Loaches Online Forum

Slip into glide.............





Think it's probably a female.

I picked up this lone individual mixed in with two tanks of really nice Sewellia lineolata. They were CDN$5.99 each. That is way less than the price the last ones in Toronto were on sale for, so I picked up two male S.lineolata as well to see if I can induce my 4 females into action. Those are being less co-operative about being photographed right now. One is really beautifully marked and very yellow in color.

I've never bought fish in this shop before and was highly suprised when the lady asked if I would like to catch them myself. Then she got all interested after I explained that they weren't "Plecs" but loaches and I showed her how to sex them. I did the old credit card trick which funnily enough the shop owner actually knew about. I wonder where he got that from?

These 3 fish are huge compared to my others. I bet the spotty is 3 times as big as most of my Gastromyzon.

I'll try and post pics of the lineolata later.

Martin.

COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!
How big are these fish?
I wonder if size does matter with Sewellia. My breeding pair are both over two inches (M 2.5, F 2.25). The other three I have in another tank (two males and one female in the 1.75-2" range), never exhibit any spawning behavior at all.

This big JIm....it's a quarter.



Rather funky floating in the bag shot. Is that a nicely marked S. lineolata or what?



Martin.

Beautiful fish! I wish a store like that was a little closer to me.

WOW!! Those are BOTH gorgeous fish!!! The larger of the two lineolata is stunningly gorgeous and has the most yellow of any Sewellia I have ever seen. Nice spotty dude, too! I can't wait until you get more pics. They will belong in the species index, no doubt.
Using a US quarter and doing the math, they appear to be about the same size range as my largest pair. Very nice!!!!
I think you are going to be seeing some spawning in the very near future.

Amazing how the pricing has come down on these fellows. I would love to know what that means in terms of collection and transit costs - and also the "popularity" of the fish in terms of how many are being sold to newbie aquarists.

Anyway, they look like very nice specimens, Mr. T.

Great find Martin

Those are very nice looking fish

My Gastro's still havnt got used to the size of the Sewellia "spotted" when the big female glides down the tank mid water she casts a shadow over the rocks like a B2 bomber and all the Gastro's dive for cover

You're making me jealous again, Martin. I suspect the owner got the credit card idea from this site.

I thought you were hunting dithers ????? These are nice,I passed on several last week due to patchy coat in a low flow tank. Now get out there and find your dithers

Blue wrote:You're making me jealous again, Martin. I suspect the owner got the credit card idea from this site.

Well that's what I hope because I angled that article at the trade specifically. It would suggest that someone took notice

Martin.

Tinman wrote:I thought you were hunting dithers ????? These are nice,I passed on several last week due to patchy coat in a low flow tank. Now get out there and find your dithers

Weeeeeelllllll.......I was actually, but I did get a tip-off about hillstreams being at this shop, although from his rough description I was expecting Beaufortia kweichowensis and Sinogastromyzon wui. Needless to say, this was a brilliant suprise that I couldn't pass on.
They had some very cute, fat and sassy Cherry barbs there actually for just $1.99 so there's a very good chance I may return for at least 10 of those as that price is good for Toronto.

Martin.

Cute little buggers!

Kate

Great find! Now you just need to find him a mate. I say him because I *think* I can see fences on the pectorals and small tubercles on the immediate underside of the mouth area. Might be wrong, but the body shape of the males (at least my males) is very similar to that of the females and they are all huuuuuge.

I love the fact that with this species, they carry a dark reticulated pattern onto the underside of the mouth area, very pretty.

Emma

I have to get some other pics to be sure of sex I think. It's a shame because the guy who tipped me off about "Hillstreams" at this shop now tells me he bought two of these and a "striped one". Stupid thing is I was going to go to that shop the other day and never got around to it. Might have been able to grab the 3...oh well.

I'll try for pics of the lineolata when the lights switch on in the tank soon.

Martin.

Very pretty

Which shop did you snag these guys at? Not that I can get any (not properly setup for hillstream loaches ... yet), but always on the lookout for new fish shops with good prices