Balcan Loach

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chupo
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Location: Croatia

Balcan Loach

Post by chupo » Sun Dec 20, 2009 12:39 pm

Hello everybody
I"m new on this forum,i am coming from Croatia,so excuse me on my bad english :oops:
I have three spieces of loaches in my tank,pangio kuhlii,blue botta and balcan loach which is living in river near my house.
Balcan loach is very active in tank and you can see them all day diging in sand. Here is some photos

http://public.fotki.com/jasmina86/balcan-loach/45.html

http://public.fotki.com/jasmina86/balcan-loach/223.html

http://public.fotki.com/jasmina86/balca ... 00993.html

http://public.fotki.com/jasmina86/balca ... 00998.html

http://public.fotki.com/jasmina86/balca ... 00995.html

http://public.fotki.com/jasmina86/balca ... 00992.html
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Rychek
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Post by Rychek » Sun Dec 20, 2009 12:47 pm

First off, welcome!

No worries on the English. Most of us "native speakers" don't get it right often enough.

I like the look of the Balcan loach. I wish we had loaches swimming in the rivers around here. That would be too cool.

Thanks for sharing!
"If no one makes you do it, it counts a fun" --Hobbes the Tiger

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bookpage
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Post by bookpage » Sun Dec 20, 2009 2:14 pm

Thanks for posting the pictures. Very nice loach.

Also, welcome to the LOL forum. Glad to have you join.
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plaalye
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Post by plaalye » Sun Dec 20, 2009 4:07 pm

Nice fish chupo! maybe this one?
http://www.loaches.com/species-index/co ... nia-taenia
Where's Thomas? he'll know.

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Thomas
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Post by Thomas » Sun Dec 20, 2009 4:24 pm

Hi,

sadly I've no idea what cobitis this is, but I've looked at fishbase.org and there are three Cobitis in croatia: Cobitis illyrica, C. jadovaensis and C. taenia. I don't think it's the taenia. But I never heard or read about the other two Cobitis, so I only can say "very nice loach!!"

Maybe we find out more with the name of the river?

Best wishes,
Thomas

Diana
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Post by Diana » Sun Dec 20, 2009 9:11 pm

Really nice looking Loach!
38 tanks, 2 ponds over 4000 liters of water to keep clean and fresh.

Happy fish keeping!

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Mad Duff
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Post by Mad Duff » Mon Dec 21, 2009 5:06 am

The 3 most likely Cobitis from your area would be:

Cobitis bilineata
Cobitis elongata
Cobitis elongatoides


Looking at the pattern of the fish in your pics and the tail I would have a stab at Cobitis elongatoides, although saying that I have a group of Cobitis paludica and the patterns can vary a lot from fish to fish and from day to day.
Image

Pardon my honesty - I am a Northerner

14 loach species bred, which will be next?

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Thomas
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Post by Thomas » Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:09 am

You are right Mark. fishbase only calls only three different species of cobitis in croatia, but in the "Handbook of European Freshwater Fishes" are some more. Such as your C. bilineata and I could imagin that this is a good hint. I don't think that this is C. elongatoides, but you are right again, the patterns of Cobitis could be very variable. I don't think it's C. elongatoides in view of the less or more solid line under the back. I mean at the elongatoides it should be more interrupted. But identifying Cobitis only from a pic is difficult to impossible :)

C. jadovaensis don't occurs in the Book and C. illyrica don't looks very similar to chupos Loaches --> http://www.ittiofauna.org/webmuseum/pes ... ex_big.htm

At this time I'm tending more to the bilineata than the elongatoides, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was something else entirely.

Bye,
Thomas

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Mad Duff
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Post by Mad Duff » Mon Dec 21, 2009 10:36 am

I did look at bilineata Thomas but that does tend to show two spots on the caudal peduncle (upper and lower) and although the lower isn't as distinct as the upper spot the lower marking in Chupo's fish looks to be more a continuation of the lower line, but saying that with pattern variation and possible location variations you could well be right, maybe this one will never be solved :?

I was actually surprised to see just how many species of Cobitis are found in Croatia and surrounding drainage's like - C. dalmatina, C. illyrica, C. narentana.
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Pardon my honesty - I am a Northerner

14 loach species bred, which will be next?

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chupo
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Post by chupo » Mon Dec 21, 2009 1:16 pm

In Croatian language its caled Veliki Vijun,the variation depend in which river they live,my loach is caught in river Kupa,Cobitis elongatoides live in river Dunav.

Large vijun has barrel body and long, laterally flattened head. Mouth small and surrounded by three pairs of mustache.Under eye thole is small and hidden under the skin on the cheek. After covering the body shell. The basic body color is white-yellow, the longitudinal series dark brown spots that extend from head end to the beginning of the tail fin. On the back there are 12-19 spots on the sides of them 10-13. From the eye to the end of the upper lip goes dark stripe behind the eye divided. Lateral line contains only a few shells, and stretches from gills cover the rear of the body. It differs from C. elongatoides by messenger and lower body. Eye thole bone is poorly developed and hidden under the skin. Black spots in the tail fin is essentially obliquely set, while for C. elongatoides vertical. Distinct dark line connecting the spots in the lower side row. The length of breast fins of C. elongata full stop 3 times in the interval between the beginning of the breast fin to the beginning of abdominal fins. While the length of C. elongatoides breast fins do not fit in the space between the beginning of the breast fin to the beginning of abdominal fins.
Max size:

length 16 cm
Biology:

Occurs only in liquid water quickly with sand, gravel and rocky bottoms, mainly in the zone lipljena, cataract and deverike. Spends his days buried in the bottom, and is active and feed at night. It feeds on small invertebrates pridnenim and plant remains.
Large vijun sex ever greater in the second year. Spawning is from April to June, in shallow, clear waters of liquid at the bottom covered with sand, gravel or stones.
Distribution:

Only in the Danube basin, and only in the countries of former Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria. In Croatia, only inhabit the rivers Sava and Kupa.

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Thomas
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Post by Thomas » Mon Dec 21, 2009 3:05 pm

Thanks chupo,

I wish I could keep a european Cobitis or Sabanejewia someday. I have "only" few kinds of Asian Cobitis. Ok, I'm very lucky with them, but european loaches would be even a bit better. :)

I should try to get some C. taenia next spring. I know about at least one breeder of this loach in germany.

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