Loaches Online Forum

I bought a hillstream a while ago and it lived in a tropical community tank for a while. Then I did some research and found that it is actually a cool stream fish. So I set up a cool high oxygen and currant tank for it. I belong to a few different forums and have run across several people that have theirs in a tropical tank. Once I commented on it and it wasn't taken well. The only difference I could think of is that the warmer temps would speed up its metabolism therefore shortening its lifespan. The only physical difference I noticed is it lightened in color dramatically with the lower temps. Does anyone have any input on this? Also what do these things eat? I have been feeding it Hikari sinking wafers and they seem to disappear.

There's info on feeding here:

http://www.loaches.com/articles/hillstr ... -fast-lane

.....plus pretty much what else you need to know. Temperature tolerance depends on country of origin and species. As long as they have oodles of oxygen most species can tolerate higher temps for a while but it's not ideal. It will increase metabolism which naturally increases oxygen requirements also.

Martin.

I'm new to hillstreams and have learned what I know here. My LFS keeps their tanks at 78 so when I recently set up my rivertank I started with that since that's what the fish had been living in. After I got them acclimated for a week or so I slowly lowered the temp to 72 since everything that I read said this would be better for them. At 72 my gastromyzons really seemed lethargic and much less active. So after a few days I slowly raised the temp back up to 76 where it is now and they're back to being active and seem very happy.

As Martin said, the temp. preference varies with the area of origin. We have found from people who have visited the habitat of these fish that, generally speaking, the gastromyzons and sewellia are found in warmer waters than the Chinese hillstreams.
I keep all of mine between 74-78F (preferably the lower end of the range) with plenty of flow and oxygenation and they are active and happy.

Ditto Martin. Warmer water holds less oxygen, so as long as there is enough water movement to replenish the oxygen then the somewhat cooler water species might be OK in a slightly warmer tank. However, I find it safer to keep fish in a tank that is maintained somewhere near the middle of a fish's tolerance for whatever parameter I am considering. This way, if an emergency happens there is some safety either way before the fish are endangered.