New (possible loach) baby mystery!

[Martin Thoene]

That sort of behaviour brings one back to my original Schistura balteata possibility, but the concept of this pattern and colour of fish turning into one of them is just too wild.

Assuming it's a spotted Sewellia, you would certainly kind of expect it to be behaving like the other young ones.

The thick plottens!

Martin.

[palaeodave]

Since everyones guesses seem to be wildly different I thought I'd add more silliness to it.

"1 x Annamia sp. (been a lone fish for some time)"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6196225.stm

I'm going with fishy parthenogenesis.

[sophie]

there's a nice big gap between those pectoral and ventral fins...

there wasn't with the other babies, because I remember noticing that almost immediately.

maybe shari's right, and yoyos have invented teleportation.

[Emma Turner]

Update 24-12-2006. The mystery fry still only moves around on the substrate - no clinging is occuring just yet....













Sorry for the quality of the pics, they were taken in a bit of a rush! I'd say this little chap is just over 1cm TL now.

Emma

[Graeme Robson]

Aren't juvenile patterns wonderful!

[Emma Turner]

Here's a few pics from today (27-12-06). So far I've only been able to catching him facing one way today.









The way that the area on the flanks in front of the caudal peduncle is darkening down, and the fact that the pectoral fins seem to be lengthening towards the ventral fins slightly, leads me to think this is a young Sewellia sp. 'spotted'. But.....it still isn't 'clinging' to anything! It is also still much much bolder than the very shy adults Sewellia sp. 'spotted' and is out on the substrate all the time. The adults hide away in the darker areas and will disappear at the merest glimpse of a person near the tank.

Emma

[Martin Thoene]

These are definitely the best pics so far. I noticed the darkened are on the pictures the other day. You can see large individual scales, so there's no way it's a Schistura.

I do find its behavioural differences quite interesting compared to the lineolata fry. You would think it would be up on smooth surfaces by now.

Show it some pictures

Martin.

[mikev]

(not repeating that it is quite a beauty again)

Hmm....it seems to have pretty long barbels. Was the lineoplata fry like this too? Maybe this is something worth comparing.

[shari2]

hmmmm...look at the dorsal pattern, the eye stripe, the 4 pairs of barbels, the bottom dwelling, no sucking, intrepid behavior.
But how is this possible?????
Did you ever have a yoyo near the tank? Shooting egg layers, maybe?
But those scales on the caudal end?

[mikev]

But those scales on the caudal end?

One may conjecture that these scales exist in the earlier development of yoyo's and then stop growing and slowly dissipate. (I'm not saying it is a Yoyo....could be a Rostrata too )

[Emma Turner]

No Botiine loaches have been near this tank for several years - not since we lost our beloved Sinibotia pulchra some years ago due to an accident with the filter. So although this little one may look similar, there is no chance of it being a Botia of any kind.

Emma

[shari2]

We'll just have to wait and see. Babies change remarkably from early stages.

... Aaaaand now for something compleetely different.

[Martin Thoene]

When all our belly-buttons dissapear, this will be a Yoyo

All Botiine loaches, even at tiny sizes have pointy noses......although your new Clowns Shair have the more rounded forehead like a few of mine do....... Can't argue the pattern similarity though.

Martin.

[Mark in Vancouver]

This is one of the first batch of Emma's, which turned out to be S. lineolata:



Compare to these recent pics:



I see the nine dorsal rays are the same, and there does seem to be a section of larger looking scales in the area fore of the caudal peduncle. This must be one of your other spotted Sewellias, Emma. That's where my money is going.

[The.Dark.One]

Do I take it from all the comments about presence of scales that Forum Users feel some loaches dont have them? As far as I was aware all loaches have scales, albeit some of them minute, or very deeply embedded, and some not having them on certain parts, e.g. the head. There are not many true naked (scaleless) groups of fishes, catfishes being one true group.