Sewellia behavior advice

[beastie]

Seeking advice on sewellia (hillstream loach) behavior and why they dont like my tank.

In january I purchased five of them. Took them a month to become cofortable and stop hiding, since then, they were always out. They hang out mostly at glass on the right side of the tank where there is most of the light, some on the back of the tank, few favorites stones. There was male flashing and overall all was good. In june I noticed I keep seeing only three, and in three weeks I concluded there are no more. 

I purchased two more, one was noticeably a female based on the width (twice as wide as the rest of the stock I have). Three weeks later one sewellia was found dead. Now three more weeks and there are again only three sewellia to be seen in the tank, but the female is visible so it is not that the two added are gone.

As I said, they hang out most of the time on the glass, not even feeding, just sticking there. All of my garras hang on the same glass most of the time, since it is near a feeding hole in the corner of the tank (which is why I suspect the garras are there). Tank has a masive cave on the left side in the boulders and one fake cave on the right. There are so many stones, nooks and cranies. Maybe too many stones? I understand having a pebble pile is useless for sewellia as they wont fit in there . Tank is also full of moss, which covers a lot of the substrate too.

While I do not have an airstone and have only an internal filter, I have the filter output put so it agitates the surface. I doubt they are lacking oxygen.The output is also on high flow.  Even in the hottest days, the tank didnt exceed 26C. While I have a lot of the stones absolutely covered in algae, I do feed some spirulina, occasional vegetable, but also I feed frozen bloodworms, live and frozen bbs, cyclops, daphnia. I will also put in some dried food occasionally, like dennerle crustagran, fluval bug bites, some cichlid pellets, a varied diet in my opinion.

 

I am not sure what dont they like and why do I only have three and if to buy more

Picture is not the best, this tank is hard to take picture of and with mobile phone the colors are off. The moss in the front covers some boulder structure behind it, but there is also moss that covers 50% of the back behind the stones that you most likely cant see from the picture

Thank you

 

[Guppysnail]

Im sorry you are having a hard time.  
I’m new to Sewellia lineolata so take this with a grain of salt. I was told they need to eat a lot. I’ve had great luck using a coral feeder coating the rocks with fry food if different small sizes including powder. Frozen BBS . They love it. Perhaps there is only enough of whatever primary thing they need in the tank? Everything I read recommends an unusually large amount of tank space per.  

 I’ve noticed mine are very territorial. They bicker constantly when they encroach on one another’s territory. My dominant one claimed most of the tank. The other is not allowed over for visits.  Maybe the current three are bullying and won’t allow the other to eat enough?  

[Torrey]

26C may be too warm for them, and as Guppysnail said... they eat. They graze on the film in the tank, and they eat microorganisms that thrive in benthic algae. 

Best care information I know of from a friend who bred for a while ( I wanted to get some, still debating whether I'm going to keep waiting for the NANF I want, or add these to the tank) is this Australian publication.

My friend quit breeding them, or even keeping them, because he lost over half his stock in a power outage. With no A/C the tanks went from 68 F (20C) to 75 F (23.9C) over 4 days. He used battery pumps to keep plenty of air in the tank, and was pretty confident the heat either killed them outright, or reduced the microfauna population. He smeared rocks with Repashy, and placed the Repashy rocks in direct flow to encourage the Sewellia lineolata to congregate on the rocks. They needed highest protein Repashy for successful breeding. He would add frozen bbs to the Repashy sometimes.

Hope this helps!

[beastie]

Thanks

I bought repashy super green, coated a rock with it and saw the panda garra eat it sooner than the sewellia could 🙂

 

I doubt it is issue of being able to get to food, the sewellia will chase out the garras and minnows out of a pellet if needed and I try to include frozen that falls down, pellets and small foods.

The temp was only 26 for few days, otherwise it is mostly 23 and I have so many green rocks full of algae. I will try again with the repashy

 

 

[beastie]

Update, doesnt seem to be the temp. Thanks to the lovely weather, inside of the house has been 27/28C past two weeks, so the tank is 25C or 26C the whole time, and no death, still stable sewellia behavior.

