Schistura ID please

[Thomas]

these schistura were sold in germany as S. balteata. But in germany will quite much sold as S. balteata maybe someone can tell me the right name of these loach. The colors are not correct, the stripes are more pink than orange. I can say that they are not so aggressive than other Schistura, but they naturally will fight for their favourite place too. The stripes are very variable, one loach has none, another four or so.



actually i would show other Loaches in this thread, but the ftp-server is down. I had to restart the PC. I will start another thread for another questions (ID) the days.

Thomas

[Graeme Robson]

Superb looking specimen!!

Within the Balteata loach group, these loaches are highly variable with a few un-described species to add to the mix. It's possible that these are either Schistura paucifasciata, Schistura cincticauda or a totally new species that we have not herd of.

[Mad Duff]

Lovely specimen Thomas

[shari2]

And quite a nice photo, too. Look at that face. Awww.

[Thomas]

Thanks Graeme,

Within the Balteata loach group

yes, i think so too. It's a pity that i can't get the pink on the pic. But we know: S. balteata is "pink" on the ground with dark belts/stripes. This loach has a dark ground color and pink belts/stripes. The exact opposite. Fascinating! I like this group, my first schistura was a sp. aff. balteata too.

Hello Mad Duff

Lovely specimen Thomas

it's the prettiest of the four

[Graeme Robson]

I know what you mean Thomas. I keep a few of these and sometimes depending on their mood you can see different markings. Here's one of mine and depending on the time of day or mood they are in you can see more vertical stripe markings, same applies with colour. At times this chap shows very distinct zebra like patterns.

[Thomas]

this loaches i've seen two times at a dealer, but everytime in a bad state. So i don't buy any. But they are very nice!

Here's ist one of my first S sp. aff. balteata. I've bought them 2002 and today I've only one of them. I'm sure that i saw them here in the species index but now i can't find them again. Am I blind?




And here is another one from the topic loaches. The mouth/head is a bit narrower. Could it be a sexual dimorphism? I've never heard something like this but who knows.



In my tank they sometimes dig under a stone, but I've not noticed some corpulence (eggs) until now. It looks like they are digging "as a pair". This happening repeated every few months. Maybe two or three times in a year.

[Graeme Robson]

This Schistura is a Schistura paucifasciata. Thomas, can we use it for the Loach species profile?



This is a guess but i think that this one may be a darkened variant of the Schistura robertsi.

[Thomas]

of course you can use it, but are you sure that this is S. paucifasciata? I thought always that S. paucifasciata has a black caudal stripe. The fishes of mine hadn't this. In a german magazine they were called S. sp. aff. balteata.

I would say this is not the really paucifasciata but of course very similar.

Or are my documents outdated? I've looked in Kottelats "Indochinese nemacheilines"

[Graeme Robson]

Good shout! I completely forgot about the black caudal stripe. Close but not close enough. Not to worry!

Lovely specimens though.

[Thomas]

if you want you can use it for a new sp. aff. balteata or sp. aff. paucifasciata section.

[Graeme Robson]

Thanks Thomas. I think the Schistura aff paucifasciata would be good enough to enter it into the species index. It does look closer to the paucifasciata rather than the balteata doesn't it.

[Thomas]

Ok Graeme, some few infos about these. Not much but better than nothing.

Distribution: Myanmar (more precise I can't say it)
Max size: 8cm, after 5,5 years in my tank.
all the rest is typical Schistura

A few pics will follow, tell me if you need something special

[Graeme Robson]

Cheers Thomas. Any pictures will do, i'll let you think which is best. We already have a good side profile picture from you, unless you have better? Also, do want the photo credit named as Thomas or your full name?

Thanks.

[Graeme Robson]

They could well be Schistura paucifasciata after all. Gerhard Ott has submitted this to fishbase. Gerhard Ott has also submitted a few pictures for us to use. Thomas, have you seen this site and could you translate what they are talking about?

http://www.aqua-terra-net.de/Hydro/Sond ... a%20sp.htm