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found this-
http://www.fishinthe.net/html/section-viewarticle-44.html

Found a tank of the Sidthimunki in a little shop around Portland Oregon last week, bought 3 right before I came across this post. Beautiful fish.

Clown loaches are bred in the aquarium trade using hormone injections. University of Florida was doing it 2 years ago.

Koi

:

"Botia macracantha are an important freshwater, ornamental fish available primarily from wild-capture fisheries. Little to no information exists in the literature concerning their reproductive development. Estradiol-17B injections, at 4 mg/Kg body weight were administered to 20 fish, every 7 days for two treatments, to initiate vitellogenisis. 7 days post treatment, blood was drawn from each fish using a cardiac stick. Vtg induction by E2 injections was confirmed using gel electrophoresis. Clown loach Vtg was isolated using double chromatography. A monoclonal antibody from carp (Mab 2D3) was determined to react quantitatively to Clown Loach Vtg. The clown loach Vtg was was quantified by sandwich ELISA using carp Mab 2D3, and verified by Western analysis and ELISA against male plasma and purified Clown Loach Vtg. A 12 week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate growth performance and hepatocyte change of juvenile Pseudotropheus socolofi and Haplochromis ahli fed existing commercial diets. Growth was significantly higher for fish fed a 52% crude protein, trout starter pellet, than a 45% protein, mixed flake diet. A 10 week feeding trial was conducted, feeding six formulated diets containing 32.5 - 58.8% crude protein. All diets showed similar growth, except the lowest protein level of 32.5%. A third feeding trial was conducted for 8 weeks using six formulated diets containing 50 or 32% protein, and a range of gross energy from 4,000 - 5,300kcal/kg. A diet of 36% protein at an energy level of 4000 kcal/kg was determined to be effective for juvenile production of these two species of fish. "

CRIS


Last edited by Koi Keeper at 07-May-2005 22:28

Empty chairs at empty tables, the room silent, forlorn.

Sneaky,

I made a thread in Photo booth with pics for you.

http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/Photo%20Booth/59130.html

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Bernard, a pic would be great, then I could keep an eye out for them, who knows, they may be listed as something different, or I may not even be able to identify them by sight. But then, usually the LFS here keep Boesmani in their own individual sale tanks, and it is always males I see.

Come Play Yahtzee With Me!
http://games.atari.com
Http://www.myleague.com/yahtgames

The problem with breeding loaches in captivity seems to be a matter of depth. Clown Loaches breeding has been studied in the wild and seems to occur at depths of up to 100ft. This is something that is impossible in home aquaria and simply not cost effective for fish farms to justify the building of suitable ponds. So don't expect anyone to crack this particular nut anytime soon.

Rainbows are a different story. Most Rainbows are unique to very specific areas. Boesmaniis for example are only found in 1 or 2 lakes in Irian Jaya (Papua). While easy to breed in captivity, releasing them into the wild would be difficult as the specific locations are very remote. This is why new Rainbows are discovered quite frequently. Find a new lake in Papua chances are you'll find a new Rainbow unique to that lake.

Strange to hear that it's difficult to find female Boesmani , there are readily available here. I've got a spawning pair (they are easy and very frequent spawners, unfortunately the SAE and Angel follow them everywhere, they know the signs, and snatch up the eggs before they hit bottom). Sneaky if you want a pic I can post one.

Last edited by bensaf at 05-May-2005 21:08

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

The article can be found at http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/show_article.php?article_id=188 -- and it also includes the revelation that -- along with a lot of other former "Botias" -- their genus name has now been changed (in this case to the mind-boggling "Yasuhikotakia":

"Common name: Dwarf chain loach
Scientific name: Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki
Origin: Laos, Cambodia and Thailand.
Size: 5cm/2”

"Notes: This tiny shoaling loach is endangered in the wild, possibly due to habitat damage from damming, and is protected in Thailand. The fish has only recently become available again and is being farmed commercially. It’s normally found in still water, flooded fields and forest, and feeds on plankton in midwater.
Price: Around £5-10, but should be kept in a group."