I got the super green repashy and fed it twice, but overnight, along with algae wafers that I also try to feed at lights out to give the sewellia a chance. I do not see them eating it, but it is gone by the morning

Had I known the tank would rise to these temps I would have maybe reconsidered getting them, but month out of a year with these temps, and the rest of the time balmy 21 plus minus one two degrees should do them just fine. Will see again later on in the year

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/1/2023 at 11:02 AM, beastie said:

While I do not have an airstone and have only an internal filter, I have the filter output put so it agitates the surface. I doubt they are lacking oxygen.

I would definitely add one, maybe even two airstones.  They are a river species and love river-type of water.  Usually this is slightly cooler (76 or below, preferably 72-74) and they like highly oxygenated water.  As temp rises, you'd want to add even more oxygenation.  I understand there is the internal filter and agitation, but if you're losing them, the first thing I would ever suggest is to add air and check temp.

Depending on where they are in the tank can be an indication of what they are telling you.  This is based on the "be the fish" mindset from Eric Bodrock and it's things I've seen from my own hillstream loaches.

Hanging out on the back glass - This could be due to camouflage, light, or circulation.  They tend to want good circulation but it doesn't have to be a river torrent or anything.  During the day they will typically hide on the back glass and it's because it's away from the light. That was my experience.  I also had some that would hang out underneath shady spots in the hardscape and even use pleco caves as their little territory (hard flat rocks also works).  This is just things I've noticed in mine when I had them.

Sitting near flow or near air stone - This is common in a lot of species, but it does happen sometimes as a sign that fish might just want more oxygen or circulation in the water.  Sharks will do this as a form of recovery so they can gain their energy back.

Foods - Repashy is often a favorite as well as algae wafers.  Some brands they don't like some they do.  I fed repashy soilent green which is the one specifically mentioning aufwuchs for the marketing.  Frozen brine and flake foods they also did well with.
 

On 8/1/2023 at 11:02 AM, beastie said:

ank has a masive cave on the left side in the boulders and one fake cave on the right. There are so many stones, nooks and cranies. Maybe too many stones?

Maybe you can provide a little open space on the right side of the tank?  Especially by moving (or removing) some of the smaller ones up front.

Edited August 24, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[Cinnebuns]

On 8/1/2023 at 1:02 PM, beastie said:

purchased two more, one was noticeably a female based on the width (twice as wide as the rest of the stock I have)

Can you possibly get a picture of this female?  Females are not this much larger than males. It's possible you got a different species. The way you sex them is based on the head. A female will have a nice rounded head and the male will have more of a stair step to its head. 

[beastie]

On 8/24/2023 at 6:47 AM, Cinnebuns said:

Can you possibly get a picture of this female?  Females are not this much larger than males. It's possible you got a different species. The way you sex them is based on the head. A female will have a nice rounded head and the male will have more of a stair step to its head. 

The one near the plants is the wider one I assume is female. The second near the corner of the tank is the smaller sewellia, third I couldnt take a picture of. They all hang in the very well lit part of the tank furthest from the flow and filter output

 

[nabokovfan87]

Here's a great article by Eric Bodrock and it has photos of male vs. female.
https://www.loaches.com/articles/sewellia-lineolata-the-reticulated-hillstream-loach-easy-to-spawn-or-a-whole-lot-of-luck

Edited August 25, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[Cinnebuns]

On 8/24/2023 at 1:55 AM, beastie said:

The one near the plants is the wider one I assume is female. The second near the corner of the tank is the smaller sewellia, third I couldnt take a picture of. They all hang in the very well lit part of the tank furthest from the flow and filter output

 

You are correct it's a female and the 2nd is a male. All are S. Lineolata. Btw, sewellia is the genus name for many different species and lineolata is the species name for this specific species. 

[beastie]

On 8/25/2023 at 2:28 AM, Cinnebuns said:

Btw, sewellia is the genus name for many different species and lineolata is the species name for this specific species.

I know, thanks, i was just lazy to quote the whole name :))

[beastie]

I seek an update on this topic.

