Breeding Aborichthys elongata - a world first?

[azurekoi]

I set up a high flow river aquarium ostensiby for keeping Hillstream loaches about 4 months ago... At the LFS I worked at after a lot of string pulling and convincing the owner,we got a batch of 50 of them in... Settled in and fully quarentined,three tiny little 1 inch Squirrel loaches became the first inhabitants of my 20 Gallon River tank...

Guess I should give a little background on the tank itself - its 75cm x 30cm(W) x 38cm(H) - substrate is a mix of half rough beach sand and other half is sifted river sand and gravel from a local river.... Filtration is not by the classic "River Tank Manifold" style - I just felt that the concentrated stream provided by a powerhead would not work for my off the wall idea of actualy having a heavily planted river tank with more than just Java Fern and Anubias in it...
Stuck in one corner of the tank in a large rock pile is a 3000l/hour Vibration pump as our "Dark Bretheren" - the Marine Aquarists - use... Main and only filtration is a dual sponge filter driven by a 30l/hour airpump...
Temp is kept at about 21 degrees and pH settles out at 7.7...
Other inhabitants are a group of 5 full grown Sewelia lineolata,3 young Botia striata,school of 8 Rasbora agillis,4 Gastromyzon zebrinus, an unidentified Stiphodon Goby and the Ruler of the tank,the pink form of Schistura cf. balteata.
Lighting is via 2 x 24W T5's(6500k) and I have a super long lighting period of 16 - 18 hours per day to provide enough algae for all the Hillstream loaches and the Goby...
Tank is completely overgrown with Vallis,Aponogeton undulata,Blyxa japonica,bout 7 types of moss and other odds and ends...also large patches of hair algea waving in the current...Heavy layer of mulm and detritus amoungst the plants - lots of hiding place for fry....and food...

Now,the parents... If you go look in the main species index here at loaches.com - they give you a pic of an red tailed,unbarred male and a stripy female....Hmmnn,I am not to sure this is correct,as I think they may be seperate species or some thing... I have one of the "plain,red tail variety and 2 of the stripy ones...
So this evening,was sitting watching them when I saw 2 small fry - will post pics of the smallest one(%mm) when i figure out how to do this on here

[azurekoi]

her are some pics of the tank before the plants just took over and too pics of the one baby(Sorry - was shaking with excitement and shooting in super macro)... as for how many there are actualy in there - your guess is as good as mine....lol

http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb3 ... CF5259.jpg

http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb3 ... CF5280.jpg

http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb3 ... CF5282.jpg

So? Is this a world first or am I just one of many of us loach heads that has done this?

[Jim Powers]

That's a great looking tank!!
Looking at the fry, though, I think they might be Sewellia lineolata not A. elongata.
Check out these pics and see what you think.
http://www.loaches.com/articles/breeding-sewellia

Of course given some time, we will know for sure.

[azurekoi]

Will try to post a better pic if I can get one Jim,but these little guys have small fins just like the A.elongata and are real thin viewed head on....also not flattened off dorsiventrally at all....Hmmmnnn?

[azurekoi]

But they do share a lot in common with htose pics of the Baby Sewelias....lol - now Im all confused....

[Jim Powers]

They could very well be A. elongata. It can be confusing to identify loach fry at that size since many have that same body shape.
Time will tell!!
Regardless of what species they are, its great that you have provided conditions good enough for them to spawn.
Keep those pics coming!!

[redshark1]

Hi, great tank and nice work!