Intro and a few questions (New Sewellia lineolata tank)

[Matthew]

Good afternoon everyone! Firstly i would like to say how excellant this site is and express how much i apreciate the quality of information found both here on the forum and at loaches.com. As a student of Biology it is always refreshing to see people so interested in the creatures that share this world with us. It is equally as exciting to find a group of people so dedicated to proper husbandry and at the same time preserving the habitats of these species in the wild. I became an aquarium enthusiast at a young age and have been intrigued by loaches, especiallly hillstream loaches for quite some time. Besides fish I also care for a few tanks of Poison Arrow frogs as well as a few other reptiles and amphibians. Enough of all that boring stuff, lets get to the LOACHES! I have recently aquired a dozen Sewellia lineolata and a 90 gallon tank for them to be housed in. So obviously this will be a river tank using Martin's manifold design or perhaps another slighlty different pump concept. What I was wondering was if it would be appropriate to house 6 Homaloptera tweediei and a few Nemacheilus platiceps in the same tank? From the reading I have completed all of these fish do occur in the rivers of Viet Nam however more than likely do not utilize the same habitats. I would like this tank to be an 'extreme biotope' and would like to use only species that would be found in the same given portion of river. Any thoughts on the listed species or the idea behind this tank would be greatly appreciated! I was also wondering what species you folks would suggest as dither fish to utilize the upper reaches of the tank?

Thanks for your time,

Matthew

[Emma Turner]

Hi Matthew, and welcome to Loaches Online. Thank you for the great feedback about the site.

It sounds like you have a good sized aquarium planned for this river tank. 90 gallons sounds like it would have a decent footprint - do you know the actual dimensions? I cannot forsee any problems housing the Sewellia lineolata together with the Homaloptera tweediei but unfortunately I cannot comment on the Nemacheilus platiceps as I have no experience in keeping these so do not know exactly how they would get on (some Nemacheilines can be very territorial with one another). They certainly would appreciate the conditions a river tank provides though.

A nice big shoal of Vietnamese Mountain Minnows (Tanichthys micagemmae) would look spectacular in the upper reaches of the tank.

Hope this helps,

Emma

[Mark in Vancouver]

Welcome aboard, Matthew. It's nice to have more prairie folks on here!

[Matthew]

Thanks for the reply!
Ok the tank dimensions are 48.5 inches long by 18.5 inches wide by 24.5 inches tall. Honestly I wanted a 75 gallon which has the same footprint but is not as tall, since the loaches do not utilize the height anyway. However this tank was a good price and i thought it would still be ok. As far as the Nemacheilus platiceps are concerned i have a group of them in a 20 gallon quarrantine tank (a simple river tank) and they seem quite relaxed, very active but not overly aggressive. However I have been contemplating the fish choices a little more and i wonder if either of them would eat Sewellia lineolata fry if I am lucky enough to get some? Thanks for the Vietnamese Mountain Minnows (Tanichthys micagemmae) suggestion, i will definetly see if i can find these! My only other question at this point is if anyone here has ever encountered any of the other Sewellia sp. (besides spotted), as i see fishbase lists several others? Ok thanks again!

Matthew

PS. I will post pictures once things start to come together

[Emma Turner]

Hi Matthew,

Yes, I would say that the Nemacheilus would predate on any eggs/fry produced by the Sewellia lineolata. I have 2 species of Sewellia in my river tank, both of which have bred, but I think the numbers have been kept in check by a long-time resident that is my fat, ageing Schistura balteata. I cannot remove this fish as I've had him for a long time (he has outlived others of the same species). But if I had room for yet another river/brook tank, I would prefer to house the Schistura away from the breeding Sewellia population.

With regards to the different Sewellia species, it is only Sewellia lineolata that has been exported in any great number in the trade. I also have a few Sewellia sp. 'spotted' (an undescribed species) also from Vietnam, which are incredibly beautiful when adult or young. Here is an article I wrote which may be of interest: http://www.loaches.com/articles/the-spa ... evelopment I only have one adult male, so I am always on the lookout for more of these, so that I can introduce new genes into my breeding colony. I must have at least 7 adult females, and at least 20 fry of various ages (probably more). It seems that a very limited number have been exported, only on two occasions so far, but do keep a look-out in shipments of S. lineolata, as occassionally a Sewellia sp. 'spotted' makes it as a contaminant (their habitats are said to overlap slightly).

There is a really lovely little book called "The Freshwater Fishes of Central Vietnam" by D.V. Serov, V.K. Nezdoliy & D.S. Pavlov (ISBN 5-87317-293-5) which depicts hundreds of beautiful Vietnamese species, including many of the Sewellia species we are yet to see in the trade. There are a few nice habitat shots too - well worth getting hold of in my opinion.

Looking forward to seeing your pics at some point,

Emma