Hillstream Loaches

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BuffaloPolypteridae

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 5, 2013
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Buffalo
I just found these guys doing some research on cleaner fish, and I think I'm going to pick a couple spotted hillstream loaches from *****************, anyone have experience with these fish or that supplier? I will be using them in my breeder tank for the algae, if they get large enough they may well go in my pred tank but I don't think so. They look wild, like little stingrays almost haha

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Oops didn't realize I couldn't post the site sorry guys haha

Anyone own these? Or think they're capable of sucking the slime coat off my fish? (Ornate bichir, red hi fin wolf fish)

Attached a pic in case no one recognizes the name

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They like cold water more, and if in warm water you need to make sure the water is well oxygenated. They also like fast flow. I have some in a species only tank, it has a turn over rate of about 30 times the water volume.
 
Hoplo said:
They like cold water more, and if in warm water you need to make sure the water is well oxygenated. They also like fast flow. I have some in a species only tank, it has a turn over rate of about 30 times the water volume.
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Ah, finally someone on here who has them! The breeder tank has a good flow rate, about 20 x volume I believe, about what would you recommend? I get oversized air pumps for all my tanks as it is, to cut down on the heterotrophic (sp?) Bacteria blooms so thats good to know. Have you ever kept them with anything else? They are neat little fish, I may have to start a specie tank for them if I can't comm them. Very unique looking, must be awesome to have a specie tank do you have pics posted anywhere?

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Don't have any pictures of fish in it, but here is some of when I set it up.

And in the tank: (excuse the bad photo)


So my first though was just to have the bottom river stones so it was a fast flowing river look, but once I had found the stones in the garden and put them in I found it looked horribly out of proportion:


So instead I went for a different design:



I had two sorts of gravel that I could use, I chose the large one, but do people think I should use the small gravel?


Tank with stones in it, (sorry about blur):


And view with it full of water:





And bonus view of what it looks like from the back (my bed):

 
great lil' algae eaters.. imo one of the best... as stated they love flow and cooler temps.. I kept mine in a tropical tank and he killed the other one I had this is in a 40B.. he also harassed more docile fish. my cory cats and bn pleco mainly occasionally other fish that got to close or came in to feed on an algae wafer he was munching on ect... not sure how they would do w/ larger predetors as mine got barely 2" in the 2yrs I had him. But they are FAST.
 
Wow that's a neat lil tank! I would have stayed with the large ones, so the loaches couldnt swallow any smaller ones (not sure how big their mouths get so could not have been an issue). Must look great stocked, did a good job of recreating the river bottom for sure!

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MonsterMinis said:
great lil' algae eaters.. imo one of the best... as stated they love flow and cooler temps.. I kept mine in a tropical tank and he killed the other one I had this is in a 40B.. he also harassed more docile fish. my cory cats and bn pleco mainly occasionally other fish that got to close or came in to feed on an algae wafer he was munching on ect... not sure how they would do w/ larger predetors as mine got barely 2" in the 2yrs I had him. But they are FAST.
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Hmm if they are fast enough they may stand a chance haha I was hoping for them to get bigger at least like 5 inches. As I said before if it wont work I'm thinking of doing a lil species tank in this old 80s metachrom tank (the ones w/slate bottom and metal corners) should look pretty neat. Gotta get my other projects done first though haha.

My mollyss and geos should do fine with him as they will be the only others in the tank, along with a red tail barracuda grow out (probably will only be in the breeder for about a month, he's gotta gain a few inches to avoid being ornate bichir food)

In your exp with comming them MonsterMini, were they say aggressive to the point it may stop live bearer fish from breeding? That's my main issue, I breed mollies and fancy guppys (as of earlier today for the guppys) in the breeder where I would put a couple of these loaches. Also, did you ever observe them sucking the slime coat off other fish?



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