HillBundle

[mikev]

I don't think it is a match.
(1) I can see very red dorsal on the Zhou Hang's photo
(2) "The Devil" has very visible bars on top, between the head and the dorsal:



I'll try to get a better pic. (I guess to resolve the Cheni-Myersi issue, one needs an underside view ?)

[Jim Powers]

Its probably cheni, I just wanted to comment on the markings.
To be sure, you would need to see them from underneath.
The rest certainly look like cheni, so the odds of one in the shipment would probably not be very high.

[mikev]

I'll try to get his underneath. Here is a different item from the same tank:



(sorry for the watermark).
This is a smaller Vannie, which has almost as much white on the stomach as Frank's pictures.==>so I don't think they represent any new species, simply younger Vannies have more white.
(This fish, btw, was bouncing on this leaf for three days, until it broke it, and now it came back to finish the job.)

[Jim Powers]

Nice!

[Martin Thoene]

I bought some cheni a while back to interject some more genes into my population. They were generally greyer in tone than my bloodline, and had little or no red.



Very similar yes?

Martin.

[mikev]

Very similar, yes. All Chenis in this group are on the paler side, and I see good yellow in the dorsal of your fish and no red -- just like my evil one.

[wasserscheu]

... need to click in here more often, great "stuff"! Wonderful postings

Greetings Wolfram

[mikev]

Thanks, Wolfram,

--

I don't know what I just did.... Well, I did a water change, and I think I dropped the temp by 2-3 degrees.

The result was that two Vannies in the bundle started doing *something* to each other, the rest of the fish ran away. What they were doing for about an hour was topping each other (alternating), sitting on each other, and occasionally making circular motions over the other fish.

Right now they seem to be tired of the activity...(look seriously tired).

I have no idea what it was: Vannies are the most non-violent hillstream, so it really could not have been a fight...and either fish could leave at any moment. And they are probably too small for spawning either: about 2/3 of the adult size, and rather skinny (new fish).... Still think it is some kind of amateur spawning attempt.

Do the disparis owners know how to sex them? Do disparis do anything like this?

[mikev]

More bundling today...



a double layer is ok, but the total capacity of the powerhead top is 7 fishes. The rest have to hide elsewhere:



(doing is on a vertical leaf is pretty hard, the fish has to work to maintain the position.)



The main reason I'm concerned about the Devil's behavior is partially seen on the left of the bundle, it is a 0.5" very skinny Cheni. The Devil chases him quite a lot...(Could not get a decent picture of him yet, he is usually hiding, often under the bundle.)


OK, here is how the under sides look like:



the fish seems to have paler fins than a typical cheni....

[LES..]

The main reason I'm concerned about the Devil's behavior is partially seen on the left of the bundle, it is a 0.5" very skinny Cheni. The Devil chases him quite a lot...(Could not get a decent picture of him yet, he is usually hiding, often under the bundle.)

Hi Mikev,

A 1/2 inch cheni just screams juvenile at me. The following is based purely on my observations of the cheni fry that has spawned in my tank. Cheni will grown quickly in length until they are about 2cm then growth slows right down. At this point they are very skinny and it is quite noticable that the head has not broadened out. This seems quite normal for all of our fry, they are very active at all levels of the tank at this stage and forage for food continuously, they will also bicker with each other and can be absolute terrors. I would peg this stage at about 5-7 months in age. Our two oldest fry, which were discovered back in January, have continued growing but far more development has now gone into putting on the flatter adult profile. They are now at just over 3cm and I would estimate that their width is now in proportion to the adult length to width ratio.

Our youngsters also have a tendency to punch way above their weight and have been challenging the adult loaches over food for some time now. Naturally this results in quite a put down by the adults although the cheeky blighters have learnt that they can change height rapidly in the water will often manage to dodge the mad rush of an adult fish to land neatly on the food for a quick nibble.

From comments made by Jim and Martin this slow growth does seem to be a species trait I hope your loaches settle in fully and you get a chance to see all this yourself.

[mikev]

Hi Les,

Thanks for the data!

I think they all are juveniles, the largest is only a bit over an inch (1 year old?). The smallest, exactly as you say, very skinny, and while the head is wider than the body, it is not nearly as wide as it should be, proportions are all wrong. He does seem to be growing rapidly, 1-2mm in the two weeks that he has been here. No bickering or terror (only one fish into this), but he learned to swim down to the food, grab a bite, and quickly swim back to the safety, so he is not totally starving.

The Devil, otoh, is serious about eating. He either sits on food or next to it, eats every 15-20 minutes, and chases anyone coming close to the food.

I probably will add a couple of adults to the group....the current dictatorship needs to be overthrown before someone does starve to death...

[Jim Powers]

You might also want to put food in more than one location so that other fish can get to it and not be chased my your Devil cheni.

[mikev]

Trying this every day, he is too smart for this. The entire floor is his.

I probably should put in a few large stones to obscure the line of view...

[Jim Powers]

That's a good idea.