Any abosexers around?

[mikev]

Very neat Danio array

There is actually another arrangement to try: Rosy Loaches instead of Danios for dither. This may work very nicely.

[Graeme Robson]

Since i added my Yunnanilus brevis to one of the river tanks, i've witnessed potential breeding activity's. Perhaps like what Mike suggests could be a great idea. After all, the Rosy loaches and the Yunnanilus brevis do look alike!

[mikev]

I'm not sure if Aborychthys is good for breeding....and neither are Rosies. Besides eating everything and being hungry most of the time, both species dig in the ground, check leaves, and run around all the time.... perfect babykillers. My keeping them with Haras may be immoral...
But having two pretty active species together will make for a very watchable tank.

Wanna hear more about Brevis breeding behavior....

If this were my tank, I'd probably chose some more active sucker over Gastros.

[Graeme Robson]

Wanna hear more about Brevis breeding behavior....

I'll get back to you. Nightshift at work.....must dash!

[mikev]

TY!

@Tammy:

another 2c from me to add to your choosing difficulties: I do like these redtails things, but if I were to chose between them and the Zippers, Zippers are actually much more enjoyable.

IMHO, they look nicer, they behave in unpredictable ways, they socialize with other fish, and they also greet me. For the last few days, I've been spending a lot of time with the tank next to Zippers, and they always line up on the side next to me watching what I'm doing.

[mikev]

One more comment, now that I've had some time to look at them.

I fail to understand why Aborychthys is a Balitoridae at all. It would seem logically to suspect it to be a close relative of Pangio that adapted for hillstream environment; thus it well may be a member of Balitoridae only by virtue of its environment, not genetics....

Does anyone know anything more on this, or are we having a case of a dolphin fish here?

[Martin Thoene]

It's Aborichthys Mike.

So based on your theory, then this wouldn't be a Schistura (and therefore a Balitorid) then?

http://community.loaches.com/species-in ... ura-pridii

or this..........

http://community.loaches.com/species-in ... a-rupecula

or......

http://community.loaches.com/species-in ... variegatus

Now the last one I'm assuming comes under Cobitidae, but how are you gonna tell? Just looking at it and knowing the habitat doesn't necessarily define where it fits.

Martin.

[mikev]

No theory, Martin, just wondering aloud.

The story with Schisturas is that at least we have Kottelat's definition of the genus: vertical bar at the tail base. (How good is this definition for determining related species, and whether it applies to Schistura(?) pridii at all, is a separate issue.).

The story with Aborichthys (trying to spell it right!) is unclear. I have a suspicion, hopefully wrong, that it got classified as Cobitidae only on the basis of Balitoridae habitat.

I cannot say how it should be classified -- this would require a genome study which does not exist yet -- but I can surely ask on which basis it has been classified now. Perhaps there is a paper that shows close anatomical similarities to some Balitoridae species? -- this would be one way to answer it. Or perhaps someone (Hora?) a hundred years ago assigned Aborichthys to Balitoridae and nobody bothered to question this?

[The.Dark.One]

Pages 17 - 18 in Kottelat's Indochinese Nemecheilines gives a discussion on the history of familial and sub familial relationships, and some of the problems that are still unresolved. Pages 164-165 of Jayaram's Fishes of the Indian Region also briefly discusses familial placement.

On a very basic level the Nemacheilinae have probably been lumped with Balitorinae, instead of the Cobitids, because the Nemacheilinae do not have the eye/head spine that Cobitids have (but in the past Roberts has included the Nemcheilines with the Cobitines)

It appears that Psilorhynchids, Parapsilorhynchids, and Balitorids have been seperated from each other partly because they all have a different swimbladder structure, and the number (or lack of them) of pairs of barbels. Nemacheilines probably don't have enough differences to warrant their own Family, and therefore because of the structure of the swimbladder being similar to Balitorins, they have been included in the Balitorid family.

I'm sure that at some point a phylogentic paper will be published which will hopefully resolve and answer these questions for you.