sewellia speciosa - first pictures

[ch.koenig]

hi all
some days ago a reliable friend brougt me some new sewellias. they have been shown lately at glaser's news after verification, but I didn't exspect to get them really the next time.
it's sewellia speciosa, Roberts 1998. he found the new species in Laos, Se Kong drainage, Freyhof sampled it in Vietnam, upper Sekong.
max. length 5,4 SL.

first day they were very pale, as seen at glaser's.



some days later they show normal behaviour, eating all they can get, fighting the little fights and showing more colours



as freyhof wrote: they look like lineolata, no stripes and reticulated pattern. the only picture published until now was in an article by Freyhof showing a very dark, bluegrey specimen. may be the populations in vietnam and laos differ in brightness.
the warm brown touch and the faint yellow in the dorsal and caudal fins reminds me of elongata
cheers charles

[Mad Duff]

Lovely fish Charles

[plaalye]

Nice Charles! Do you have anything dark colored in the tank? Do they seem to change color much? I'm wondering if they are matching the color of whatever they are on at the time. They do blend in very well tthose rocks that they're on in the pics.

[ch.koenig]

it's a bright tank. just the stones you see. white sand.

[Hokum]

Very nice fish Charles, having only recently caught the Hillstream bug, i'm pretty green but these almost look like a pattern cross between the lineolata and 'spotted' Sewellia's.

Two of my lineolata's have almost identical markings down the spine then lines on the fins.

[hx]

Very exciting, Charles!
Thanks for posting, nice fish and nice pics.

[Weltenbumler]

Hello Charles,

very interresting sewellias, nice pictures.

do you keep them together with your other sewellias in the same tank
or do you have a seperate tank for them?

greetings Thomas

[Jim Powers]

Very nice!

[ch.koenig]

the pleasure is all mine
had to change plans and put them together with h.bilineata, c. pygmaeus and some hundred shrimps.
they live together so well I could leave it that way ...
or add tank nr 54
cheers charles

[hx]

How are your speciosas doing?

I am going to pick up a few of these in a couple of days and was wondering if you have an opinion on how to tell their gender?
Do they share the same character as other Sewellias, the front end of pectoral fins being different?

[ch.koenig]

they are doing well. the behaviour is like s. lineolata. as far I can judge by now they stay at about 5 cm TL. the sex is not easy to tell apart, it's not so obvious as with s. lineolata. the best is to take pics.
they have been bred already by Farid, now at 2.5 cm. seem to be spawning constantly once started.
pics here
http://aquarium.ch/forum/showthread.php ... t=speciosa

I'll try it too as soon as I have some more tanks working. with evey new tank I start there is a new species coming in. as: annamia normani e.g., elassoma okefenokee, stiphodon sp, pseudogobiopsis sp, rhinogobius duospilus, parasphaerichthys lineatus, danio aesculapi, dario dario, microsynodontis polli, salaria fluviatilis, yahusikotakia nigrolineata and so on. every week a surprise.
cheers Charles

[hx]

Some list of newcomers you've got there! Crazy...

Yeah, I figured the same about the sexing part. Went hastily through ten'ish specimens and could not say any difference in overall shape.

I got five lively, healthy, about 30 mm fish with me. Very happy with them.

I saw Farid's succes, he presented it on loaches online too. Great job!

So you say photos help in sexing? What exactly do you look for in a photo to tell them apart?
Thanks for your response, Charles.
/hx

[ch.koenig]

normally I take pics when they come in. the speciosa where sized from 3-4 cm. hard to tell the sex. next step is to take pics when they are on the frontglass. just got three pics this time and they were gone. they don't like glass or in other words they haven't had the problem of an overcrowding tank - 5 specimen in 60 lt - what prevents, that dominated specimen cling to the glass. so I haven't actual pics.
if you have the opportunity, have a look at the "waist" from underside which is slimmer with the males. the first thickened pectoral ray doens't work well because there is little difference as far I can see
may be I can add some more pics later
cheers Charles

[hx]

Hey thanks, I'll have to look into it too.
Looking forward to your additional pics.
Thanks, Charles.

[hx]

Here's a pic of two specimens that are not too different in size, but are seemingly different in overall shape


Is there something to notice in particular?
Any guesses on gender?
The one on the right is more roundinsh and has a wider "waist". That's a male, perhaps? The one on the left is clearly more elongated.