Chinese hi fin banded loaches at Fish Story

[thebiggerthebetter]

The end of Panda. Josh from the OFR said they keep multiple hi fin Chinese banded sharks at 85F year round, so I was encouraged to try this with Panda too but one month at 86F killed it in our hands. There could have been other reasons but I am sure it was the temp.

5yo 16 inches

 

[jjohnwm]

Sad to hear about the passing of one of my favourites among your collection; a quiet and undramatic fish but still charming. We sometimes get fish that seem problematic, but once they get over the initial "hump" of difficulties and settle in we tend to become complacent and assume that everything is good. Then something like this occurs and jars us back to harsh reality. The moral here: never relax!

I wonder how many of the other keepers who have long-term success with HiFins are in reality only a degree or two of temperature away from a similar disaster? Or maybe the issue is diet; there are tens of thousands of species of freshwater algae in existence. Perhaps this fish requires a certain type for proper nutrition in the long term, and it's luck of the draw whether or not a given pond or tank contains the right stuff?

My own HiFin, Dracula, was moved into my single inground pond a few weeks ago and is seen only occasionally but seems to be doing great so far. The pond is unfiltered and becomes quite warm at the surface but remains much cooler at the bottom; it's not overcrowded and I have managed to avoid falling into the current worry-trap here on MFK regarding dissolved oxygen levels.

Viktor, if you can manage to keep one of these guys for months at a time, year after year, at the mid-80's...I am hoping mine can make it through at most a couple of months up here in the height of the Martian summer weather.

 

[latapy10]

The end of Panda. Josh from the OFR said they keep multiple hi fin Chinese banded sharks at 85F year round, so I was encouraged to try this with Panda too but one month at 86F killed it in our hands. There could have been other reasons but I am sure it was the temp.

5yo 16 inches

It is a colder water fish for ponds. It is definitely easier to keep it healthy in Canada. The problem is the water temperature.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

From YT:

SushicideTFT: Yes they are a temperate species with a clear prefenece for cooler water and high oxygen levels.The specimen at OFR look similar to this one, they look a little off compared to the large specimens I've seen in German ponds before.The ones kept at cooler temperatures appear to show a healthier growth with the typical body proportions you see online.A large setup with several 1000 gallons with a chiller (I don't even know how expensive that would be in FL) and alot of water movement would be ideal.It's like with Siniperca chuatsi which I have kept before at room temperature to a maximum temperature of 25°C, I transferred my specimen to a larger tank running at 27°C and it stopped eating and started developing skin issues which would disappear after moving it to a cooler tank.I know a guy who has kept Siniperca chuatsi in a tank located in his barn with no isolation and they were thriving.

Fish-Story: Thank you, helpful and interesting info. Perhaps there is something to your observation of the OFR and our hi fins having an odd shape vs those kept in proper cool water.Yes, mandarin perch has an even lower tolerance for warm water by about 5 C vs the hi fin. It's a fish we definitely couldn't keep without a strong chiller, having tried twice. What do you think was the high temperature those chuatsi in the barn tank were exposed to?

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

From YT update on Jack's hifin in Colorado

Fish-Story: Thank you. How have yours been doing?

Jack-gh3vs: Mine is still chugging along. Very slow growing, as you know. I want to figure out a good food I could get down to him, but I think my koi will just eat up everything I put in the pond before he can get to it. He seems to be living off just the algae and whatever else naturally grows in the pond just fine for now. Our air temps here in Colorado have been regularly hitting high 80s, low 90s. The pond has a lot of lily pads covering it, along with being in ground, so the temperature doesn’t quite reach that high. Then again I haven’t tested the water temps, so I could be wrong.