My Sewellia lineolata, sewellia spotted and their FRY

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mattyd
Posts: 103
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2010 9:55 pm
Location: Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Re: My Sewellia lineolata, sewellia spotted and their FRY

Post by mattyd » Sat May 11, 2013 8:46 pm

I haven't noticed any real aggression that would have required fish to be removed. Some of the juveniles will try and boss the adults around, but the adults just ignore them. The Lineolata are probably a little more boisterous in their chasing, maybe like a small dog can get carried away. The bigger spotted ones are quicker and more impressive when they move, but they move more carefully, like a large dog would. You can tell from the number of rocks that I have that there are heaps of places for a fish to hide in if they need some time out.

On a side note, I have a lot of fry in the tank again. Some are already at 2cm and able to maintain suction on the glass.
5ft long rocky hillstream tank - Sewellia lineolata and spotted... and lots (and lots) of spotted fry
8ft Clown loach tank: 30+ clown loaches, 10+ Yoyos.
6ft tank for 16x botia kubotai, 13x Striata, 6x Sidthimunki - I need more sids

Helmet
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Mar 19, 2013 7:41 am

Re: My Sewellia lineolata, sewellia spotted and their FRY

Post by Helmet » Mon May 13, 2013 2:53 am

Thanks, that's interesting. I know what you mean regarding behaviour like that of a dog!

Reason I asked Is I have 4 Lineolata in a river tank, and after their introduction they consistently attacked the resident Botia Striatas, they would swoop from a rock about 2 foot away & land on the Zebras like a hawk. It was amazing to watch until I noticed one zebra in hiding thoroughly stressed after having his tail fin tips ripped off. He's recovered now but has a few scars on his tail from these attacks, which often involved biting from the Sewellia.

Since then the Zebras are pretty much left alone but these battles do still occur between the Lineolatas. Most of the time it seems to be for show however the larger one does seem to like biting, they raise themselves up, dorsal spiked right up & try to mount the other. And at the moment one has a nice scratch between his eyes from this. I was debating with myself whether to remove the main offender but I'm just keeping a close eye on it for now. Hopefully it will subside, but it may be I just have a couple of mean fish

mattyd
Posts: 103
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2010 9:55 pm
Location: Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Re: My Sewellia lineolata, sewellia spotted and their FRY

Post by mattyd » Mon May 13, 2013 3:16 am

My sewellia are all in a species only tank. So they aren't mixed with botia loaches.

I have seen my fry grow up in other community tanks, and those sewellia haven't bothered any of the yoyo loaches, clown loaches or kuhli loaches that they shared the bottom with.

My recommendation would be to get some driftwood or other hiding logs for the botia loaches to hide in. The tighter the hole, the happier the loaches will be. Perhaps also place more rocks/hiding places in the tank for the sewellia. Perhaps they are trying to protect a favourite sparing spot or a favourite algae rock.

Otherwise I can't comment on why the fish are doing it... maybe get 2-3 extra specimens of each species , which will give the cranky fish more of their own species to have the battles and tussles with.
5ft long rocky hillstream tank - Sewellia lineolata and spotted... and lots (and lots) of spotted fry
8ft Clown loach tank: 30+ clown loaches, 10+ Yoyos.
6ft tank for 16x botia kubotai, 13x Striata, 6x Sidthimunki - I need more sids

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Danelle Vivier
Posts: 87
Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2012 3:10 pm
Location: Cape Town, South Africa

Re: My Sewellia lineolata, sewellia spotted and their FRY

Post by Danelle Vivier » Sun May 18, 2014 3:59 pm

Mattyd, how did you get your sewellias used to eat your foods and not just live off the algae? I got some Sewellia lineolata a few days ago but they ignore my spinach leaves and algae tablets.

mattyd
Posts: 103
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2010 9:55 pm
Location: Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Re: My Sewellia lineolata, sewellia spotted and their FRY

Post by mattyd » Mon May 19, 2014 5:48 am

I bought a little manual pepper grinder and put high quality sinking wafers and protein crumble into it, and set the grinder to a medium grind setting and ground some food up. I have now found that if I grind it into a container (that has a lid), and add some tank water, I can then shake the container and when I pour the food/water mix into the tank it sinks much better. This gets the food straight to the bottom faster, and it doesn't float around the top for as long.

Just keep trying all the food you have, and if you have any good aquarium shops/petstores, ask for samples of all their feed (many of them should happily give you small amounts from their large bags that they feed their fish). You might need to try a few different types of food initially.

Also, try zucchini.

I also recommend the Repashy Soilent Green product (or what ever the other version is). It stinks, and I don't make it very often, but my fish love it.
5ft long rocky hillstream tank - Sewellia lineolata and spotted... and lots (and lots) of spotted fry
8ft Clown loach tank: 30+ clown loaches, 10+ Yoyos.
6ft tank for 16x botia kubotai, 13x Striata, 6x Sidthimunki - I need more sids

User avatar
Danelle Vivier
Posts: 87
Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2012 3:10 pm
Location: Cape Town, South Africa

Re: My Sewellia lineolata, sewellia spotted and their FRY

Post by Danelle Vivier » Mon May 19, 2014 7:52 am

mattyd wrote:I bought a little manual pepper grinder and put high quality sinking wafers and protein crumble into it, and set the grinder to a medium grind setting and ground some food up. I have now found that if I grind it into a container (that has a lid), and add some tank water, I can then shake the container and when I pour the food/water mix into the tank it sinks much better. This gets the food straight to the bottom faster, and it doesn't float around the top for as long.

Just keep trying all the food you have, and if you have any good aquarium shops/petstores, ask for samples of all their feed (many of them should happily give you small amounts from their large bags that they feed their fish). You might need to try a few different types of food initially.

Also, try zucchini.

I also recommend the Repashy Soilent Green product (or what ever the other version is). It stinks, and I don't make it very often, but my fish love it.
Hi.
I also use a pepper grinder with flakes, granules, veggie tablets and shrimp pellets in it. These bits disappear so quickly in the tank but I could maybe be too small. It doesn't grind very small but small enough for my danios to be able to eat most of it. Mine also sinks to the bottom quickly. Do you turn off your filters and powerheads for feeding?
I will try zucchini. I have tried spinach and cucumber.
I'd like to get some of the Repashy food. But shipping things down to South Africa can become quite expensive.

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