My New Sewellia

[deina-kun]

I bought 3 Sewellia lineolata today and acclimated them, but they seem to be swimming frantically around the tank. They've been circling it and chasing each other around for the past 10 minutes.

Is this normal behavior for them when they are trying to get used to a new environment?

My tank is a 20gal long with 4 Gastromyzons (1.25" or less). The Sewellia are almost 3 inches.

[Menu]

Yes this is a normal behavior when they come in a new environment.
They have to recreate the social order.

[deina-kun]

Ah, that's good news. I thought they were stressing out from the move since the LFS got them today and I must have gotten them an hour or so after they put them into their tanks.

I thought they would acclimate well like my Gastromyzon, but I never added more than 2 Gastros at once. My Gastros would usually latch onto a rock and then when they realize that there's a lot of aeration in the tank, they start exploring and stay in the stream of my internal filter.

When I put them in the tank, the Sewellia all started darting around the tank like crazy. Much different behavior than my mellow Gastromyzon, so this made me concerned. It's nice to know that it's normal behavior! My boyfriend sexed them as 2 males and 1 female. One of the males settled behind the HOB filter intake, but the other two keep chasing each other around (possibly the male chasing the female).

They don't seem to bother my Gastros too much. The Gastros are barely 1.25" compared to the Sewellia being 2.75". Will the size difference be a problem?

I don't really have many hiding places and foliage other than 7 or so scattered medium to small rocks, some overturned flower pots for a now-lone Krib (female died; will be moving him out eventually) and skinny-leaf Jungle Vals. I also run an AquaClear 50 and AquaTop IF-450 internal filter, which turns the water around 300-320 GPH (15-16x the water capacity) and an airstone with a Rena Air 200.

Should I make any adjustments to the tank to make the Sewellia more comfortable? I've had my loaches in there for almost two months and they are very active and happy in it.

[deina-kun]

I came back home today and the smallest male (which was probably a 1mm smaller than the larger one) was dead in front of the flower pot my male krib hid in. It already had a small injury when I got it from the store, but I guess that was expected.

I found the remaining male and female hiding in an overturned flower pot together. The male was trying to get underneath the female and circling around her after I scared them out of the pot. They then hid in the flower pot again. Is this considered mating behavior?

[SgtMajWiggles]

When they mate they will interlock their fins, like holding hands, and swim around the tank scattering eggs. 3 inches is too large for any s. lineolata I have seen before, though.

[Jim Powers]

I have a large 2.5" S. lineolata and his girlfriend, a 2" female, in a tank with several gastros , a beaufortia, a S. wui, some H. smithi and Crossostoma lacustre and everyone gets enough to eat. The Sewellia rule the roost, but they are not too aggressive towards the others. I have heard others on this site, however, say that the Sewellia were too aggreassive with the gastros. My tank has lots of java fern and slate hiding places so maybe that helps.
Good luck with your new Sewellia!

[deina-kun]

Thanks for all the replies!

My Sewellia are actually around 2.5". It looks like the female is 2.5" and the male is a little smaller than her. Are females usually smaller? After my boyfriend sexed them, it seems that the female is the larger one compared to the male.

The Sewellia were still hiding in the same flowerpot together. The Gastromyzon seem unbothered by them. One of them was even hanging out in the same flowerpot with them for a good half hour when I was adding new stones to my tank. The rest were having their own fun on the new stones!

Jim, do you have any pictures of your tank or know of any river tank layouts?

[Jim Powers]

From what I have seen, male and female Sewellia are similar in size at the same age.
My camera has been out of commission for awhile so I really don't have recent pics to show.
You might want to look back through some of the older threads and see some of the tanks others who post here have. Also, you can go read Martin Thoene's article on river tanks on the main Loaches Online site and see his layout.

[deina-kun]

Pictures!

Slideshow: http://deinakun.imgur.com/loaches_81211#sRnav

I'm hoping one is a male and one's a female!

Loach #1:



Loach #2:



Size difference between largest Gastromyzon:


Size difference between smallest Gastromyzon:

[Menu]

You have luck.
The first one is a S. lineolata male and the second a female.
Your Gastromyzon are: G.zebrinus, G.scitulus, and G.ctenocephalus
Observe your fish good and look if they eat.
When they eat and not always hidden, everything is in order.
When you look for some inspiration for your tank setup you can look through my older threats.
http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=21384

@ SgtMajWiggles i have S. lineolata with 8cm thats that's over 3 inches!

[deina-kun]

Thank you for the IDs, Menu!

I got the G. scitulus two days ago and it seems like he's starved a little from the shop. Hopefully he fattens up like my other Gastros quickly. If not, then he might be a boy and all the plump ones are girls! Who knows.

A few more questions for anyone who might know the answers:

What do you recommend feeding the Sewellia to try to get them to come out from hiding? The male seems to be fine out in the open now, but the female is still hiding whenever people are around.

Are there good methods of removing Hydra if I were to breed any of the loaches? I see some Hydra on some of the rock algae, but not an excessive amount of them. My goal is to eventually breed the Sewellia, but I hear Hydras are cruel to baby fry.

What is the most loaches I can have in a 20gal long? I currently have 4 small (<1.25") Gastromyzon and 2 large (2.5") Sewellia. Will that be plenty of space for all 6 of them?

I will upgrade in the distant future since I love collecting all the Gastromyzon species, but for now, my hunt for hillstreams ends here. My Gastromyzons are always out in the open grubbing on the glass and picking fights with each other that I always have something fun to look forward to when I see them. I'm hoping the Sewellia start coming out soon so I can see their personalities. Hopefully they're not overly shy!

Thanks much for all the help! I really appreciate it.

[plaalye]

My s. lineolata spend most of their time in hiding and I've had them for about 3 yrs. I do see them, but they are skittish. My s. elongata are much more outgoing. I haven't had good luck keeping sewellia & gastromyzon together. The gastros are just not able to compete with the larger, more aggressive, sewellia.

[deina-kun]

How large are your Gastromyzon compared to them? Mine are 1/3 their size and the Sewellia don't seem to mind sharing their hiding spaces with them.

[Jim Powers]

I have the same issues with my sewellia being a bit skittish. I have had mine for almost 5 years now and they still run for cover when I approach the tanks. I have them in three different tanks as well as a large male spotted sewellia and all are in with gastros. I think, as I mentioned before, the key might be having plenty of hiding spaces and objects, such as rocks and driftwood that block sight lines so the sewellia don't always see the gastros feeding and chase them off. I also feed in a couple of places in each tank so that probably helps.

[deina-kun]

I noticed that my male has thin strings coming off of its fins. Is it slime? It looks like what happened to the last male that died when I fished him out. The strings are pale yellow, coming from its fins. No longer than 3-4mm and very thin. Should I be worried?

The girl seems okay. She's always hiding in the same flowerpot, so I can't comment if this is happening to her fins too.