I myself have only seen them for sale three times in 17 years in central California (which is a pretty good locale where fish-species availability is concerned). A single one turned up just a few weeks ago at my LFS and went for about $10.

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that my alarm was apparently a bit premature. (One thing that jumps out at you shockingly when you look at that "Redlist" of endangered species is how many amphibians are now in the process of going under -- no other type of living thing, either plant or animal, even comes close, although birds seem to be a very poor second.)

They are bred using hormone injection. I have 9 of them myself.

If true, huzzah!

I read in the September 2004 issue of Practical Fishkeeping (p. 7) that dwarf loaches have started to become farmed commercially and that they will start to become available again. I hope that's true, because I would love to have some of the little guys in my aquarium.

I believe that one major problem in breeding Loaches is that they tend to prefer muddy bottoms, which are hard to maintain in a small tank. (For this reason there has been almost no breeding even of Clown Loaches.) I wouldn't think it would be impossible, though.

As for where Botia sidthimunki lives: it's Thailand.

Thats a good article Clown Loach fan.
I have known for a long time that Bala Sharks are captive bred, though there are many people on this site who will still argue that fact.
It is a shame that some fish, such as the Boesmani rainbow, are in danger of extinction, not really because of over exploitation as is normal, but because they only harvest Male fish, and usually toss females back. A lack of male fish in the breeding population has resulted in the population to plummet dramatically. I have still not seen a picture of a boesmani female, and have no luck of getting any, as my pet stores have all told me "they just dont ship us females, and say they dont have any".
What a shame, at least if they sent some females, perhaps some of us could breed these wonderful fish, and possibly save them from extinction.
I wonder if there have been any attempts to release some captive bred fish back into the wild, as with other endangered animals. I think this would be a very good plan.


Come Play Yahtzee With Me!
http://games.atari.com
Http://www.myleague.com/yahtgames

I was stunned to learn recently that the Dwarf Loach (Botia sidthimunki) is now listed as a seriously endangered species -- more due to habitat destruction than to collection -- and that no one has yet learned how to breed it in captivity (unlike the Red-Tailed Shark, which is now totally extinct in the wild). This explains why Sidthimunkis are so rare in the stores, but it also leaves us with a duty: to try to figure out how to breed this charming little fish in captivity and thus save it from total destruction. Get cracking, people.

Hell all. Hasnt anyone went out to Borneo or Sumatra(in the clown loaches case, or wherever the dwarf loach comes from) and recorded conditions throughout a year or at least the rainy season(which i believe is the breeding season) such as Temperature, hardness, ph, nitrates, dissolved organics, oxygen levels, etc. Also, if we want to breed certain types of fish, shouldnt we set their tank up as it would appear in their natural enviroment? Well, theres my 2 cents. I will try to find some links of picture of natural habitats.

One of our Swedish board members has sidthimunki. Perhaps someone should PM him and point him here. A first aquarium spawning of this species reported here on the board would really constitute a major merit star - and pull in all manner of other experienced aquarists to join our throng and try replicating the success with sidthimunki and other Botia species. Worth a try, I think!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

"Sneaky Pete" is right -- the Red-Tailed Shark now survives only in captivity, although there seems to be a good breeding population of it there. Something very similar happened to the Bala Shark, although I understand there are still a few of those left in the wild.

My scan of endangered fish species in the IUCN "Red List" ( http://www.redlist.org/ ) doesn't seem to show any other aquarium fishes in as perilous a position as the Dwarf Loach, although other people may see some candidates. Anyway, I've wondered for years why Dwarf Loaches almost never turn up in the stores, and now I know. I really think this should be a high priority for the aquarist community.

From the Pulling the Trigger article, by Randy Carey. This was featured in the January 2005 issue of Tropical Fish Hobbyist.

