New unknown mini loach?

[Finnatic]

Hi, I'm new to this forum although I have been an ardent fan of loaches and Clown loaches in particular. Just I few days ago, I cam across a really small loach that I have never seen, in the flash or anywhere on the internet. They were called "Red Loaches" by the small Fishstore owner - but they are NOT red, more like sand coloured. I bought a dozen of them and keep them with my Pygmy loaches, Rummy Nose, and Cardinal Tetras. You will see in my photos (if someone can tell me how I can get them uploaded) these are just a 1/3 - 1/2 the size of my Pygmy loaches!!!
Can anyone help me identify these?
Thanks

[Martin Thoene]

Welcome Finnatic to Loaches Online. Your fish aren't these are they?

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/tu ... rakanensis

It would be good to see your pictures anyway. To post pictures in a post you have to have them uploaded onto a photo sharing site such as Photobucket. Once uploaded, these sites have URL links for the pictures that you can input in your message. The picture will then come up in the post.

Martin.

[Martin Thoene]

It appears my guess was correct. Finnatic sent me these pictures so I'm posting them so's others can give their opinions. Maybe Rosy Loach keepers can give him some tips.









Certainly tiny compared to the sids.

Martin.

[mikev]

Look like female Rosies.

(I'm having a strange feeling lately that males may have a problem developing color in an unplanted tank, so if the tank is unplanted, could be males too.)

[Finnatic]

Thank you Martin for helping to put the photos on so you can all see them.
There is one fish in particular that is much deeper yellow/orangy in colour, perhaps that's a male. However, it's much smaller than the rest of the group - maybe a juvenile male. They are kept in a planted tank, may be whatever males I have in the group will develop the rosy coloration over time. Will keep you posted.
Thanks again Martin for helping to identify them for me.

[mikev]

Lemme clarify what I said about males not showing color.

I had two groups of RL's. The first one was bought sex-balanced... 4m/4f, which actually turned out to be 4m/2f/2sf. The second group was rescued from a shipment which almost entirely died out, I took the animals that were left, put them on a bunch of drugs and managed not to lose any. They were very small back in Jan, grew to almost adult size now, and never developed the male color -- so I was sure they are all females.

They were finally kicked out from the qtank three weeks ago and joined the first group. Today, doing the water change in the morning, I saw five males?. What triggered the coloring up I have no idea, but the tank they are in now is very heavily planted, the qtank had almost nothing...otherwise the tanks are similar. Unf., no way to find out now the sex ratio: these things either hide or move very quickly, I cannot see all of them at once.

[Finnatic]

That's okay Mike, won't hold you to it. At least you have had more experience with these Rosies than I do - just got them for about a week. My tank is heavily planted too. You are right - they zoom around the tank like crazy and it's difficult to see them all at any one time. By the way, mine do not seem to eat Tetra Bits, which was what i have been feeding all the other fishes in the tank. Tried not feeding them anything else and one of them died of starvation! Finally, I had no choice but to feed them tubiflex (what they have been on since the Fishstore got them). Never liked tubiflex because of the hassle of keeping them alive and risk of disease tansmission, etc. What's your experience on food for these Rosies? Will they take frozen blood worms? Dry food?
By the way, what is the adult size of RL's?

[mikev]

Food:
They are seriously nutty. They will eat frozen shrimp or bloodworms, but they really prefer ordinary flakes. I saw an RL dropping bloodworm and switching to a flake once.
I don't think it was starvation: they will eat nearly everything if hungry. It is just that the flakes excite them.

You may also try frozen daphnia, I used it with the 2nd group at the beginning, when they were very tiny and skinny.

I feed them twice a day since they get hungry rather quickly.

Size: superfemales nearly 1", but they may be another species. The rest smaller.

Good luck.

[Emma Turner]

Actually, I think we should probably be amending the water parameters on the Rosy Loach profile. A while after we put that together, there was word over on petfrd that this species was found alongside Celestichthys margaritatus, which is reported to live in a habitat of hard, alkaline water. Our stock of Rosy Loaches at the shop are kept in water with a general hardness of 18-20 degrees and with a pH of around 7.5 and are in outstanding condition. The colours are quite something.

If people are happy with this information, let me know, and I'll amend the profile.

Emma

[Martin Thoene]

Do it to it.

Martin.

[Emma Turner]

'tis done.

Emma

[mikev]

gH as a factor?

Mine were kept at pH around 6.2, kH near 0, gH 4-7. The first group was here for almost a year and are doing fine (despite water toxin issues mentioned elsewhere -- they seem to be resistant to that problem). The second group was here since Jan, and grew a lot during this time..but failed to color until moved to the 1st tank. Now, gH in the 1st tank is indeed higher, around 7, probably due to flower base, it is only 3-4 in the tank the 2nd group lived... Could this matter?

[Chia]

Speaking of Celestichthys margaritatus, does anyone know why this fish was originally referred to as the galaxy rasbora but now seems to be called the celestial pearl danio?

[helen nightingale]

does anyone know why this fish was originally referred to as the galaxy rasbora but now seems to be called the celestial pearl danio?

it did do through a series of scientific name changes fairly quickly, and i have seen them for sale as fireworks rasboras, labelled up at an intermediate time between the initial and the latest name. nothing like confusion