Sewellia Fry

[toddnbecka]

The other night I had shifted the Najas mass to one side to see how the java moss in the 20 high was growing and spotted an odd movement on the sand. Looking closer, I was pleasantly surprised to find a wee Sewellia among the cherry shrimp. I suspect there would be more, but the LDA-08's have probably been eating the eggs. Need to move them to another tank, the 20 was actually the QT tank at one time. Then some more fish came along and I didn't have another tank suitable or ready... Filtration is 2 aquaclears, 200 and a 100, along with an air-driven sponge filter. I think there are 9-10 adult Sewellia lineolata and reticulata in the tank, been there for months and it's impossible to get a head count w/out stripping down the tank. Also 7 LDA-08 uber-dwarf BN and uncountable cherry shrimp (started as a dozen or so a few months back.)
Pics (good ones at least) of such wee critters are hard to get with my autofocus point-and-shoot camera, but I'm too busy/lazy to buy another SLR and learn to use it.

For size reference, that's a small cichlid stone on the left and .5mm NLS Grow pellets scattered around the rock.

 

[mscichlid]

Excellent! I had to look them up to see what they were.

 

[toddnbecka]

They're beautifully patterned little fish, similar to pleco's but with tiny mouths. Somewhat territorial, I see them chasing each other around fairly often, they really could use a bigger tank for the group size. The fry isn't shy at all, but the adults scatter whenever they see movement near the tank. Easy enough to get belly shots on the front glass, not so much decent pics from above.

 

[Tony]

Very cool, Todd. I looked them up as well... pretty cool-looking little catfish.

I'm guessing that spawns are pretty uncommon with these guys?

 

[toddnbecka]

I've only seen a few people posting about them spawning successfully, but they really aren't difficult to keep or spawn. Apparently not very prolific though, and the fry are slow-growing. (Not necessarily a bad thing IMO.) They're fairly new in the hobby, and river tank setups are usually recommended for housing them, but they've been spawned in small tanks with just a sponge filter. Cooler temps are also recommended, but I've been keeping them in the mid-70's in a 20 high with hard/alkaline water and Najas to thick the water barely moves through it. Plenty of circulation to keep the water aerated, but little current. NLS pellets and spirulina flake, same thing I feed everything else around here. The cherry shrimp are running amok, if the Sewellia bred like they do I'd be overrun already. I'm out of space to set up more tanks or I'd move them into a 40 tall.