Lucky with Loaches
Loaches very seldom spawn in the home aquarium. In the wild they spawn annually- after going through extreme seasonal changes. My research led me to two aquarists who have repeatedly spawned loach species, and in each case success was earned by months-long winterization of the breeding specimens. A missing piece in the loach puzzle seems to be this extreme seasonal change- something that does not occur in the home aquarium.
Sallie Boggs, a retired professor and longtime aquarist from the Pittsburgh area, has spawned four species of loaches. Her initial success came by accident when she threw some dojo loaches Misgurnus fossilis into a pond and found fry later in the season. This discover piqued her interest, for she had had no success in previous attempts at spawning these same specimens in her tanks. After speculating about the conditions of the pond, Boggs retried a tank spawning. The proven specimens were winterized and virtually ignored in a cool part of the Boggs’ basement. Some time later she transferred the loaches to tropical conditions with frequent water changes and feedings of live worms, and the dojos spawned.
When Boggs found the loaches spawning, they were laying eggs near the output of a power filter, so she turned off the filter. Interestingly, as soon as the water flow stopped, so did the spawning. Likewise, when the flow resumed, so did the egg laying. Obviously, a strong water current provides another important requirement for dojos.
Having been rewarded with a rare loach spawn, Boggs applied the technique of seasonal changes to other loaches. As previously stated, so far she has spawned four loach species.

Adapting & Expanding
Dean Marjorino, current president of the Jersey Shore Aquarium Society, recalls a public talk in which he heard Boggs describe her experiences with spawning the weather loach Misgurnus anguillicaudatus. Her experiences motivated Marjorino, who also had discovered loach fry in a pond. His discover came in May after the adults had endured an unseasonably cold spring. Consequently, Marjorino developed and applied his own technique for simulating a seasonal change- a technique that has rewarded him with spawns from multiple loach species. Marjorino’s technique has yielded spring spawns of the weather loach for each of the past few years. Being a European species, the loach can tolerate much more severe weathering, so Marjorino drops the temperature into the 30s, conducts no water changes, and provides little light. He transitions the fish over a month to 70 [degrees] F, fresh water, live worms, and lighting extended to 14 hours per day. With all of this conditioning in place, the introduction of a fast current triggers the spawn. As long as the aquarist undertakes all of this preparatory work, Dean considers this species to be an easy and reliable spawner.
Marjorino’s spawn of the cherry fin loach Acanthocobitis rubidipinnis, despite being accidental, suggest that some seldom-spawned species are triggered by the “smell” of other fish spawning. When Marjorino removed weather loaches from the tank in which they just spawned, he was shocked to discover two specimens of cherry fins in the same tank. The only way these small specimens could have entered the tank was when the aquarist added the plants- weeks before the weather loaches were added.
A month after the spawn, Marjorino realized that half of the developing fry were a different species. Because the cherry fins had been in the tank weeks before the weather loaches , and because all the eggs were found at the same time, one wonders if the spawning of the weather loaches might in some way have triggered the cherry fins to spawn.


"one wonders if the spawning of the weather loaches might in some way have triggered the cherry fins to spawn."

Fish can smell/sense other fish spawning, and are often induced into spawning just by this. Corydoras catfish have been confirmed to spawn after smelling other cory spawns, and I believe angelfish have as well.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Red Tail Black Sharks are extinct in the wild, but survive in the aquarium trade because people/breeding companies are able to breed them readily.
There is a booming supply of RTBS because of the breeding efforts.
Thats why we should try to save the Dwarf Loach by breeding the little guys, then at least they will be still around even if its in captivity!


Come Play Yahtzee With Me!
http://games.atari.com
Http://www.myleague.com/yahtgames

Slightly (but only slightly) off tangent question.

If the Red Tailed Black Shark is extinct in the wild, how come they're still turning up in pet shops? Has someone set up breeding ponds for them in Singapore for example?

And, if so, is this approach likely to work for Botia sidthimunki?


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I know its hard, and thats to bad but we can try!!

I'd love to see that article.

Angel Eel