Sinibotia / leptobotia

[Mad Duff]

I have had these Sinibotia for a while now and have been looking more closely at pictures of them lately and I think that I do have a couple of Sinibotia pulchra but also a couple of Leptobotia guilinensis

This is what I believe is Sinibotia pulchra:


Like the other one that is identical it has a deeper body, blotches that extend into the upper and lower lobes of the caudal fin and a very fine gold stripe that runs under the eye.

This is what I believe to be Leptobotia guilinensis:


It has stayed more slender in appearance and has a second band in the tail rather than the blotch of S. pulchra and also the lower band that come up the snout is wider and go up to and stops at the eye rather than passing under the eye like in S. pulchra.

The one thing that got me thinking about these was one of the fish Ashleigh got at the recent LOL meet, it was solid brown in colour with no banding and myself and Graeme were convinced it could have been Leptobotia taeniops and all of these fish came from the same batch.

I know we only have one pic in the species index of Leptobotia guilinensis and it is very much unlike this fish but if you search around there are pics of Leptobotia guilinensis that are very similar looking http://azumanettaigyo.com/02tsuhan/Loac ... nensis.htm.

[Ashleigh]

Those Sinibotia sure are something
I have no idea what that 'brown thing' is, it is the same as another I bought yonks ago at Emmas-I assume the sinibotia batch is the same If so theres either a hugh variation ir possibly 3(?) sp....

Mark, Il try for some pics of that one and the others tonight so we can compare, heres the link from before. Second page shows the variation I got with the sinibotia before

http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php ... a&start=15

That fish in the first pic tho is a beaut


Ashleigh

[mickthefish]

they're looking really good mate, you could be right but it's a mine field trying to sort these out.

mick

[Graeme Robson]

Last time i tried to figure these chaps out it give me a headache.....

Superb pictures and specimens Mark!

[Mad Duff]

The thing is I had them both on the same slide in the presentation as S. pulchra but when you look at the slide and the photo's side by side they just dont look like the same fish in any way apart from stripes.

I have added the second photo to the presentation as possible L. guilinensis for now and see how it goes.

[piggy4]

I wonder if anyone knows how to differentiate between the said two ?

[Graeme Robson]

Get on the phone to Steve, Andy mate!

[The.Dark.One]

I understand that Sinibotia doesnt have scales on the "cheeks" (probably opercle), whereas Leptobotia does.

[soul-hugger]

Hi, Mad Duff...

Is there no end to your beautiful collection of rare Loaches? It is certainly enviable, but what amazes me the most is that every fish you show us is a beautiful, healthy specimen. You obviously know what you are doing, and that moves you from enviable to inspiring. Please keep the pictures coming!

soul-hugger

[Mad Duff]

Hi, Mad Duff...

Is there no end to your beautiful collection of rare Loaches? It is certainly enviable, but what amazes me the most is that every fish you show us is a beautiful, healthy specimen. You obviously know what you are doing, and that moves you from enviable to inspiring. Please keep the pictures coming!

soul-hugger

Thank you, that is very kind

[wasserscheu]

What would experts think of this one? I was guessing S.pulchra?

Got it recently, it was a single customer return. It is night active only and seems to stick with a Y.Caudipunctata. But that may be, only because the Y.Caudip. does not want to give up it's cave (each Y.C. has and defends it's own cave).



If I ever get a Chance I will check for scales on the cheek. As fas as I saw the head looks evenly velvet like.

It was the largest fish I ever bought (13.5cm, almost 5.5")

[mickthefish]

thats got to be the biggest i've ever seen Wolfram, great fish mate.

mick

[wasserscheu]

Thanks Mick, TotalLenght that would be (nose to tail-tips). It was almost too fat when I got it (like the pic shows, taken in the store days before I returned to get it). I have not seen it eating during the 4 weeks yet, only took stuff that was floating directly close to it's mouth, but I do not worry yet neither.

[mickthefish]

even TL it's still the biggest i've seen, the biggest i've had was roughly 3-4 inches TL.

mick

[Mad Duff]

Lovely fish Wolfram, I would agree with S. pulchra.

A couple of mine are nudging 5" TL, sometimes they are out as soon as the food hits the water and are complete pigs but other times they just don't bother but can be seen grubbing around when the lights have gone out.