My Latest Acquisitions-Hillstream Loaches

Lupin

Hi fellow members.

It’s time I give you the chance to glimpse into my new acquisitions. It has been a long time since I have updated my tank.:) Remember though that our experiences are not always the same.:) I haven’t managed to take pics of my other 9 hillstream loaches. The pics here featured only two hillstream loaches as the rest are rather elusive although I managed to take pics of one of my hillies which I have yet to upload.

Hillstream Loaches(Beaufortia kweichowensis)
One of the hillstream loaches.
With Flash:




Don’t ask me why there are white splotches on the background.
No Flash:




Another Hillstream Loach which I think is one of the most beautiful loaches I got. She often changes from yellow to green. Powerhead is coated in red algae.










Here's the underside part of the Hillstream Loach. Not clear enough to see though. This hillstream shown is by far one of the few that sticks itself to the front glass.:) The rest just stuck themselves to rocks and back glass. Their markings make them easy for me to distinguish them.






No need to complain about the algae. I prefer to make my aquarium as natural as possible.;) Algae serves as food for my hillies and Siamese Algae Eaters.

Here are the other new fish I have.:)
Young Gold Ram




Third pic shows him with a Cardinal Tetra. Cardinal wasn't supposed to be on the pic but she managed to slip.


Microrasboras
Here are the Microrasboras. I haven't identified them yet. I tend to forget about it.

musho3210

aww blue, what happened to the photo quality

nice hillstream, i saw one at my lfs the other day

Falina

very nice - unusual fish! how many of them did you get?

Lupin

It's disappointing really.
11. I am supposed to have 12 but the last one seems to have fainted the moment it entered the plastic bag so I decided to give it a few more days in the lfs tank before it goes with me. It was being crushed by other hillies as they enter the plastic bag to be transported to my home. Funny though that the stupid hillie recovered fast enough when it was placed back to the tank again but this is frustrating because I don't want to waste my time just to get that loner anytime this week.

It seems I'm not satisfied with 12 just yet. So I'll touch my phone again to make a request to my friend to get more. I had already requested to him to find some Homaloptera species for me which he had last year but I wasn't interested back then. They are more slender in appearance hence the name 'lizard loach'.:)

Lupin

Sigh...This is the first time I ever saw them chasing each other on the bottom. It took them long enough to touch the bottom since they were introduced. I had been waiting for this but all they do is glide along glasses, rocks, woods, etc.

leifthebunny

Don't they require a heavy stream of water? They look really cool.

Lupin

They do which is why I find myself using my deadly powerhead.:) Deadly because it killed several tetras before but I locked the strainer with a tube from a sponge filter thus preventing the repeat of that incident.:)

On the side note, you'll need peat to lower the pH. There is a tendency for pH to rise because the extra oxygen needed by these fish often increases the pH. CO2 is useless as it will only be lifted out by the surface agitation.

They are indeed cool. What say we convert your 55 gallons to a river tank instead?

leifthebunny

LOL, currently I have a 90g in operation and after the countless hours of cleaning the **** substrate, I'll be damned if I'm gonna convert this one. :P The next one I am definitely going to do as a angel tank. I need to talk with the LFS but might go with a 65 instead as it takes up less space lengthwise (36" and juts out father versus 48"). I promised the GF I would get several fish which will work well in the tank. ;)

I've been reading about the river tank and I'm really interested in the outcome. Hillstream loaches have been on my watch list. If I hadn't planted my Hornwort directly below the outstream for my eheim, I bet I could have managed a couple. :P

Daz

Very different Blue :D sharper pics would have been nice.

Kathryn

Ah rigt, so Hillstream Loaches are your new "thing". :D
THey look lovely. Keep us updated. :)