New Sewellia

[Jim Powers]

grizzlyone;
I was at Aquarium World today and they had two nice Sewellia left.
One was a gorgeous 2.25" male and the other a nice little 1.75" female. Both looked nice and healthy. I almost took one myself to replace the large female I lost (which turned out to be the only one out of the shipment that died ), but I may wait to find another larger female.
Hopefully, Doug will be able to fill your order soon.
By the way, do you plan on keeping any dither fish with them? If so, you might want to check into danio choprae. They are gorgeous and love the current of a river tank. Doug can usually get them too.
Be sure to post pics of your tank when you get it all set up.

[grizzlyone]

Jim:

I talked to him and arranged for him to call me next time he gets a shipment in...I'm looking to get a more than two so I'm going to get them in one trip.

I've already got the transport method planned since they have higher O2 requirements...I've also just got a deal on a largish UPS to plug the pump into so that there will be little chance that they will suffocate even if the power goes off while I'm not home...

I'm still waffling on the tank design though. I'm still thinking I may just do a tank bottom with styrofoam and "Great Stuff" foam that would very closely simulate their natural environment...plus look pretty cool.

I haven't given alot of thought to their tankmates yet, but I appreciate the suggestion and I'll definitely look into it.

Thanka again for the heads up on the LFS, I appreciate it, although I don't think my pocketbook will...

Kevin

[Jim Powers]

Sounds like it will be an interesting setup. I was going to suggest that you use a battery operated airpump during transport to be on the safe side. I keep one in a plastic food container in the trunk just for that purpose. I cut a notch out of the container lid to allow the airline in and still seal the lid. I transport all my hillstreams in this manner.

[grizzlyone]

Bass Pro shop sells a "bait bucket" aka min-O2-life bucket.


Here's the description:

Your complete bait protection solution. Four-season temperature control plus the advantage of top-quality aeration. Features a built-in night-light for rigging or baiting after dark, portable aerator with air hose and high-output air stone that operates up to 80 hours off 2 D-cell batteries (not included), durable foam liner and 8-qt. capacity.


Its $25 and by the time I bought all the pieces it would cost me that or more....

Kevin
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[Jim Powers]

That sounds perfect, particularly when you are transporting fish in cold weather. I'll have to check one of those out.
I hope Doug gets your fish soon. He told me today that he has not ordered them every time they appeared on his list and he has already had them three times since late summer. That's probably a good sign. The week after they got the second batch, they got some really nice gastromyzons, too. None of those are left, though. I bought the last one about a month ago.

[grizzlyone]

The sad thing is that I'll probably spend more money when I get there...I hate it when people have what you are looking for...and some things you get that your weren't looking for...

[wasserscheu]

... got one male (last one left) sewellia l. tuesday night. i´m on waiting list for females ...
paid 15 Euro. actually I was looking for H. confuciona (are pretty rare around here as well) but when I saw my first S.l. - live - ... he looked at me -> love ... told the dealer 10min. after closing - in case he makes it to a feeding tab. within 3 minutes I take him, he was faster than that ...

WHAT I ACTUALLY WANTED TO CONTRIBUTE, ... HE LIKES ROCKS WHERE HE CAN QUICKLY SLIP UNDERNEATH AND POP ON TOP OF IT AGAIN, ... that looks so funny how quickly he´s "slipping-around" the rock...

... he is not eating (need to call dealer what he fed), any special hints what REALLY gets him going? ... wondering if I need to establish an extra tank, with no feeding-competitors in there?

Thanks Martin, you confirm sand, (just in time, as I was planning to cover most of it with rocks - now I´ll only go half way with rocks) he looks more yellow on sand, grey on my dark stones...

Wolfram

[Martin Thoene]

Try him with thawed frozen bloodworm. That usually gets them going.

Martin.

[wasserscheu]

I´ll try to get some around here, I´ve tried other worms ... did not work.

... he isn´t too skinny yet, what do you think?



Wolfram

[wasserscheu]

Hallo Martin,

Thanks for pointing me to something ... (I also bought some fr. Bw. of a different brand, that I had in the freezer)

I learned today: bloodworms are NOT LEECHES As I left a LFS mumbling"... I´ll never find BLOODWORMS...." he called after me BLOODWORMS I have... but that are red-Mosquito-larve and not leeches.... oh boy, sometimes I do have a hard time being me
after reading a lot of posts here about bloodworms, I kept wondering, how big all your fish must be, or perhaps you use baby-leeches

Well, thawed frozen bloodworms were amongst my first trials, he does not recognice the smell... neither of lifeworms (from hazelnuts in the supermarket = moths, ... being me again , yes some packages have moth-larve in a certain supermarket, I found that handy however the larve bite-through the packaging and become moths... well the market will be treatet sooner or later...)

Sewellia-boy does scan the floor about 20minutes AfTER feeding ... when it´s empty...

the only stuff he sat for a moment on was trout-pellets (which I use for feeding schrimps), I never had so much stuff in my tank before. at the dealer he went for Sera and JBL tabletts , i tried some Tetra, now I will go and buy the same "junkfood"... until he learns...



Greetings

Wolfram

[mikev]

Congratulations!

You new guy looks very nice.

For reasons unknown they don't seem to like bloodworms (==mosquito larvae indeed) all that much here. Confuzona's and few others go nuts over them, but Sewillia's and Beaufortia's in my tank usually prefer to chew on an algae/veggie wafers rather than bother with a perfectly good bloodworm that is next to them. (They do eat some, and it is fun to watch when they do, but it is not what they will chose).

I'd try different algae/veggie wafers of different brands, even the "Carnivoir" type -- they eat them too (and in my tank wafers is the primary food). Also, they react strongly to frozen brine shrimp -- see the very end of the Confuzona's feeding thread for Jim's instructions on how to deliver it best, but since you have only one fish to feed, dropping a piece of a frozen cube next to it should work good enough.

[Jim Powers]

My new Sewellia a proving a bit picky compared to my other batch. I am not sure they have been eating but think I saw one eat a bloodworm the other day. I have seen them graze a little, but not too much. As I am writing this, the big male is down on the gravel, near his favorite hiding place. I had just put some brine mysis shrimp and bloodworms in this area, so I suspect he is feeding. They are a bit more skittish and reclusive than the other batch, so I don't want to scare him away from food by watching him. I will try to observe them more this weekend. If they are like the other fish, they will probably become more bold once they get used to eating what I give them. Some of the difference in the behavior of the new vs old fish may have something to do with the tanks. The new fish are in a tank that has more plants and hiding places than the tank with the previously bought fish. They hang in the shadows most of the day, being most active in the late evening and after lights out. Of course some of the difference might just be that they have not fully settled in yet.

[mikev]

Mine did not feed during the day at the beginning, both times.

The only way I knew they were eating was by spying on them at night and seeing the food disappearing overnight.

[Jim Powers]

I'm going to keep an eye on them after lights out.
The big male has been visiting the area that I put some food, repeatedly so I think he is feeding. The female seems to be looking for food too.
But, as is always the case when I get new hillstreams, I tend to be a bit on edge until I actually see them feeding regularly.

[mikev]

But, as is always the case when I get new hillstreams, I tend to be a bit on edge until I actually see them feeding regularly.

Not just you.....I'll be a lot on edge for the next week, with the new contents of the Q-tank here. (I hope you would not mind me asking questions about one of the species, it is one you are very familiar with.)

But Sewellia's do seem to be highly adaptable, it seems that unless they come with some really major sickness which quickly kills them, they are one of the easiest hillstreams.