Sewellia Lineolata - Hillstream Loach Breeding Log 1

[cockroach]

The top tank in my rheophilic breeding rack was designed and set up to somewhat mimic a shallow rapid. Perhaps leading into a some riffles or a small drop in the stream level.
The tank, as with the rest, measures 150cm x 30cm x 30cm and has a pump with variable output ranging from 3000L/h to 6000L/h. This is changed randomly to mimic rainfall and drier periods.
The base of the raised section of the tank is hollow and the rocks in the front are slightly more than an inch wide. This cut down a lot on weight and material needed. The whole system was seeded with algae/aufwuchs covered rocks from a local hillstream about 2 mins from my house. This, with the 13K lights, has given a nice base for the fish to feed on.
The tank initially housed 4 Stiphodon ornatus but the breeding of them is too complex at this point so decided to add Sewellia sp to get started.
So far I have added 9 loaches:
2 x Sewellia sp. "spotted" SEW01 - I am hoping they are a pair but they are rather shy and hard to get a good look at.
7 x Sewellia Lineolata - There appears to be 3 color forms in the tank.

Setting up the tank
The frame work


The mesh is to stop small gravel and sand particles falling through.


Plastic grates were used to raise the bottom and save weight.


A side view showing where the gravel would hide the plastic fillers


Adding the gravel and rocks


The outlet from the pump on the ground 5 foot below.


The slope of the rapids
Middle


and the right side of the tank near the overflow

 

[cockroach]

The tank after it was left running a for a little while and seeded with algae.
Water flows left to right.


Looking upstream




Some extra pics




the stiphies will live out their days in this tank. Unless I get very ambitious and try to breed them. Impossible as that seems.

 

[Fishnerd360]

Cool setup!

 

[cockroach]

The tank is nicely covered now with algae especially after adding the "wild algae" rocks to help seed the tank even more and give the tank algae a few days to grow uneaten.
The loaches are settling in but the spotted sewellia remain very skittish. I have seen a bit of chasing to establish a pecking order and once saw what I assumed was courtship but no babies yet. Think the water was too warm for them. As it is winter now, I am expecting action soon.
The stiphies are happy as Larry doing their thing and have been holding their own against the loaches. They have moved from the middle of the tank to the more protected bottom (right hand corner) of the tank.

 

[deeda]

Great update, the tank and fish are looking great!

 

[cockroach]

Some more updates so I can delete these pics of my computer. If I don't delete ordinary pics the Gigs start adding up quickly.
I am trying to catalog each hillstream loach from above and below and sex it. A lot harder than it sounds.


I needed a terracotta pot covered in algae cleaned. The fish were most obliging.


I am hoping to set up another river rack beginning next year. I want to separate the S. Lineolata into their different color forms/morphs. Below are two.


I am starting to really like this yellow color form.


Got a shot of the "spotted".


3 loaches feeding in the outlet current.


FTS - water flows left to right, "downstream". The stiphies live in the right third or bottom of the tank.


The stiphies chillin' on their rock. It's odd, since moving them, they have not darkened again.


The whole rock used to be dark with algal growth. The lighter patches are where the loaches have eaten down to the rock surface. This is why I occasionally ad "wild" rocks to give the tank rocks time to recover.


Fish mixing happily.

 

[FIU Panther]

Very cool tank! Definitely interested to see how it goes.

Any concerns about bringing in parasites from the river on rocks?

 

[cockroach]

Very cool tank! Definitely interested to see how it goes.

Any concerns about bringing in parasites from the river on rocks?

Yes, it does concern me. But all these fish are wild caught so I kinda of keep them wild. I watch them carefully. In the other tanks, external parasites are consumed by the fish. These guys just eat the biofilm though.

At the moment I have a planaria population I want to get under control. I have been feeding some high protein food and the tank has a lot of crevices. That combo leads to planaria. I want to remove as many as I can with traps over the next month or so.
I will add them to my Central Taiwan Stream Biotope as the smaller rhinogonius will take care of them quickly.

I am hoping once breeding starts, the young Sewellia will eat the food now being eaten by the planaria.

 

[cockroach]

These fish started breeding a while back and haven't stopped. The first fry I noticed was tiny. I had to see him a few times to confirm I was actually seeing fry. The next came when what I, at the time, thought was some parasite in the panda loach tank. It turned out to a Sewellia Lineolata fry.

I naturally assumed I had bred panda loaches but within a few days realized what had happened. I found another three later that week. they grew well and after about a month I caught the fry in the Panda Loach tank and moved them back to the Sewellia tank. Around that time all the young fish started coming out.

Since then........these guys do not stop! the "spotted" and "normal" hillstream loaches go at it all the time. I am going to run out of space soon. I have even started experimenting with very small fry and am using 4 of them as clean up crew in guppy tanks.

They do extremely well in cooler 18~26°C water. However, they youngens are showing no signs of problems in the guppy tanks which can go up to 31°C. This may only be suitable for growouts in the long terms but I will keep an eye on them and see how they fair. I have heard they can be bred at higher than 26°C.

I have a trio of "Golden Leopards". No Idea if there is a name for the color morph. They do seem to have spawned as one or two fry appear to be taking on their colors. It is so hard to track in this scape do to the shear amount of cracks and crevices.

This is the "Golden Leopard" color morph. I know it's not a real name but until it has a name I am calling it that.

One of the first growouts from the tank.


The feeding bowls are a hive of activity in the early evenings.


The Spotties getting amorous under the rocks.


My oldest whitecloud ever. She passed 2 weeks ago. You can see how much space there is to hide away in.


I am sure I have a few more Spotties than regular hillstream loaches.


I may rescape the tank in the future to make it easier to work with and give more space to the fish by lowering the rock work.

 

[cockroach]

Some more pics.
The S. Brevibentralis are the most prolific breeders in the set up. They have spawn after spawn. I have read online that once hillstream breeding tanks have a bunch of juveniles to young adults breeding stops. I assume the young ones are small enough to eat the eggs. However, the Brevi's just keep trucking.

It's nice to see the S. Lineolata juveniles starting to show their patterns now.

I have started using juveile S. Lineolata as algae control in other tanks. They really do not seem put out by warmer temps. Even when the tank hit 31°C, they kept munching algae. These are two in a guppy colony breeder 10gal.


The panda loaches are proving harder to breed. The pack slowly dwindled down to 4 adults. 2 great fish and 2 that have become very reclusive. I thought this may be due to spawning behavior but as of yet no fry have appeared. This is one of the biggest sitting in the current.


My favorite pattern of S. Lineolata.


The Spotties seem to be way more prolific than the Reticulated.


I currently have 3 of these and on the lookout for more.


Teenager playing in the strong current.


Mama Brevi. She has really gotten big on the diet they have since joining the breeding rack. The panda garra seem to be a great matching in terms of tankmates.


The older kids frolicking in the current above the mother. Their pattern change as the grow and mature is a lot more interesting than the other Sewellia I have bred so far.