[Shovelnose]

Is it possible to get a copy of this?

[Shovelnose]

If you are looking for something beyond the ordinary, maybe Nandus nandus or N.andrewi? The hard part would be feeding them. 

[Shovelnose]

“Roosterboy said:
And if you guys feel that Hara could work in a tank with moderate flow then I have some thinking to do here!

Hara do not require heavy flow actually, they do very well in a tank with moderate flow, well filtered water and good DO. Fish like Hara jerdoni and Erethistes pussilus are usually available on a regular basis. What is sold as H.hara usually tends to be Erethistes pussilus. 

Rama too are an excellent choice as coelacanth has suggested. I kept these in a small ‘biotopish’ tank along with some small cyprinids.

[Shovelnose]

Yup, the primary difference is in the lateral line, complete in P.expletiforis and incomplete in P.conchonius. PM your mail to me, I can forward the paper to you if you want it.

[Shovelnose]

Pictures of the specimens (specimens of even 1″ TL carried spots) from 2014 were taken immediately after collection, hence none of the specimens seem to sport stripes. Pictures of the 2015 lot were taken a long time after they were collected hereby leading to stress colouration. 

[Shovelnose]

Many small barbs were collected;ticto,cochonius/expletiforis and sophore were the most common of the lot.

 

A couple of terrible cellphone pictures of a conchonius/expletiforis that didn’t survive the (north Indian) summer of 2014.

 

An interesting looking Pethia from the Kosi river collected a few months back.

[Shovelnose]

These banded Schistura can be a nightmare to id at times,there’s just too many of them.

 

Now for a species that was available only during spring each year. These were collected by the hundreds during this time and were otherwise never available.  I believe the stripes are a result of stress.

 Schistura corica

Collected in 2014

 

Collected in 2015

 

I also managed to collect this species in Nepal during one of my trips but all I have is a terrible picture of a very forlorn looking specimen.

[Shovelnose]

The badid is Badis badis.

 

Now for a commonly encountered barb, freshly collected P.conchonius (in life). I don’t see why we need any colours other than silver on barbs. 

 

 

[Shovelnose]

“Matt said:
Do you know if anyone is working with Indian botiids at the moment?

 

I do not know of anyone working on Indian botiids presently Matt. 

 

Another Schistura from the Ganges drainage. 

 

 

 

 

[Shovelnose]

The Botia were collected from the Ganges drainage in Uttar Pradesh, around 200 kms south of Almora. I think  Botia cf.almorhae is the safest id at this point??? 

[Shovelnose]

The Garra is unidentified while the Chagunius keys in perfectly to Chagunius chagunio.

 

Next comes Puntius guganio. I think it has entered the trade in the past???

 

 

Some of the specimens were much larger than I expected actually. These were collected in large numbers during monsoon and in ones or twos otherwise. 

[Shovelnose]

These are the Chagunius I was talking about earlier, the purple on the snout has actually faded quite a bit and was way more vivid in life. I will get pictures of live specimens when I am there again in May.

 

[Shovelnose]

@Thomas said:
The guntea looks more like a male to me. Females are more mottled
Thanks a lot of your work!

No problem Thomas. Right you are, it is indeed a male, I mixed up spots and stripes. 

 

Next comes one of my favourite genera, Botia. To be honest, I haven’t kept many species as I primarily keep bagrids and all my tanks are “bottom heavy” as it is. I have kept B.dario ,B.almohrae  and these specimens I managed to collect. I collected only 2 Botia specimens in the two years I was there, I guess this is due to the nets I used (dip nets) more than anything.

 

The smaller specimen.

 

The larger specimen.

[Shovelnose]

Thanks for the ID Thomas. There were two other Lepidocephalichthys species I managed to collect up north. One was the ubiquitous L.guntea while the second species was more interesting. It seems to match the L.cf. annandalei you refer to and was collected from near the Nepal border (Ganges drainage again). Two specimens were collected and sadly, the fish bag fell into the river when I was collecting, so I don’t have pictures of this species. 

 

 

Female L.guntea.

 

 

The habitat, a small paddy field canal behind my home.

[Shovelnose]

I was thinking L.berdmorei too but the distribution threw me off, there is one more Lepidocephalichthys found downstream of where this species was collected. A few horrible phone camera pictures are all I have presently.

 

 

Pictured here with P.mackenzie.

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