.

Fantastic, Emma. To think that I doubted these were Sewellia!

Lovely pictures!!

Hopefully soon, i can add the same pictures here.

Thank you all.

...what a treat to watch these pictures, Emma!

I M A Y get girls for my 2" boy today, just called ... perhaps within 4hours they arrive at the LFS... but Dealer claimed, the shipment contains smaller fish than last time...

CAN YOU HELP ME ESTIMATING AT WHICH LENGHT THE MALE/FEMALE DIFFERENCES START TO GET VISIBLE?

Thank you

Wolfram
PS: I hope he really get´s the shipment and it´s really sewellia... I´m excited like a little boy... what a nice hobby...

good luck Wolfram. i hope you get some sewellia soon

thanks Helen, after reading your message I right away called him again, and he confirmed receipt of 5, he will keep them until I have time this evening, expected size 1.5" and a little above, he guesses... normally I let them at the dealer for a week, but with those rare guys (in Munich area) I can´t wait

Wolfram

Hi Wolfram

It's difficult for me to say for sure about the size that you can see sexual differences in Sewellia lineolata because I only tend to import them at a large size (just over 2"/6cm or so). As you can see from my photographs, some of my fry currently measure just over 1" TL. I cannot see any differences at this size, so I would guess that they have to be at least 1.5-1.75" to be able to really tell. Your best bet is to buy all 5 (if you have the room) to increase your chances of receiving some of both sexes.

Others here who have smaller specimens of these fish may be able to comment on whether or not they see any differences in their fish and what size they are.

Good luck. Make sure you post some pictures of your new additions soon!

Emma

Nice pictures. They look very happy. That one with the baby and the father is a good one

Thank you! That is one of my favourite photographs I've ever taken.

Emma

Thank you Emma for your reply. When scrolling down to post, I was looking again at your pic of "father&son" really very nice ... I think taking fish pics and collecting cool motivs could be an Art and a hobby by itself.

Since last night I also have a "family". Of the 5 in the LFS, I thought to be able to distinguish 2 Ladies (hopefully). Lets better say they did not show the male fences. The ones I got have 1.85" total lenght (4.6 - the left one and 4.8cm the right one). 2 guys in the store definitely had fences. However, its hard to figure out when they are in the bag, even though I brought a magnifying lens.

My new ones additionaly to the missing fence, show, in the side-view, a smoother, more streamline forehaed. The male forehead goes pretty steep. In the top-view, the fins are "radius-ed" (bigger radius in the front) more than the male´s. Both those signes are also called out in Martins spec´s. So I´m actually confident about my choice, lets see...

What worries me more, the hopefully-females are still breathing at higher rate. The male was breathing fast at store, but calmed down very quick in my tank. The girls are still not completetly relaxed and I worry about parasites in the gils (the male´s breathing is hardly visible).
When getting into the tank, the male was very clear targeting "sites". Systematically checked out each of the variuos hiding places and rocks. I noticed they all like to visit shelter-like constructions (caves). Male is typically sleeping at night (I´m checking occasionaly). Females were swimming around the tank (fairly quick) at night, in opposite directions, as if they have had no room for swimming the years before. It almost made me nervous (why are they doing that?), He never did that.

They did not seek each other´s company, except the "hello-Kiss" (literally!) and a little more (he went on top of her back for a short moment), when he discovered one of the ladies.

The right one has a little finer pattern, than the left.

Sorry for the very poor pic quality. Unfortunately it will take a while until I´ll get a propper camera. But at least I´m able to show pattterns etc.



The one on the left


The right one

My apologies for the quality of the images but here's one of your Baby's munching away, Emma. Just thought I'd let you know that all is well.

Awwwww. So cute .....