Hillstream newbie in need of input!

[robbanp]

Hello good folks!

A short introduction of myself since this is my first (hopefully of many) post on this forum: My name is Robert Paulsson, I´m 34 years old and live in the southernmost part of Sweden. I´ve been keeping fish for approximately 8 years divided into two periods. My old tank contains cardinal tetras, some algae eaters and a small bunch of sids. The new tank is meant to be the home of some Hillstream loaches.

The designated "hillietank" is a 112 liter (some 30 or so US gallons) Aquael package. Maybe a bit small to do anything really exiting with but an upgrade isn´t possible under current living conditions. The tank has been up and running for quite some time mostly inhabited by a lot of snails that regularly gets harvested for the sids in the other tank.
I have purchased and installed a powerhead (Aquarium systems New-Jet rated 400-1200 l/h, 106-317 USgph) feeding through a brick of that blue pond filter mat stuff in the opposite end of the tank.
Today I couldn´t keep away from buying fish anymore (I was going to post this questions (yes, there will be questions) before getting any fish but we´ve had a malfunctioning e-mail server so I havn´t been able to activate my membership here!) Anyway, my fishy options at the moment were two Sewellia lineolata in a shop that I prefer not to buy from; in the shop I prefer to buy from I could get four Homaloptera (probably confuza), a bunch of what was labeled Balitora burmanensis (but I think they look more like Homaloptera smithii but not quite) and two others that also came in as Balitora and look very nice: greenish with a pattern of circles on their back. Unfortunately they also had a batch of guppies in the Balitora tank which didn´t look well so the store keepers thought that we should wait a while to make sure they´re okay.
To sum it all up there are now tree (the fourth one looked a bit suspicious) Hemaloptera (confuza?) hanging in a bag in the tank.

Our water in this part of the country are quite soft, both KH and GH under 5, pH around 7 and no chlorinating. The substrate of the tank is a layer of nutrient enriched small gravel covered by a thin layer of larger rounded pebbles and a few larger stones and a beech branch. It is lightly planted with mostly slow growing plants and there are a few stones in a glass jar on the patio growing algae.

Now, to the questions (I hope you got through all of the text ok):
Does anything sound way of or have I got a good starting point for keeping a few Hillstreamers happy?
Regarding food: they will get algea wafers, maybe some shrimp pellets and frozen stuff. Souns good? Any recomendations?
Have I forgotten anything important?
Which of my fish options would you guys go for?
How many fish would I be able to keep in here?
Will my water circulation be enough? It´s not really enough to be called a river tank but I´ll probably add some more power in due time.

Unfortunately the camera isn´t at home and my photographic talent doesn´t even start to come close to most of the pics I´ve seen on this site but there will be pics in time.

Ok, time to let those saddlebacks loose.
Any input on my setup and questions will be appreciated.

[Jim Powers]

First of all, welcome and congratulations on your interesting hillstream finds.
Check out this article by Martin Thoene and then see if you have any other questions.
http://www.loaches.com/hillstream_loaches.html

[Martin Thoene]

Robert, please let me join Jim in welcoming you to Loaches Online.

I have to say that your post is a joy to read and I look forward to many more from you. It's really gratifying to see someone appear on LOL who seems to have done some good research before getting these type of fish.

We spend a lot of time directing people in the right direction who haven't researched and just bought some hillstreams because they looked "cute" or "different". Often the incorrect conditions kill the fish before the person can correct the problems.

Your setup sound pretty good to me. I'm sure that you'll enjoy the Homaloptera. You are maybe wize to be suspect of the shop with the Sewellia, but in your situation I would find them very tempting. They are fantastic fish and not difficult to keep in the right conditions.

Your water parameters should be just great for lots of fish. They tend to be quite easy to please when it comes to pH and other parameters.

Just need that OXYGEN, which your setup sound well equiped for, although I don't see an aerator in the list of equipment. I would add a long airstone or use the powerhead venturi if it has one.

Welcome aboard.....you have been assimilated

Martin.

