Loaches Online Forum

Loach fry photographs, taken this evening 27/06/2006:















Emma

Now whydya haf to go an' do dat?

Now I'm looking at the underside shots and I cannot believe they are Schisturas anymore. They HAVE to be Vanamania......unless.......you somehow got another species eggs into that system somehow.

Ain't no way those fins or mouth are a Schistura.

Martin.

Very cute whatever they turn into. I don't see the bands on these latest pics. I think we should know the details of your Ehiem filter, Emma. Maybe it's the key to loach egg survival .
Nancy

Hehe! There's certainly plenty of twists and turns with this mystery!

Re: the glass pics - I thought I'd better point out that the fry don't spend their time actively clinging to the glass, they only seem to do this when startled (like when I get up close with my camera). At all other times they hide under the sponge filter or else in amongst some of the ceramic ball/tube media that's still their substrate. They are very fast little critters and can move at an alarming speed when disturbed.

No new fish have been added to the River tank for some time - certainly nothing within time range of this spawning. It's still got to be either Schistura, Annamia, or Sewellia. Can't be anything else. Whatever they are, they certainly appreciated your manifold design, Martin!

Emma

Mouth/underside comparisons. However these may not be all that helpful as we know that young fish can change dramatically as they grow:

Loach fry....


Annamia....


Sewellia....


I (fairly obviously) don't have pics of the underside of my Schisturas. There is a diagram of the underside of the mouth of Schistura balteata in Kottelat's 'Indochinese Nemacheilines' book, but have not yet got my scanner connected up to be able to post it here.

Emma

Hmmmm....try a Homaloptera smithi for size......



Somewhat in an Annamaniacs mode

Martin.

I swear, I get more confused each time I see these cute little guys!
I agree with Martin. From underneath, they sure look like tiny H. smithi.
I'm now leaning back to the annamia as parents...but I wouldn't bet on it.

Hahah! This is Great!

*scratches head AGAIN*

Emma, that's terrific. Keep the photos coming!

Emma, that's FANTASTIC

Definately keep the pics coming.

A slightly insane idea for your consideration:

It is also possible that the breeding did not occur in Emma's tank at all. Could it be that some gravel or plant or nice stones were moved from the store tank (or another tank Emma owns) to this? Or even the filter itself?

----

Also: the triangular shape of eyes -- is there anything one can conclude from it?

No, not insane at all.

We've thought about this, but the only thing we have moved was a Cryptocoryne motherplant from our Clown Loach tank over to the River tank a little while back. We moved it because we wanted to rescue it from the relentless munching of the barbs in there.

The only fish in that aquarium are:

~ 45 Clowns
a breeding group of Puntius filamentosus (the fry of which are very different to the new loach fry)
a couple of old dark Ancistrus (which used to breed but don't seem to do so very often these days - again, the new loach fry look nothing like these)
some ageing Hemigrammus ulreyi (must be around 11 years old, which is amazing for tetras!)
and a single ancient Corydoras.

Other than that nothing has been moved/added; the River Tank has been going for well over a year with the same filter from the start. We haven't changed the sand or added to it, no new plants other than the Cryptocoryne mentioned above, no new rocks etc. We only use RO for our water changes taken from our own unit at home.

And nothing new has been added to the Clown Loach aquarium either. With such a low pH we haven't added anything to that tank for a long time.

So, it's still a mystery!!!

Emma

Hmm, no good candidates on this list. I think that the babies are loaches.

Maybe it still worth checking for other contamination possibilities, like sharing a net, or gravel suc, or anything of this nature....

And if you want a REALLY insane idea: hybrids are not totally out of the question either.

those swellas are awsome looking fish !!! cool pics too

The juvenile is rather scaly, so it is not Schistura. Can you try counting pectoral fin rays?

In older Loach forum I had posted pics of juvenile Schistura before so someone may dig those pics up?

*Edited by Graeme* Here's Tony's Juvenile Schistura nicholsi.







In the case of S. nicholsi the dorsal and lateral blotches merge to form body bands when they grow up, which seems to be the opposite of what is documented in S. mahnerti.