What Is My Fish?!

[oatfish]

I have this fish that I have been keeping very successfully for nearly a year with 5 dwarf puffers. He (She?!) loves filtering gravel and burrowing and munching on catfish tablet/excess bloodworm that falls to the bottom. I have asked several people and trawled the net to no avail! Thanks!! Oh yeah and my tank is much cleaner and algae free than in the pic

 

[nmonks]

Looks like some type of loach. At first I thought it was a goby, but gobies have fused pelvic fins behind the head, and this fish of yours seems to have pelvic fins halfway back along the body. Some more pictures taken from different angles would be useful.

Cheers, Neale

 

[Miss Wiggle]

we saw these in our lfs this weekend, tank wasn't labelled with anything we thought they could be. looked more gobyish than loachish to me but i'm far from an expert having never kept loaches or FW gobies

 

[nmonks]

My best guess is Somileptus gongota.

http/filaman.ifm-geomar.de/summary/Speci...ry.php?id=24686

Otherwise, have a browse through the loaches, here:

http/filaman.ifm-geomar.de/identificatio...7&areacode=

Cheers, Neale

 

[Miss Wiggle]

assuming it's the same as the one's i saw this weekend i don't think it is Somileptus gongota, unless the ones we saw were quite unweel which is always possible, colours were much more grey than the brown in that pic. or unless you get colour morphs of course?

can't see anything on there that looks exactly right.

 

[Fate2006]

Looks a bit like a whip-tailed catfish, does it have the head of a pleco?

 

[oatfish]

BRILLIANT ! Thanks Nmonks, it is indeed a Somileptes gongota although, looking at the info onthe web for it, mine lives in hard water and seems very healthy, I have had no probs at all and (s)he will come to the front of the tank if food is coming! It actually turns darker at night as well, and it's bands are more defined now. Great at sifting the substrate for debris and when it finds some tasty morsel it stops to munch/suck on it. When the tanks lights are off it's eyes turn very black and it becomes much more active. I would get it some pals if I could ever find some more, they seemed to be a one off in my lfs. Am very happy now!

 

[oatfish]

assuming it's the same as the one's i saw this weekend i don't think it is Somileptus gongota, unless the ones we saw were quite unweel which is always possible, colours were much more grey than the brown in that pic. or unless you get colour morphs of course?

can't see anything on there that looks exactly right.

It has definitely darkened with age and some other pics on the web show it as quite pale. I guess they also tend to pale if they are stressed? Not sure. Thanks tho!