Loaches Online Forum

I have six of these little ones in quarantine right now, so I need to start thinking about setting up a permanent home.

I was thinking of putting them in my 55 with sids and rasbora espei, but I wanted to hear what people thought first. I know once they're in there, it will be nearly impossible to get them out, and they seem kind of feisty!

If I need to set up a new tank, what kind of footprint do they need? Would 30 inches be enough? River tank or just a couple of powerheads?

And tankmates - any suggestions there? Maybe cherry barbs or white clouds? I'm just worried about the schistura being too rowdy - I'm used to very mellow fish.

thanks everyone!

30" ought to be OK, but I would make sure there are plenty of rocks and things to provide hiding places and such.
I would go pretty close to a river tank for these guys.
You could try some higher swimming fish like WCM or Danios. I have found Schisturas to be more feisty to each other, not as much to upper level fish. Watch them, though, and if it looks like one (or more) is more of a bully than the other fish can handle you may need to remove that one fish.
I would not put them in a warmer tank or a slow water movement tank.

I have Endlers Livebearers in a 20 gallon long tank (30" x 12" x 12") with some fish that thrive in the streams. Darter Tetras and a few others. No Schisturas, though. I have one powerhead at the East end, and the filter (an Eheim) has the outlet at the East end, and both the inlets at the West end. A little slower than a 2-3 powerhead set up, but still a uni-directional set up. I have cobbles (rounded rocks about 3-4" diameter) and smaller pebbles. There are also plants in there, but they keep drifting to the West end. Substrate is Soil Master Select.

I have mine in a 20 long river tank with lots of flow and lots of places to hide, which they do most of the time. When they were small they would chase the gastromyzons around a bit but nothing harmful. Now they're fat and lazy and hide until there is food in the tank. I've had a few different schisturas now and these are the nicest so far.

Ok, thanks Diana, that's along the lines of what I was thinking. I probably won't go full river tank, partly because I have trouble keeping tanks below 80F anyway. Had to replace my glass tops with screens this summer, and put fans on timers!

I'll look into some of the danio species, but I really like the idea of WCMs.

plaalya, I'm excited at the idea of adding some hillstreams... we'll see how much current I can get going.