Loaches Online Forum

Hi, I bought 4 of these yesterday. Does anyone have any information on how to keep these and what to feed them? Has anyone bred them as well?

Thanks

I have some and never see them. When I moved their tank to a different room I found them. By the next day they had figured out where to hide and were gone again.
Nice looking fish, but the most elusive I have ever kept!
Planted tank, rocks, soft substrate, Barbs and Danios as tank mates.

I have 4 of them too but see only 2 or 3 at any time, often just a tail or head peeking out. One hangs in floating plants with a couple kuhlis, one is often out along the side of the tank.

When I first got them about a year ago 2 maassi stayed together but the dominant one started to attack his "friend" & 2 small pangios. I had to move the victim. But later added all together again without issues.

Mine eat small foods, sliced bloodworms, Hikari micro bits, earthworm pellets, color bits. They lift their heads to sniff the water, grab the food & run for cover. Mine don't seem afraid of hands in the tank & need to be shooed away to clean inside their caves.

Hi saint_dracula,
This may be of interest/help: http://www.loaches.com/species-index/va ... lla-maassi. I have about 20, which share a tank with a large group of Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki. My V. maassi stay hidden for the most part, but when food enters the tank, they are very bold and will come out and compete with the Sids. I used to house both species separately, so I did ensure that the Vaillantella (which can be shy feeders) were happy feeding on small dried and frozen foods, before I combined the 2 tanks.
Emma