Finespot hillstream loach

Sewellia analis

Also known as Finespot sewellia

FreshwaterFish

Care at a glance

Temperature: 68–75°F (20–24°C)
pH: 6.5–7.5
Adult size: 2.4 in (6 cm)
Minimum tank: 24 gal (90 L)
Temperament: Mostly peaceful
Social behavior: Social
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Difficult
Breeding: No record
Rarity: Rare
Origin: Central Vietnam
Family: Gastromyzontidae

Overview

A Sewellia, kept like the well-known tiger hillstream loach: a small, disc-bodied grazer for a cool, oxygen-rich tank with real current. Keep a group of five or six, and expect males to hold favourite stones and shimmy at neighbours in low-key display contests that rarely turn serious. Most of its food is grazed biofilm and algae, so give it a mature tank, then add fine sinking foods, crushed wafers, and small frozen foods that sink to the floor. Tankmates should be small, peaceful fish that share its love of fast, cool water. A tank of around 90 liters suits a group and a boulder field for them to graze.

In the wild

Sewellia analis lives in clear, fast torrents in central Vietnam, running cool and highly oxygenated over broad stones. Give it the full river-tank treatment: 20 to 24 C, strong laminar flow, and oxygen kept high with brisk surface movement. Furnish it with smooth, flattened stones for grazing and perching, a fine substrate, and hold pH between 6.5 and 7.5.

Good to know

Sewellia is a genus of Vietnamese and Lao hillstream loaches in the family Gastromyzontidae, named for the British naturalist R. B. Seymour Sewell. This species reaches about 6 centimeters and was described by two Vietnamese researchers, Nguyen and Nguyen, in 2006. Its own spawning has not been recorded in tanks, though the genus as a whole breeds readily.

Did you know

The trade calls it the finespot loach for its dusting of small dots, but the scientific name analis points elsewhere entirely: to the unusual forward position of its vent, set close to the anal fin.

Tank mates

Finespot hillstream loach is a mostly peaceful, social species that keeps to the bottom. These picks match on water type, temperature, pH, size and temperament.