[robbanp]

Thank you for your quick and friendly replies that makes me feel so welcome.

Jim: Yes, I've read it, and everything else I could find on the topic. Aside from this site the information available are pretty slim though. I actually found this place a few years back and read (probably the original version of) the river tank article and got inspired. Now, just a long week ago, for the first time I found these few interesting species in the shops around here and quickly decided to give it a try since I still hadn't really started to stock the new tank because I hadn't found what I wanted.

Martin, and everyone else of course: The new fish seem to have found the tank homely enough. Two of them are hanging out on the back glass where the flow is highest (I can see another power head in the future). One concern though is temperature, I hadn't really taken it into account but the power head seem to produce a lot more heat than the internal filter I had before, the temp are now on 26-27C, not extreme but not ideal either. I've opened up the lid just a little bit and lowered the surface to get more air circulation and as a bonus the outlet from the power head came closer to the surface so the surface agitation are a lot better (the design of the power head is far from ideal, it's probably designed to be used external).

Regarding aeration I've both seen and participated in discussions about the use of air stones and the sorts and usually the consensus tends to be that they don't do much good. It's all about surface agitation which they don't really add that much to. Sure, it can't hurt though and I might add one , if nothing else it might actually help with my temp issue since the room temp is a bit lower than the tank temp. It is by the way as warm as it gets around here right now so that should be a temporary problem.

[JoeKuhlii]

Regarding aeration I've both seen and participated in discussions about the use of air stones and the sorts and usually the consensus tends to be that they don't do much good. It's all about surface agitation which they don't really add that much to.

You can think of this in another way, where introducing bubbles into a high current enviornment will force them to break up and dissolve into the water column. This is not so different than CO2 methods using passive diffusors and current.

Also, bubbles in true river tanks looks badass. For example, check out Erik's 33gal here.

[Jim Powers]

I tend to use bubble wands like the ones made by Rena. They produce very fine bubbles that do create surface agitation and, as Joe Kuhli said, sure look "badass". Also, several of my hillstreams like to hide behind the bubble stream from time to time.
By the way, consider yourself VERY lucky to have found both Sewellia lineolata and H. confuzona. They are not that common and are coveted by all of us hillstream fanatics.

[Gary Herring]

Hi Robert,

Your set-up sounds great! Just a couple of things to chip in in addition to whats been said already:

I don't think you mention whether or not your tank is cycled - im assuming so becouse you said its been set up for a while, but its still worth mentioning that hillstreams are extremely sensitive to ammonia and nitrite, so it would probably be wise to keep an eye on the levels as you increase the population of your tank.

Regardind stocking levels, my main river-tank is roughly the same size as yours and i keep 5 Sewellia Linolata, 2 Beaufortia Kweichowensis (all are about 55mm +) and a small shoal of white clouds. Obviously it depends alot on your filtration (i have an external as well as the p'head intake), but IMO if well filtered you could have 8 - 10 hillstreams quite easily, as well as dithers. Good dither fish are (amoungst others) white clouds, most danio's and cherry, rosy or denisoni barbs - basically any river fish which likes high currant and cooler temperatures.

As for feeding, you will probably find that for the first week or two the sucker-belly type hillstreams won't eat anything you offer them and will only graze on algae and the micro - organisms within it. This is normal in the acclimatising period and as long as they are activly grazing over algae it is nothing to worry about. However, once they get a taste for them, hillstreams absolutely love frozen bloodworms and white mosquito larvae and you will probably find that the Homoloptera will eat these pretty much straight away. As well as this, i also feed mine on cat-fish pellets and farmed algae. Cucumber also is a particular favorite of my Sewellia Lineolata

As for the airation debate, just my opinion, but surely the bubbles themselves offer an air - water surface area for potential oxygen absorbtion? I think that couple of air wands creating a constant stream of fine bubbles should make a pretty significant difference to the overall dissolved O2 level in a river tank. Certainly won't do any harm anyway!

Congratulations on becoming assimilated!

Gary