Please look and advise on my wish list

[phillarrow]

Hello everyone,

I've had a bit of general advice recently on my 4 foot hillstream project. Now, having finished THE book, done the plumbing and today taken a trip to BAS I am agog with excitement and I have my final wish list.

I would be really grateful if anybody would have a look and spot any glaring problems.

6 - 8 Mixed sucker-bodied hillstreams e.g. sewellia, gastros etc
1 Leptobotia guilenensis
1 Mesonoemachellus triangularis
3 - 5 Garra flava (?) flavatra (?) (Panda garra)
8 - 10 Barilius barna
5 or 6 Puntius denisonii

As I said, if you can see any glaring errors, or you simply have a better suggestion, please let me know - I'm new to loachaholism!

P.S. Set up the river manifold system today but can only find filter sponges for the inlet in bright blue. Would carbon sponges be okay or would they need constant replacement?

[plaalye]

Where are you phillarow? Here in the US I found some nice sponges at Home Depot, also at several online sources.
Age your tank as long as you can before adding the hillies and develop a good crop of algae and the organisms that grow on it. That is essential for feeding the hillstreams. Check out odysseys' recent threads on gobies and hillstreams.

[mickthefish]

he's somewhere in the north of england plaalye.
there's only one that could cause problems Phil, and thats the triangularis with the hillstreams.
i don't know much about Barilius but there are a few people kept them, they should steer you on the right track.

mick
ps, where've you seen the Leptobotia mate.?

[plaalye]

Ahh, no Home Depot up there i suppose

[phillarrow]

Yes I'm in the North of England - The Wirral. However, I think I've found suitable sponges on a specialist Koi site.
I'm afraid I've not actually seen the Leptobotia other than in the book - however BAS had almost everything else. I didn't have the book with me though and I'm new to this so can't be certain of IDs.
Shame about the triangularis, that was right near the top of my wish list.

[Martin Thoene]

Try Kettering Koi for intake sponges.......

http://www.ketteringkoi.com/acatalog/Fi ... locks.html

The Ref: 309100 sponge should work nicely.

I think that Leptobotia guilinensis is/was one of the import-restricted species in the UK, but a very reliable little birdie did inform us recently that there is some hope of a relaxation of rulings against certain temperate species being imported. Hopefully you can find this species as they do well in River-tAnks and mix well with sucker-bodied Hillstreams.

Martin.

[andyroo]

Stiphodon-type gobies. Beautiful, interesting and very good in high-current. Similar feeding to hillstream loaches. Also look into fan-shrimp.
A

[Emma Turner]

The L. guilinensis (if you can find them) need to be kept in groups of 5 or more, as they are very sociable and require company of their own kind. Most L. guilinensis imported to the UK turn out to be Sinibotia pulchra, a similar looking species which is a great addition to the river tank. Again, they need to be kept in groups of 5+.

My personal experience with mixing Sewellia and Gastromyzon is not good. I found that the Gastros were severely out-competed for food by the more pushy Sewellia. Other people may have different experiences with keeping these two types of hillies together though.

One other point, you'll need to ensure you have tight fitting coverslides with no holes where the equipment feeds in (block them up) as the Barilius and Leptobotia/Sinibotia will jump from an open tank.

Emma

[Mad Duff]

I agree with Emma bout mixing Sewellia and other hillies, I think its a mix of the Sewellia been more robust.

I mixed Sewellia with Gastro's and P. cheni and over a period of 4 to 5 weeks lost all of the gastro's and cheni, I put it down to a disease or something but I have since lost all of the A. zonalternans that I put in there afterwards and the zolts had started spawning so the conditions were fine.

[plaalye]

That's intresting. I've had similar experience in my rivertank. I've lost several gastromyzon, most notably the shy zebrinas, and have thought it was due to parasites so I treated with levamisole. Recently I've suspected that they were just not getting enough feed. A few of the larger ones that (I guess) have been able to stand up to the sewellias have done fine, but the smaller fish have succumbed. After reading odysseys' account of adding ferts to increase algae growth I'm going to give it a try. Maybe need to think about a new sewellia tank?

[phillarrow]

Martin, thanks for the link. Oddly enough I found that site last night after posting my wish list and intended to come on here to ask which one to buy. Thanks for saving me the trouble!

Emma and others, thanks for the advice about Gastros and Sewellia. As I am new to loaches I certainly won't risk that mix. The question is, how easy is it to get Gastros here in the UK? I've seen Sewellias in two shops along with a tank that simply said 'Mixed Hillstream Loaches', but haven't seen Gastros anywhere.

Bought the gravel today and set up the tank with water, pics to follow. As a rule I like to run my tanks on RO water and remineralise. Does anyone have a strong view as to what hardness I should be aiming for?

P.S. Thanks to everyone for the advice given so far. It's much needed and much appreciated.

[mickthefish]

Phil, i've just picked up three species of Gastros at BAS today mate.

mick
ps, there's still some in the tank, i think it's second to last isle.

mick

[phillarrow]

Mick, were they labelled as Gastros?

If so I must have missed them. I did see a tank labelled 'Mixed hillstreams' but am too new to this to be able to id them.

Do BAS often have them in stock?

[mickthefish]

yes bud they were labled as mixed hillstreams, did you see the adult sewelia that they had in, big and nice and best of all both sexes.
yes they get them in pretty often as does pier aquatics.

mick