Since posting last I can only find one sewellia. The female

I played in the tank, did some moss rearranges, uprooted some plants that had root tabs under them (which could have been the cause for some deaths, we had other keepers here losing sewellia once they messed in a fertilized substrate). Since then I only have one. No bodies, no nothing, I did a full rearrange and found zero evidence, not even a bone.

Either I failed in the food provision or the oxygenation requirement. Most of the year the tank sits at 21C. The filter, atman 201 sponge filter, is at 75% flow capacity, creating heavy flow. During summer I had 25-26C for few weeks, during which I pointed the filter output at the surface to provide better agitation.

 

Options I have now: exchange my atman for eheim 2213 extrnal filter for more flow and maybe more oxygenation. Buy an airpump and aircurtain/airstone. Obtain some pipes and hide them on the right side of the tank, maybe a shrimp pipe tower of some sorts. Try a different loach species than sewellia lineolata. Try a different species of fish. 

 

Tank parameters - 110x40x45cm, pH 7, soft water. 7x garra flavatra (panda garra, I bumped the numbers since the last post), 35x white cloud minnow, one remaining female sewellia loach. Multiple caves, nooks, hidey holes, including whole back of the tank which is covered in 15 cm large moss wall. Regarding the food I feed mostly frozen, bbs, cyclops, daphnia, bloodworms no more than once a week, mosquito larvae, live bbs, microworms. Fluval bugbites, dennerle shrimp king. I have algae pellets and recently bought repashy super green. I also will provide a vegetable once a week like zuchinni, pea, green beans,...

 

Thank you for any advice. I love the loaches, but dont want to risk them in case they wont pan out again. It is not fair to them. When I had the loaches they would mostly sit on the front of the glass, next to the garras, on some stones, grazing. Mostly not hiding at all, very outgoing. Not one of them spent any time on or near the filter or its output either.

Posting pictures of the slightly rearranged tank

 

 

[Guppysnail]

Have you removed ALL the rocks to look?

a few days ago I built a rock pile for my lineolata and Pygmy cory. 

I could find none. I thought I killed everything until I moved every single rock.  They all went deeper until 3 were glued to the last rick I picked up. They were fat and happy. 
 

I took the Pygmy out and turned the entire thing into a rock garden. I have not seen them other than an occasional tail poking out through the very bottom of the rocks. 
 

 

[beastie]

No I didn't touch the rocks, just the moss behind the rocks and i can shine the light in some bigger caves. I also spent few bathroom breaks at 3 am checking the tank and saw nothing. Given how active they usually are and food oriented I doubt three are just always hiding. Would be nice though 😞

[Jack CO]

I will share my experience with my 4 hillstream loaches just to give you an idea on how they act for me. I keep them in a 60 gallon aquarium which is 4 feet long, and the only filtration I have is 2 large aquarium coop sponge filters. The tank stays at 79 Fahrenheit. 3 of the loaches are lineolata, and the 4th is sewellia sp. spotted. My loaches are extremely active and are usually in the open where they can be seen. 
In regards to feeding, I’ve found that they will eat anything I put into the tank. They cleaned up all of my algae within a few days and will gladly chow down on vibra bites, algae wafers, brine shrimp, and catfish pellets. Not only this, but I just recently saw one of them eating the meat off of a cricket head that one of my African butterfly fish dropped to the bottom. 

I have one male and 3 females as far as I can tell. The tank has very little flow and higher temperatures to accommodate my 3 ABF, but it seems to have no impact on the hillstreams. I also keep them with 7 petricola catfish. 

[Miranda Marie]

I have 2 hillstream loaches in a 20 gallon long. They spend most of the time in their "cave" under a piece of driftwood or between 2 rocks with their tails peeking out, until feeding time. Then they take turns coming out to nom the algae wafer. I'd heard they might bully one another, and while they do chase each other around occasionally, they spend 95% of their time together in the cave or swirling circles around the driftwood. I've got a sponge filter coming from aquarium co-op to add to the other side of the tank to up oxygenation, but as far as I can tell, the two of them are fat and happy. They're also my nieces' and nephews' favorite fish I own. They love that they can peer into the "cave" under the driftwood at the front of the tank and see their tails. They always say the fish are "playing hide and seek".

So maybe your fish are playing hide and seek, too. 😉