Years ago when my husband and I first got together (we've been together for 10.5 years) I accidentally found a dojo at a pet store while looking for something else, and immediately fell in love and brought him home! I had no idea what loaches were at the time and the pet store guy only told me he could live in a community tank with normal ph parameters, etc.
This guy ended up growing to about 8 or 9 inches, lived with us for several years (don't remember how many exactly), lived very peacefully with my community in either my 30 or 55 gal (I moved the fish to the bigger tank at some point). He was quite a hoot and I was totally enamored with him the entire time. Sure, I had prettier fish, but none with his personality!
So following the normal course of events we got married, moved to another state, bought a house, and started having children, and the fish tanks were either sold or put in storage.
My two 55's are still in storage and it's killling me!Recently I decided my 5 yr old and 2 yr old would appreciate looking at a fish tank (we already have a dog and a cat) so I set up a little 10 gal that my sister gave to us.. I should have known better.. I got bit by the bug again!!! I've been driving my husband CRAZY since!!! I have acquired 3 x 20 gals and one 32 hex (that we are restoring) in the past month alone! LOL I've been bugging him daily to get my 55's out of storage, but I may have to wait a bit on that.
I also drove him crazy searching for that same "weather loach" I had all those years ago.. I didn't know it was called a dojo.. after a couple of weeks I found some at a Petco and bought two. I was SO EXCITED!!! I brought them home, put them in the 20 with some community fish, and one of them did not survive an adventure into a filter (my cat stepped on the power strip, turning off the corner filter, he evidently crawled into the hole while there were no air bubbles coming out, and I didn't find him until 3 days later)
~still heartbroken over that~The survivor has been with us now for about 3 weeks and is growing quickly. I will be moving him into the 32 gal once we get it done.
I just recently got 3 kuhli's for the 10 (but they are only waiting for me to set up the sand tank in another 20 gal) but unfortunately one did not survive an ich outbreak.
I will be looking for a couple more kuhlis next trip to the fish store.Is it possible to house dojo's and kuhli's together, or will the little guys get eaten?
Sorry my intro was so long and rambling, I'm just so excited to find others that love loaches as I do!!! The more I learn about them, the more I love! Thanks to the internet so much information is available to me now.
One more question: I'm seriously thinking about doing an all loach tank in one of the 20's.. what would be nice to have in there, do you guys suggest? My only problem is I live in northeast PA in the middle of nowhere and is sometimes hard to find things.. I hate the idea of mail order, but is that a safe option for me? I've never gotten fish thru mail order before, it makes me so nervous for the fish!!
Ok I'm really going to end this post now. I promise all my posts won't be this long!!!
It is a fun forum with a lot of very knowledgeable and helpful folks- you'll never go wrong here.
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