Botia Sidthemunki Spawning.

[Silverlady]

Hi I think my Botia Sidthemunki are spawning,if i manage to save any babies what can i feed them on.
I should think they will be to young to eat snails,if i could find them any .my pair has more or less cleared my tank in two weeks.

 

[Fella]

Hi I think my Botia Sidthemunki are spawning,if i manage to save any babies what can i feed them on.
I should think they will be to young to eat snails,if i could find them any .my pair has more or less cleared my tank in two weeks.

Hey, I don't have any experience with this, but I thought I'd wish you luck as these guys are on the IUCN red list of endangered species.

I feed all of my multi fry on liquifry, but, I'm sure there are other better foods I could use, and I'm not sure they'd apply to these loaches.

Good luck!

 

[smithrc]

good news... what makes you think they have / are spawning?

I've not heard of them breeding before so good luck to you :yes:

I'd get a couple of brine shrimp hatcheries running so you have a couple of sources of fresh live food. a microworm culture might be a good idea too.

Keep us upto date

 

[Silverlady]

good news... what makes you think they have / are spawning?

I've not heard of them breeding before so good luck to you :yes:

I'd get a couple of brine shrimp hatcheries running so you have a couple of sources of fresh live food. a microworm culture might be a good idea too.

Keep us upto date

Well i have only had them for 2 weeks,today they were very active chasing around all over the tank.
Then I noticed they were in one spot shaking and in a Tee position,generaly having a good time togther

 

[emma12321]

Hi,

I hope it is spawning behaviour, how big are they? mine are just over an inch and chase each other but i haven't seen them do that. If you get babies you could make a fortune my LFS sells them at £7.99 each or 3 for £20.

Good luck

Emma

 

[Silverlady]

Thanks Fella.
emma they are about an inch and a half,some of the moves they made could have come from the Kama Sutra,lots of different positions.
I paid £18 for my pair,just to clear the tank of snails.They zip around a bit to much for me I prefer my fish a little more sedate.

 

[Lateral Line]

I doubt they are spawning. Firstly, spawning in Botias is associated with migration and is not something that happens in tanks. To breed Botias, special techniques involving hormone injections are used. There are a few anecdotal accounts of breeding, but none really stand up to close scrutiny.

The second issue, is at 1½" they are almost certainly to small to spawn. Whilst they are called Dwarf Loaches, this is really something of a misconception. You will see otherwise reliable sources like fishbase give maximum sizes of 50-60mm but there is a picture of one over 100mm at loaches for example.

Botias are known for their wacky behaviour.

 

[mikev]

Firstly, spawning in Botias is associated with migration and is not something that happens in tanks.

Could you please expand on this? Does this apply to Khulis as well?

(I just set up a hopefully ideal 10g for an attempt to get them breed....am I wasting time?)

 

[modernhamlet]

Firstly, spawning in Botias is associated with migration and is not something that happens in tanks.

Could you please expand on this? Does this apply to Khulis as well?

(I just set up a hopefully ideal 10g for an attempt to get them breed....am I wasting time?)

It happens in the planted home tank with the right water, but not very often and never consistently. Very few loach species will breed in aquaria. Sadly, the dwarf loach, a fish on the IUCN Red List, will not.

 

[Lateral Line]

>>> Does this apply to Khulis as well?

Khulii's are not Botias.

Khulii's have bred in the aquarium, although I've never had it happen. There are various stories around about how to initiate spawning, almost all of them have been tried by many and shown not to work. What gets them going is still pretty much a mystery.

 

[Silverlady]

I doubt they are spawning. Firstly, spawning in Botias is associated with migration and is not something that happens in tanks. To breed Botias, special techniques involving hormone injections are used. There are a few anecdotal accounts of breeding, but none really stand up to close scrutiny.

The second issue, is at 1½" they are almost certainly to small to spawn. Whilst they are called Dwarf Loaches, this is really something of a misconception. You will see otherwise reliable sources like fishbase give maximum sizes of 50-60mm but there is a picture of one over 100mm at loaches for example.

Botias are known for their wacky behaviour.

Thanks for the reply Lateral line,you were right no baby fish appeared.It certainly looked as though they were spawning,they have gone back to their normal behaviour now,hunting snails .

 

[mikev]

Thanks!

>>> Does this apply to Khulis as well?

Khulii's are not Botias.

Sorry, I assumed that "Botia" above was used as a collective term for loaches.

Khulii's have bred in the aquarium, although I've never had it happen. There are various stories around about how to initiate spawning, almost all of them have been tried by many and shown not to work. What gets them going is still pretty much a mystery.

I have an amelanistic khuli (no black color) and want to try to breed him(?)...I know that chances are pretty slim but they are better than ever finding another one.

 

[CFC]

The khulie loaches in our sons community tank have spawned from time to time, ive never actually witnessed it happen and it has been completely random with no triggers to get them going, the only evidence of the spawn is a few fairly large bright green eggs that the barbs have missed floating on the surface between the plants . Ive tried netting the eggs out and placing them in a seperate tank but within a day or two the eggs disintegrate, i can only presume that our tapwater is too hard for them but i'm not interested enough in breeding them to bother setting up a tank with R/O water and then go through the process of trying to raise the fry.

 

[mikev]

CFC,

The khulie loaches in our sons community tank have spawned from time to time, ive never actually witnessed it happen and it has been completely random with no triggers to get them going, the only evidence of the spawn is a few fairly large bright green eggs that the barbs have missed floating on the surface between the plants . Ive tried netting the eggs out and placing them in a seperate tank but within a day or two the eggs disintegrate, i can only presume that our tapwater is too hard for them but i'm not interested enough in breeding them to bother setting up a tank with R/O water and then go through the process of trying to raise the fry.

this sounds very encouraging. I hope you don't mind me asking, but could you tell me a bit more about your tank setup and your khulis?

One specific question that bothers me: it seems that "standard khulis" -- that is with 10-11 stripes that don't cover the belly and don't form strange loops or dots -- come in two varieties: about 3mm high and about 6mm high. The second kind seems to be slightly longer too (3"+ vs 2.5"). I don't understand if this reflects a (sub)species, age, or sex and this important: if it is the species (as I assume), I'll make sure to get a few of the "slim" variety; but if it the sex, this will probably create an all-male tank. I really don't think this is sex since one of the fish store chains here always has the "slim" kind only, but what kind are yours? If you happen to know which khuli laid the eggs, how "high" was she?

PS. What is R/O water? I understand that natural water for khulis should be very soft ... still have to figure out how to achieve this...

 

[CFC]

The only way to sex khulie loaches is when the female is gravid with eggs she is plumper and her belly has a green tinge to it, the slimmer khulies are most likely just younger smaller fish.

The tank is a 30 gallon planted aquarium with a mixture of small peacefull fish, it has a fine gravel substrate and many small caves made from bogwood, there is 5 khulies in the tank of which 2 are female as far as i can tell.

R/O water is a purified water which been forced through a membrane which removes all the minerals and toxins leaving you with water with no hardness and a neutral pH which can easily be modified to suit your own needs. It must have minerals added back to it to make it safe for use so you just vary the ammount of these minerals you add back to give you soft or hard water