Loaches Online Forum

nice pics

It seems that Annamia's pectoral fins should not overlapped with pelvic fins, while Sewellia would be. Both genus should have fewer than 5 unbranched pectoral fin rays on each pectoral fin. Your juvenilles seem to start having pectoral fins overlapped over pelvic fins?

I thought i could see around 5 pectoral fins overlapping. Still early stages though.

I finally managed to get a reasonable photo of the smaller adult 'Annamia' specimen in the River Tank so that it can be compared with the larger, bolder one. The small one is just under 2" total length, whereas the bigger checkered one is approx 3.5" total length. The markings seem very different. Thought it might help with eliminating one possibility from the equation???..or not???....

Here they are:

Smaller 'Annamia' (which came from the same batch of fish as the larger one):



Larger 'checkered' Annamia:



Emma

Thanks Graeme.

I mean Annamia and Sewellia both have less than 5 anterior pectoral fin rays that is not branched [actually 1-2]. In Sewellia the pectoral fin would expand back to overlap the pelvic fin. From various pics I think Sewellia should have at least a few more pelvic fin rays than Annamia too.

Could anyone explain how to count the number fin rays and how this aids in identification?

mikev wrote: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....

Nah, we keep all equipment separate, mikev. The Clown Loach tank is very large so we use a wide bore hose to do water changes (we siphon the water straight out onto our patio). The River Tank is much smaller, hence the hose I use is a different (much much smaller) one. Don't use gravel vacs as we have sand substrates in both tanks. Any nets, buckets, algae scrapers etc etc are all kept and used separately.

Emma

Those two look like they are different species.
The top fish is definately the same species as that unknown specimen that I have.

Use this Sewellia pic by Emma as an example the 1st pectoral fin ray is not branched, while all other pectoral fin rays are branched near the end tips. The number of visible branched pectoral fin rays is at least 14-15 if my eyes is not too bad. The pectoral fins seem to clearly overlapped the pelvic fins. Each pelvic fin seems to have one unbranched ray and at least 14-15 branched rays [probably more]. In other fishes eg. cyprinids [barbs, barbels, daces, rasboras, danios, tenches, etc.] the branched and unbranched fin rays of pectoral and pelvic are not counted separately.

Here's another installment in the loach fry development! Taken this afternoon 29/06/2006:

First off, a bit of a 'group shot'. Over the last couple of days I have noticed that they are starting to 'cling' more to the sponge and the glass. As you can see there is one haging upside down from the sponge on the left hand side of this pic:








I was pleased with this shot of the underside of one of the fry:






Another little gathering:


Look at that mouth!






Emma

I wonder if the loach fry of Sewellia have these sensory barbels when still in 'fry' stages. The Annamia have them in adhulthood, and just look at some Gastromyzon specimens? They seem to have stubby versions still visible when mature.

Excellent pictures, Emma.

Thanks Graeme!
Yeah, I have also been wondering about the mouths....
Anyone who's bred P. cheni notice anything like that with their fry?

Emma

I haven't noticed any barbels on baby cheni or disparis, but I didn't have the equipment to get that close a look either. Maybe Martin has made some observations in that area.

This is the best I have to offer.........



Leetle bit o' barbel there.

Martin.

Hmm...looks a lot like Emma's fry.