Gastromyzon ocellatus colouring

[janma]

This is my first post on LOL, so hello everybody and greetings from Finland. The weather here is up-side-down, but the sun is shining .

Well anyways, the reason I´m posting is that I´ve got Spiney-headed hillstream loaches, which are some of the finest and interesting fish I´ve ever had. And the question is about the tailfin colouring, on some it´s red and on some its blue/white. Is it normal with these or has the colour difference some meaning, genderwise or so? Here are some pictures with different colours.





These loaches eat everything, pellets, waffers, cucumber... Well anything that hits the bottom.

Check out more pics on my website.

[Mad Duff]

Lovely fish Janma and welcome to LOL

[Martin Thoene]

Hi janma and welcome to Loaches Online.

Lovely fish you have there! With many Gastromyzon you will find variations in colouring. You will have noted that all your fish have unique markings and tail colouring will differ from fish to fish.
Due to genetics, separated populations may develop a slightly different "look" to another population and then fish-collectors mix them up.

With G. occelatus, I do not know if colour bears any relationship to sex, but the fish in the lower picture with the most colourful tail appears to be a male. Note that the first few rays of the pectoral fin have raised "fences" visible. It is like a group of louvres.

Martin.

[Graeme Robson]

Hi Janma. Welcome to Loaches Online.

[janma]

One thing I noticed today during feeding was that the red-tailed ones were alot more aggresive and territorial and kept chasing the blue/whites away, only other occelatus were "terrorized" no other. I´ve had these for some months now and this was new or I haven´t noticed, never gets booring with these


Added a "movie" folder on the webpage. Theres a short movie (poor quality) of the same behavior mentioned above.

[Jim Powers]

Welcome to LOL!!
Nice pics and video.