Tropical Fish Keeping - Aquarium fish care and resources

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- - New Loaches and Encounters (http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/cyprinids-atherinids/new-loaches-encounters-13646/)

New Loaches and Encounters

When I went to the LFS owned by my friend, I was shocked to see a tank containing the Yasuhikotakia modesta and Syncrossus (berdmorei would be my best guess at the moment) in chaos. One glass catfish was dead and the Yasuhikotakia modesta are happily gnawing at the corpse. The remaining five were seriously injured. I asked the employee when has he ever seen the glass catfish in their miserable state. When he answered "today", I almost lost control of my temper and told him to move the glass catfish to another tank immediately. The tiger barbs were moved in the tank with loaches and rainbow sharks. He was already speechless by what I was telling him to do. I told him that the stocks were mixed in the wrong way and I already knew the tiger barbs are much more able to cope with the aggression compared to the glass catfish. Besides, if the tiger barbs weren't moved out of the way, they would eventually harass the glass catfish to death in turn.

After everything was done to my satisfaction, I looked over another tank and was surprised to see lots of blue rams once again. They're available mostly at this time of the year.:mrgreen: I wanted to get some again when I saw some hillstream loaches streaking across the back covered by cabomba. I immediately fell in love with them.:love: I have to admit I have been looking for these for a year already! Besides the Beuafortia kweichowensis, how could I pass off the opportunity to get what I believe at the moment are Gastromyzon stellatus?:welldone:

In the end, I went home with 4 hillies, 3 modestas and 3 tiger loaches in tow.:welldone:

Once a loachaholic, always a loachaholic.8)

Hillstream loaches seem really interesting to me, but because of their unique environment, I don't really know what'd make good tankmates. Chinese Algae Eaters would probably do well in that environment, but I never want to own one of those fish. White clouds would probably work too. What else?

Quote:

Originally Posted by iamntbatman

Danios and rasboras can work along with torpedo barbs. What size is your tank? Chinese algae eaters are not community fish. They are very aggressive.

P.S. The tigers don't look like Syncrosssus berdmorei as guessed earlier. They look like Syncrossus hymenophysa. We'll see...

I just realized Syncrossus berdmorei is not available in the trade. Besides, the color patterns weren't close to it as I thought they were.

Do you have any pics yet?

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmelissa82

Do you have any pics yet?

Not yet. I don't have the camera yet.:lol: My loaches are still recovering from the stress brought by travel.

Update...The Yasuhikotakia modesta are eating voraciously but all these Syncrossus do is streak around and hover over cobbles chasing each other away.:roll: I guess I'll have to learn to be patient until they eat.

On the other hand, I'll get 5 more Syncrossus along with 5 Yasuhikotakia modesta.:lol: The Grrr tank is under renovation. New filter, new caves, etc to boot.:twisted:

As far the hillstream loaches are concerned, they're doing well so far in another tank but haven't eaten yet. Quite understandable though as they're still adjusting to their environment. The old Beaufortia kweichowensis are chasing the new chaps around cobbles.:lol:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lupin

Oh, if I were to get hillstream loaches, I'd set up a biotope tank for them. Probably in a 20 or 30 long with double filtration and maybe even powerheads all at one end of the tank pushing the water to the other end. Tons of driftwood and rockwork would finish it off. Maybe some day...

So, it appears after a series of confusion and anxiety that the tiger loaches are Syncrossus helodes. Funny they seem tame at the moment though they'll eventually gather courage to bully each other once they are confident enough. It's the Yasuhikotakia modesta who are on the move nipping everyone.:shock: I added plenty of boulders and they are burrowing under them.

I still need to get the pics and I haven't yet.:evil: Add to my woes is I have not changed my ugly tank background to black for the Grrr tank. Even more, my friend is about to close his second petshop where I always shop so my loach supplies will be limited soon.:? I'll have to gather as many loaches and other exotic fish as I can and while we're here, he promised to give me some of his stands and tanks so I'll have enough space to accommodate more loaches. At the moment, I am still negotiating the bargains on this stuff.;)

P.S. It doesn't end here yet. I'll be getting 6 more Yasuhikotakia modesta.:lol:

I love hillies! My LFS always has a few and they're very cool?

Are you doing a biotope for them? I was just thinking how well some Garras would do in a tank with hillies as they are both subtropical river creatures. I'm sure you already know that, but it's my two cents. Plus, I love my Garra Flavatra, even though he freaks me out when he sucks on my arm. (I swear, my water changes would take half the time if I didn't constantly have to chase him off.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lupin

Very cool, Lupin my friend. I don't need pictures to visualize. You'll soon be up to your nose in 'em. You're going to have to change your nick to Cobitid Man :). And I'm very impressed you can reliably spell 'Yasuhikotakia', but I'm gonna call them Botia modesta because I'm just plain stubborn about it. Guess I'll have to stick with just my leconte, dario and histeronica tribes and leave it at that.
How many modesta do you have now, anyway?

Dave