Butterfly pleco?

[gomezladdams]

I got mine (hillstream loach) from an afrian cichlid dealerwhose water was even more alkaline than mine(8.2) and its lived at 80f+ for 2+ years.

Not saying you should go against the cold soft water theyre supposed to be in but like most fish if the waters clean and food is good theyre pretty hardy

 

[davo]

They are quite specialised fish, and the hotter temperatures makes them more suseptible to illness, and i guess death. The other problem people have with them is feeding, as they graze on algae and smaller organisms on rocks of high water movement. 2 years is a lot better i here than most, and of course theres an exception to every rule, but these are fish should probably last closer to 10. Probably not as drastic, but it's like keeping "converted" saltwater fish in freshwater, they last long enough to make you think they are ok, although that might not be the case.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Yes i agree with davo, hillstream loaches are specialised fish and do best in highly filterd "river tank" style set ups, which are sub-tropical in temp and have plenty of live algae growing on rounded rocks and pebbles etc in the tank. Hillstream loaches do well with other sub-tropical fish which love fast currents like many types of danio's and WCMM'ss (white cloud mountain minnows) and numerous other loaches etc.
I have a highly filtered sub-tropical tank at the moment going with 5 hillstream loaches in it and they are thriving well on the fresh algae in it, they are very entertaining intelligent little fish. They are numerous types of hillstream loaches though, the most commonly sold one, the butterfly one, tends to be the most specialised of them all though to keep.

 

[davo]

Funny that, there are so many other nice hillstream loaches. One day, i'll have a few different species (if i can find them).