Schistura waltoni

[Graeme Robson]

These seem to be a mild mannered species, compared to similar species in one of my tank set-ups. Here's a picture of one. Great addition for anyone looking for a peaceful-ish Brook loach.

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[Emma Turner]

Lovely looking specimen, Graeme!
How many of these chaps do you have? I've not seen them on any import lists yet.

Emma

[Graeme Robson]

Thanks Emma.
I purchased four of these chaps a couple of weeks ago. It's interesting to see how these loaches have changed once settled into their new environment. 2 of them have the pale colouring (above) and the other two look like the picture below. Whilst they where in transit and obversely stressed, they all looked exactly the same. These came in from a Thailand supplier who still claims to have many different species of Pangio's. Still waiting we are.

[Tony T.]

Male waltoni may develop some reddish color on upper part of light bands, but I had seen only a few wild ones have such color [so don't expect any in tanks to have such color.....].

[Graeme Robson]

Cheers Tony. Is there a sexual difference regarding the patterns you think?

Graeme.

[Emma Turner]

Interesting! My Schistura balteata all had their few central vertical bands when in the stock tank at work (lots of hiding places so they weren't stressed), and once acclimatised to the River Tank some gradually lost the bands. I now have a mixture of some with bands and some without. All doing well and looking nice and healthy. I have been wondering if this was some kind of sexual difference for a while now.
Good luck with the Pangios, I hope this new supplier delivers the goods!

Emma

[Tony T.]

Not enough data. However the one I see with orangish back do have puffup cheek, and that cheek is the characteristic of male. I think that for many species mature/ready males do have different color than females, but definitely red tail is not reliable characters since many species seem to have red tails in both sex.

[Graeme Robson]

Yeah Tony, i remember a while back you talking about the characteristic's of the males cheeks. I'm looking forward towards their development.

Emma, Have you seen this thread? http://www.petfrd.com/forum/showthread. ... ge=1&pp=15

[Emma Turner]

Cheers Graeme, I had missed that thread somewhere along the lines - very interesting indeed. I have eight S. balteata at home, and as I said earlier, some have bars, and now some don't. I think I will have to sepnd some time looking for those puff cheeks to see if I can notice a difference. I have been meaning to take some new pics of them for a while, trouble is they are shy and so difficult to capture. They are all out enjoying the flow of the powerheads, and if I take one step nearer to the tank, they all disappear. Even if I sit there perfectly still for a good while, they won't venture out until I'm gone. I'm thinking I'll have to get Steve to build me some sort of 'hide' like birdwatchers use!

Emma

[Graeme Robson]

Heheh! I know the feeling. My picture on the linked thread is my only decent one i captured.

[Tony T.]

Pic of waltoni by Nonn:

[Graeme Robson]

Lovely looking specimen.

[Graeme Robson]

These chaps have more sensors. "a-chouoo"

[Tony T.]

Just for your interest waltoni can grow up to 4 inches or more .



p.s. this loach in pic is not the big one

[Graeme Robson]

Lovely!