Loaches Online Forum

On the 17th of August I picked up 5 more large Sewellia Sp "spotted" that settled in to my river tank very well, however within a couple of days I saw a lot of chasing going on at the back of the tank among the big "spotty's" which then seemed get directed towards the 10 resident cheni. This seemed to calm down a bit just before I went on holiday but since I have come back I have seen very little of the cheni so yesterday I did a bit of digging about in the tank and to my horror I can only find one cheni in the tank

There are no dead bodies and no skeletal remains to be seen and the one remaining cheni seems fine as do all the Sewellia's and gastro's, I was just wondering if anyone else had noticed heightened levels of activity between the spotted sewellias and cheni or any aggression at all.

I have checked all around the tank as well and there is no sign of them, I just don't know what could have happened for 9 cheni to vanish in little more than 7 days. I checked water parameters to see if there was any raised levels but nothing

I had a similar problem with my clown pelco when I got him, he just vanished for 3 days, but now I happen to see him every once in a while, some fish just seem to be master hiders, i'd give it a few more days.

It has been nearly a fortnight since my holiday and they never really hid and would normally be the first ones on to any food.

There is only one visible cheni that is out and about all the time the other nine have vanished

Only suggestion i'd have is to remove all decorations, plants, etc. to try and find them =X

I'm not sure if many people are going to have the experience of keeping Sewellia sp. 'spotted' and Pseudogastromyzon cheni together, because of the limited exports of the Sewellia sp. 'spotted'.

Mine are much bigger than all the other hillstream loaches in my tank, and at feeding times can be very dominant, particularly towards S. lineolata and Gastromyzon ctenocephalus, should they venture into their domain (the food usually spreads around and the Gastros feed at the other end of the tank most of the time). But I've never seen them doing any serious harm, just the odd bit of shoving and topping. The Annamia normani are the most feisty though, they will see off the Spotties which have considerably more girth than themselves, which as you know are quite slender.

Still, you would expect to find some evidence that the P. cheni had gone. Is there any way they could have got drawn into the filtration/powerheads? And if something like that had happened, you would expect the water parameters to be off, which they aren't.

Very strange. I hope you get to the bottom of it.



Emma

Felhad wrote:Only suggestion i'd have is to remove all decorations, plants, etc. to try and find them =X

I can see most of the tank and I can see along the back of the tank from one end but to do a total strip down would be a nightmare, this is the tank in question:


More plants have been added and they have all grown well since that picture was taken.

Emma - When I lost one of my big spotties some time ago I found the skeleton after about 10 days and there was a very slight ammonia spike, but now there are no skeletons and no ammonia showing at all.

I dont have an external on this tank becuase it is on top of kitchen units and I dont have the space to stand one so there is only an internal power filter and the 3 cartridges that are run by the two powerheads.

It is so weird, one or two going fair enough you could explain but 9 in one week

I think I may have created the rivertank version of the "Bermuda Triangle" either that or they have been abducted by aliens

FWIW, a few observations:

Hiding with hillstreams is often a sign of a disease. I've seen it caused both by a bacterial infection and the toxin in my tap water. (In fact I rely on all fish being locatable as a sign that the toxin is sufficiently down).

Fish of the size of a cheni may fully disintegrate within a couple of days, without affecting water parameters.

If you decide to stage a massive search, be very careful, especially when searching around filters or powerheads, it is possible to kill them. Best to turn the filters off when searching.

good luck

PS> I see Hagen's quickfilters on the left. Check inside, smaller Chenis have a way of getting in and like it there. But turn off the current first! -- I killed one once this way.

The loss of one may not affect water parameters, but 9!

MD - what other fish are in this tank, is it just the various hillstream loaches or are there other species and dithers?

Also how big are the P. cheni, are they adults or little 'uns or a mixture of both? Did you ever keep them in a tank with so many cobbles before? I say this only because my Gastromyzon ctenocephalus (which I think are of a fairly good size for that species) like to hide amongst the cobbles. I've seen glimpses of them hanging upside down from them, barely visible at times. It's just a thought that your P. cheni might enjoy hiding amonst all those cobbles, and are hopefully lurking about in amongst them.

Emma

Emma Turner wrote:The loss of one may not affect water parameters, but 9!

Small fish, a well-established biofilter may swallow this... I'm more surprised that there are no bodies at all, most loaches tend to get in the open before dying...

I'd look into the Hagen's first. There are two different designs for Hagen's enclosure, one has a hole that is very attractive to Chenis (leads them to the sponge that is full of food fragments).

The other thing: I'd carefully look at all other fish for ich. It takes only one instance of not washing hands to spread it, and the timing is about right from the early incident. Hopefully, it is not it....

Emma Turner wrote:The loss of one may not affect water parameters, but 9!

MD - what other fish are in this tank, is it just the various hillstream loaches or are there other species and dithers?

Also how big are the P. cheni, are they adults or little 'uns or a mixture of both? Did you ever keep them in a tank with so many cobbles before? I say this only because my Gastromyzon ctenocephalus (which I think are of a fairly good size for that species) like to hide amongst the cobbles. I've seen glimpses of them hanging upside down from them, barely visible at times. It's just a thought that your P. cheni might enjoy hiding amonst all those cobbles, and are hopefully lurking about in amongst them.

There are only cheni, Sewellia lineolata & spotties, mixed Gastro's and the 1 Neogastromyzon, no dithers or other species.

They were all around 1 1/4" to 1 3/4" and going by Les's previous posts showing signs of spawning activity.

Yes they were they had cobbles in their previous tank, even up until 3 weeks ago they were out and about all the time.

mikev wrote:I'd look into the Hagen's first. There are two different designs for Hagen's enclosure, one has a hole that is very attractive to Chenis (leads them to the sponge that is full of food fragments).

The other thing: I'd carefully look at all other fish for ich. It takes only one instance of not washing hands to spread it, and the timing is about right from the early incident. Hopefully, it is not it....

The only hole in the powerheads is the outlet and that has mesh over it.

There are no signs of ich or any other disease, I actually went overboard to make sure that nothing was transferred from the 7ft to any other tank, I got so paranoid about it I sorted every other tank before doing anything on the 7ft and used seperate buckets, nets and syphon pipes on the 7ft to those used on the other tanks.

that is very spooky. i do hope it is just that they are hiding. you could do with some luck.

Mad,

The only hole in the powerheads is the outlet and that has mesh over it.

Not powerheads. The quickfilters that are seen on the left in your tank photo. Some of the Hagen's enclosures have an oval hole on top (bottom for you), I had Chenis making a home there...

mikev wrote:Mad,

The only hole in the powerheads is the outlet and that has mesh over it.

Not powerheads. The quickfilters that are seen on the left in your tank photo. Some of the Hagen's enclosures have an oval hole on top (bottom for you), I had Chenis making a home there...

Sorry I misunderstood

They do have a hole in the bottom but that has a bung fitted in so nothing can get through there.

Chomp chomp , no skeletons means a snack it would seem. Very bothersome indeed. That much protien in one week should show in the guilty party's girth line. Do you see a growth spike in your larger suspects?

Tinman wrote:Chomp chomp , no skeletons means a snack it would seem. Very bothersome indeed. That much protien in one week should show in the guilty party's girth line. Do you see a growth spike in your larger suspects?

Actually yes a couple of the Sewellia spotted did look a bit more chunky but so did all 3 adult Sewellia lineolata