New (possible loach) baby mystery!

[Emma Turner]

So which one of the British LOL group planted a different baby fish in my River Tank yesterday then? Come on, hands up!

No, seriously - I was just relaxing in front of the River Tank and looking out for the Sewellia lineolata fry that we transferred last night, when something caught my eye on the sand behind a hunk of bogwood. It appears to be yellow and black vertically striped, it's proportions fairly elongate, and probably currently about 4-5mm long. At first, because I couldn't see all of it (some of it was slightly obscured by the bogwood) I thought that maybe I was just seeing the tail end of an adult Sewellia lineolata, with it's tail folded down or something. So I took a really quick photo and got Steve to come and have a look. The 'tail' suddenly moved, and it was in fact not a tail, but the head end of a small fish! It doesn't look like the Sewellia lineolata that we rescued from the filter at such a small size. Here is the (really crap) picture that I managed to capture before it moved away:

Look right in the centre....


Inhabitants of the tank are groups of Sewellia lineolata (the fry of which look different to this), groups of Sewellia sp. spotted, 2 x mature Schistura balteata, 2 x L46 zebra plec, and Eirmotus octozona.

I've had a quick look at juvenile zebra plec pics, and I don't believe this is what I am seeing. I'm going to spend some more time observing today and will do my best to get better pics if it ventures out again.

Emma

[Emma Turner]

More images:







Emma

[shari2]

Emma, if you look at this threadand go to the second post by Nicky he has a link to a page with juvenile Eirmotus octozona. Looks very possible...

................edit

nevermind. Reading it more carefully looks like the thread was discussing a contaminant that came in with some E. octozona.

I'll leave this up anyways, but doesn't seem likely now.

[Emma Turner]

Thanks Shari. I can see pics of other barb species on there, but not Eirmotus octozona. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place?

Anyway, this fish is not behaving like a barb. It moves about on the sand in a very loach-like fashion and is hiding and forgaing amongst snail shells and other debris. I know there is still the possibilty that it is not a loach, but after spawning a few barb species in the past, I'm inlcined to think this is something else.

Emma

[Mad Duff]

To hazard a guess I would say it looks very goby like

Could you possibly have transferred eggs or fry in with some plants or something similar

[Emma Turner]

Nothing's been added in a long time, apart from the baby Sewellia lineolata yesterday, and this fish wasn't in that tank!

I'm debating whether to open up the filter now.

Emma

[Jim Powers]

That's amazing, Emma!!
Considering how wrong we all were at first when trying to ID your last babies, I'll hold off for now on my guess until I see more shots.
And yes, you better be opening that filter.

[Emma Turner]

Do you know, I can't believe this! Less than 24 hours after stripping down the Sewellia lineolata fry tank, I've gone and found at least a dozen new babies in the bottom of the external filter! None in the actual trays of media this time, all underneath the bottom tray. Here's a few pics of some of them in a bucket:









There are 2 different sizes involved here, so some are from different spawns. I would say the largest are 15mm and the smaller ones about 8-9mm. All are much bigger than the 'mystery loach' at the beginning of this thread, and all look like S. lineolata young (i.e. different to the mystery stripey guy).

Here's some pics in the hurriedly re-set up baby tank:

















For anyone that's interested, the current parameters of the River Tank are as follows:

pH = 6.6
dH = 6 degrees
TDS = 150
Temp = 78 deg F

All are being very active and chasing each other all over the fry tank.

The stripey one remains a mystery though!

Emma

[Mad Duff]

Congratulations Emma

[Dave_2133]

Congrats Emma, i haven't a clue of what the fry is but you'll find out soon. Lovely fry tho i must say.

[mikev]

Wow!

Excellent timing -- the moment your fry tank is empted, new batch arrives.

[Jim Powers]

I think you better leave that fry tank up all the time.
Congratulations yet again! Those fish certainly must be happy in your river tank.

[Martin Thoene]

Crikey! I go out for the day and all hell breaks loose.

I stuck my neck out last time and was right. This time I say S. balteata.

Martin.

[mickthefish]

hi emma
it looks like a young homeloptra or gastromyzon type fry, definitely nothing to do with any barb species.

mick

[Emma Turner]

Having ruled out the other inhabitants, the mystery fry can really only be either the Sewellia sp. spotted or Schistura balteata. Which one is the question! So far there is one vote for Schistura and one vote for a suckerbelly type hillstream (in this case, spotted Sewellia)...

Sadly, there is no way I could catch this fish out of the main tank, and at it's current size, I do believe the adult Schisturas are a threat to it. So far it is staying close to the left hand side of the tank, near to two closely-placed cobbles and a Cryptocoryne, so just have to keep fingers crossed.

Emma