Loaches Online Forum

I have a 48 x12x 18 tank sitting empty in my fish room and would love to turn it into a river bed tank for hill-stream loach.I had a pair 2 yrs ago that I loved watching but they quickly died! having read this forum i now know why. I understand the tank set up with the manifold system. what other fish could you recommend to go with the hill-stream loach as I would like something mid - upper water.

Hi jonboy8465, and welcome to Loaches Online.

There are lots of choices for the mid/upper levels of a typical river tank if you are not worried about any possible eggs/fry being eaten. Many of the Danio species are suited to this environment because of their preference for cooler than average temps and fast flow/high level of oxygenation. Have a look at Danio kyathit, D. choprai, D. nigrofasciatus, and D. sp. 'hikari' for starters. They are best in good sized groups, with 6 being the absolute minimum (10+ is much better). White cloud mountain minnows (Tanichthys albonubes) also do well in this type of aquarium, as do Vietnamese mountain minnows (T. micagemmae). Some members of the barb family would also make good candidates, such as Rosy barbs (Puntius conchonius) and Gold barbs (P. semifasciolatus, often erroneously referred to as 'P. schuberti'). The Red Line Torpedo barb (P. denisonii), whilst it would enjoy the temp and flow, really does require a much more spacious aquarium, so I would advise against those. Some of the Rasbora species, such as Scissortails (Rasbora trilineata) would also do well, but research other species carefully as not all do well in high current situations. If you weren't too worried about keeping the tank on an Asian theme, Red Phantom tetras (Hyphessobrycon sweglesi) and Rathbun's bloodfins (Aphyocharax rathbuni) would work.

Hope this helps,

Emma

Hi Emma many thanks for the reply. Ideally I would like to keep it in the Asian theme in one of my other tanks i have a shoal of Danios and they look great darting around everywhere so i think they might get moved across. The white clouds also look stunning. I will have a look at all the fish you have suggested to see what takes my fancy.I must keep a check on stocking levels as i might get carried away! or i could set up another tank!

beware of multiple tank syndrome, or MTS, its infectious, and can be spread via computer

|Ha Ha too late I already have 45 breeding tanks!!

Where are the pictures Jonboy? (gotta show them to my wife )

will see what i can do. Digi camera is broken so I need to see what i have on pc.

these were taken last year I have started to install an auto water changer and i will be changing the left side to racks to match the right to give me more room

Simply fantastic

I can see andre drooling...

I have white clouds in mine. They are feisty little buggers and seem to be tough as nails.

my stupid computer wont show me your pictures, but from what you said, my MTS warning was far too late which fish do you breed?

your not missing a lot, only a room full of tanks lol. at the moment I'm breeding guppies to pay for my hobby. I have just had some success with a pair of angel fish and i have no end of Ancistrus. I'm going to set up some display tanks for my self this time that's why I'm inquiring about the hillstream set up as they look fascinating. With any luck they might breed as well.

your pictures loaded today. i am very envious.

sadly i dont have hillstreams yet, but other people's tanks have been very enjoyable for me to watch.

In what part of the world are you if I may ask?

Thanks for your comments. Its been hard work and expensive [don't tell the wife] Today i got the first stage of my auto water changer working so i'm feeling very pleased with myself!! I live on the south coast of England just outside of Brighton so we have to buy all of our fish from shops as we don't have anything interesting to catch our selves from the wild. where are you all from? do you buy your fish or catch them from the wild? and what sort of setups do you all have