Loaches Online Forum

Hello,

Has anyone noticed a change in the patterning of their chain loaches? I've noticed on my fish, that the dark markings were confined entirely to the upper portion of the fish. But since they've grown, to nearer the max. size (5cm?), this patterning seems to have spread down to the lower half of the body. They're all at different stages, some are fully patterned, some are still all silver in the lower half/belly area, and some inbetween.

Can this possibly be an indicator of maturity? Or has inbreeding caused the diffeneces in pattering?

Here are pics of what I mean.



Notice the pattern of the main fish in the photo, seems to 'bleed' downwards. While the fish to the right, is only just starting its pattern change.

Anyone else noticed this?

That's normal for this fish.

Like Jim says, very normal. It's a neat to see over time, particularly in Kubotai.

Some of my sids are even more dark & almost chain patterned all over. They are on a very dark substrate that I'm sure adds to the effect. Lots of individual variations. Yours look healthy & cute.

Me and Graeme have discussed this before and we are thinking that the ones that get the extra pattern below the centre of the body could well be females as these fish with the extra chain pattern also tend to be chunkier fish.

Out of my 36 it seems to be an even split between fish with full chain pattern and those without.

Here are some of mine:

Wow MadDuff, your fish certainly look superb, and great photos too.

I will have to disagree with the sexing though.

Here's a pic of what I think is a female fish. Even after a 2 day fast, it is more or less the same shape.


And this is what I think is a male fish. No matter how much I feed it, it never bulks up like the other fish, always keeping its slimmer profile.


They are from the same batch, fed the same food, and roughly the same length, though the one presume to be female, is a tad longer.

All this Sidthimunki talk , its making me want to set up a new tank !

I agree with fatbotia, my 2 largest & darkest have different body shapes. One is uniformly chubby, the other a longer smaller head & tail end. My smallest ones from a second batch also seem much yellower on the top "chain links". I thought it would fade but hasn't after a year.

Most botia go through pattern change from juvi to maturity. Like Yoyo's, Kubs, Histris, Rostra, all there paterns evolve with age.