Loaches Online Forum

Just curious if many loaches have been spawned in captivity? If so are they accidental?

Hi Dconnors , there have been quite a lot of accidental spawning in aquaria ! usually this happens when the aquarist has created optimum conditions !

Mick [the fish] Wright is the only aquarist to actually spawn them under a set breeding situation , i.e. a pair in a tank with marbles on the base , introduced in the evening and removed in the morning ,in a way that you would spawn barbs or tetra's, or at least the only person I know of !

Mark [madduff ] has had a lot of success with a few loaches , due to his clever fishkeeping skills also !

Btw how are your Botia's doing ?

We certainly did not have any 'special' situation when our P.Cheni decided to spawn in the first tank they were in.

For a while ours were breeding quite prolifically. LES.. can tell you lots more than I can, but certainly at first there wasn't anything we did for the best situation.

For more information on this read the Topics started by LES.. entitled

P. Cheni breeding with sand substrate
and
Sexing P. Cheni

Sadly we only have one P.Cheni left, but would love to have more.

D'lenn

Several of us here on this site who have had hillstream loaches breed over the years. The most common species that have been bred are Psuedogastromyzon cheni, Liniparhomaloptera disparis, Sewellia lineolata and Sewellia Sp. "spotted". I believe there have been some other species of Sewellia bred, too.
Mesonemacheilus triangularis and some of the schisturas have been bred also.
Most of this seems to have occurred in the last few years, primarily, I think, because of the shared wealth of info on loach keeping that comes from this site and its posters.

Cool, guys thanks for the replies. I will definately look into those topics. My botias are doing awesome-I can't believe how fast they are growing. I will post up some more pics on the other thread soon

as you said Jim
on the list are a lot: yunnanilus cruciatus, yunnanilus sp orange (fantasy name "tuberoschistura" on loaches), sewellia cf elongata, chromobotia macranthus, yasukikotakia sidthimunki, sewellia speciosa etc
my last are lepidocephalichthys guntea
I would make a difference between spawning species and bred species ("vermehrung" and "zucht" in german)

Hi Charles , my definition of breeding is Mickthefish's way i.e in a controlled situation

Would it be possible to share your experience with the Gunteas ? very interesting !

I would make a difference between spawning species and bred species ("vermehrung" and "zucht" in german)

Good point.

to point it out clearly: first possibility is the spawning in a community tank - due to the right conditions - and youngsters surviving regularly. second is a tank set-up for just one species with the same result (may be with other species not disturbing the set). third is the same with intensive care (one species only) - getting behold of eggs and youngsters and putting them in a seperate tank.
I would call it breeding if it is repeated.
the rest is rather "getting a result without any special set-up" ("vermehrung" in german). I wouldn't call that breeding.
the chioce depends on the species and the result intended.
let's take sewellia lineolata: they spawn even in a tank in a LFS with a dozen survivers i some months. a pair in a single tank-situation can "bring" about 200-400 youngster a year, with intesive care the same number in one month!
chromobotia macranthus: about 1000 eggs or more (depends on the size) in a single spawning. so far I don't know a breeder who had success. but some spontaneous results, even with a lot of survivers.
cheers Charles