Saw Sid But Didn't Get Him

[YellowFinned]

Pretty quiet at the market today, but one shop on the periphery had a tank full of Sidthimunki, about half a dozen inch and a half, and a couple of dozen small ones.

I would have got some till the girl told me the price. More than ten times the price of yoyos. A small shoal of sids would look nice in my planted tank, but I turned them down.

[piggy4]

Hi yellow finned , thats a good point , i dont know why either but , ever since Sidthimunki came back into the hobby about 15 years ago , they have commanded a high price , before , and upto their dissapearance in the early eighties , they were a fairly cheaply priced fish ! its a shame in a way , because they are a fish that should ideally be kept in a large group ! i.e. about twenty , not cheap to say the least , i suppose on the other hand people would make sure they looked after them carefully ! in a way i suppose there is a chance we might get more spawning reports , as people might keep them in sp/ tanks . in a way i dont understand why they are as highly priced, aren't most if not all hormone induced ? i'm not really sure about their wild status , i've heard they were extinct , then i heard there were small isolated populations , in the wild ?
In a way i don't agree with discussing prices on these sites , perhaps they are just a good looking fish and can command the price ! any way yellow finned i share your views , ha ha ha .

[YellowFinned]

I don't know if these are hormone bred or wild caught. The fish are not sold with the same common names here, and the shop girl described them as andaman piggy fish, as opposed to yoyos which are commonly described packy piggy fish.

Note, I will not give specific prices, but here I thought the relative pricing was relevant.

[Mad Duff]

Thats a real shame that the prices were so high, I currently have a shoal of 20 and they do look stunning in a big shoal. I have to admit that I got my group in two batches of 10 because I got my first group for around £3 each and the second group at around £2 each, the normal price is nearer £8 each.

[YellowFinned]

What are good loaches to mix with sids?

[piggy4]

Now thats an interesting question , with i would guess a few different , but relevant answers ! firstly i would guess they would ,as can be argued for most fish , be best maintained on their own , a sp/s tank , but in my experience , Sidthimunki is quite tough for its size , and would probrably be ok with similar sized fish , i.e . Nigrolineata , leconte , mortleti , and the like ! be careful if Mortleti are mixed with other fish though , as some people reguard them as a nuisance , and a fin nipper , not so much with other Thai Botias , but with mid water fish !

[Mark in Vancouver]

What are good loaches to mix with sids?

The best would be other sids. I have a batch of them that share the kuhli tank and everyone minds their own business. The feature of sids is that they can be kept in a slightly smaller tank than you'd need for lecontei or morleti. If you can find Y. nigrolineata, they would also work, but I for one have never seen them around here. I have also kept batik loaches with the sids and they did just fine - but ultimately sids need warmer water than batiks.

[Mad Duff]

What are good loaches to mix with sids?

Mine have a couple of Pangio's for company that they never seem to bother but they are probably the only other species of Loach that I would have with them to be honest. I would agree with Mark and say that the best tankmates for Sids would be other Sids.