Re: B. lohachata and SAEs

To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
Subject: Re: B. lohachata and SAEs
From: Liisa Sarakontu <lsarakon at hila_hut.fi>
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 22:05:39 +0200 (EET)
In-Reply-To: <199511292039.PAA26829 at looney_actwin.com>

> >I've kept one large one (5'') for almost 4 years in a fully planted tank,
> >and while it did a great job on the snails, I never noticed any plant
> >damage.  After moving several times, I can also testify that this species
> >is extremely hardy.  Don't know about the salt, though.
> 
> We may be discussing different species since Baensch
> indicates that this loach only reaches 2 3/4 inches
> in length. Baensch has been known to be wrong before.

Dave,
I have also 6 of them and I've never noticed them eating my plants.  They
really like the cucumber and zucchini slices I sometimes put to their
tank, and they need to have vegetable-based food in their diet.  My 
loaches are about 6-7 cm long (2.3-2.7"), but I've seen a 10 cm long
(4") specimen once.  I checked their length from some other books too
and this is what I found:
Axelrod's Atlas			10 cm
Petrovicky's Aquarium Fishes 	10 cm
Dick Mills, Tropical Aq. Fishes 12 cm, or 4.7"
 
> Finally,does anybody have any clues about identification of small (1.5")
> Siamese algae eaters?  There appear to be at least three species in a
> shipment of flying fox and stone lappers I received recently.  According to
> the key in the AGA article, many appear to be SAE's, but that's providing
> their fins don't turn yellow as they grow.  I'd like to label and sell these
> with the proper ID.  Any help would be appreciated.

Jim,
you really got a mixed shipping?  I have talked about this with many 
Finnish pet shop keepers and fish importers, and they all say that yes,
sometimes, but very rarely, they get mixed shippings (normally SAEs and
false siamensis), but then they just stop using that exporter and
choose another, better one who can send only real SAEs.  

A real SAE baby has big eyes and a very sharp, triangular head.  The
black stripe goes to the fork of the tail, and the back is unicolor.
A false s. has thicker head and the stripe stops at the base of the tail
fin.  A thin light stripe above the black is visible, and the back is
darker than SAE's back.  I have never seen a baby flying fox, but I
guess it is already more colourful at that age.

Liisa Sarakontu                     INTERNET:    lsarakon at hila_hut.fi
Helsinki University of Technology   WWW homepage http://www.hut.fi/~lsarakon/