Loaches Online Forum

hi all
Emma said that she had put some striata in the big display tank at the shop as an experiment to see how good the growth could be.
as wev'e heard nothing on this experiment i thought i should enquire if there has been any developement.
i also tried virtually at the same time with Emma's and have found a very good growth rate with the majority of the striata but not all of them.
Andy ( piggy4) has seen the growth so far, and said they had a very good growth rate.

mick

Got some rough figures for us, Mick? "Good" is a little bit vague!

yeah i realised as soon as i wrote it, sorry bud.
when i first got the striata they roughly measured one and a half inches SL, now the largest of these is a group of six that measure 2.5 inches SL.
will have to check when i purchased them but it's only a matter of months .
have taken a pic with a smaller one from the same batch as a comparison.

mick

What diet are you feeding. Mine are very finicky but love cucumber more than anything.

they get mostly a meat diet with supplements of cucumber and zuccini,
they also get catfish pellets and spirulina flake,

mick

What size tanks are the Loaches in? How much competition for food? Are there any stresses such as territorial or aggressive fish? Are the water chemistries the same? Similar decor?

I would think that stress is a two-edged sword: Too much and the fish are producing too much adrenaline (if this is what fish do) that slows their growth. Their energy is being diverted away from growth and into 'fight or flight'.
Too little stress might be producing a 'hot house flower'... pretty to look at, but not strong enough to stand up to a possible disease threat, or the stress of changing tanks.

Diana, the tank is a 72x25x18 inch tank with an external filter plus a internal fluval 4 for circulation.
the striata's have to compete for food with medium sized barbs and full grown B darios, kubotai, and Y caudipunctata.
i wouldn't say they are stressed in any way, these fish can hold their own with nearly all the fish.

mick

from my tank the striata are pretty fiesty. In with dario, kubs, and a large rescued clown.
The mature dario used to rule the roost until the larger clown had enough. The largest of the striata goes head to head with the largest kub once in a blue moon. It doesn't win but it gets an +A for trying.

here's 3 pics i did earlier on , as a comparison i put one of the smaller striata in there.
as i said before the fish are to different colour backgrounds the tan fish being the best growers.
i checked how long ive had these fish, it's just over 4 mths.



mick

Beautiful striatas Mick!!!

Gorgeous!!

Oh my. Four months and it got that size?! I think mine are probably stunted then...

ive had mine maybe a year almost and they are not much bigger than when i bought them. the biggest is maybe a bit over 3".

That's a nicely coloured striata Mick. Mine tend more towards the colour of the smaller one. I have 10 of them in a 55 gal tank and they range from about 2-3.5 inches or so and most of them have very tight striping, making them look almost grey from a distance. Soon they'll be re-housed in a brand new 110 gal tank - can't wait.......

Mick, yours are lovely

have you had the darker couloured fish the same time as the lighter one? i think i have mainly the darker shade, although Fatty my biggest is the lighter shade. how many do you have?


some of mine havent grown much either. the yoyos can be a bit speedy when it comes to food with the smaller striata, so i feed lots of live food and pellets that get spread all over the tank so as everyone can get some. Fatty the biggest striata is the alpha loach though