Loaches Online Forum

I recently set up a Hillstream tank... I specifically have P. cheni. There are four, and I finally think I can for certain... possibly... say that there are 2 boys and 2 girls. LOL
I saw one boy chasing the other around 'his' rock today. Actually, I think he thinks the whole tank is 'his'. The other 2, that I'm pretty sure are girls due to lack of big nostrils and more concave shape, were under the bogwood watching the 2 boys make fools of themselves

My question, is this a good gender ratio? Should I be more female heavy? or more male heavy?

Thanks!

Hi Aminah,

I can't really make any definitive statements on the correct ratios with Cheni, all i can do is provide a little information regarding my experiences. We have 5 (adult) cheni, we suspect that there are 3 males and 2 females but are not completely sure ;-)

They have been breeding happily for the past few months. From that we have seen the alpha male is the defining force in the tank and will make sure everyone knows it by chasing them at every opportunity, expect to see a lot of interaction. IMO you need more than one male so that the alpha male will dedicate a chunk of time to harassing the other male to give the females some peace. This is not to say the alpha male will not chase and face off against the females, he will most of the time, but it should diffuse the aggression. Give them some nice smooth stones to dig under and i'm sure you will see some spawning. We first noticed mating behaviour in the tank after adding a large batch of new plants (cabomba, java fern and hornwort) but have no idea if this is relevant. I suspect that a raised temperature of about 26 centigrade will increase the chance of spawning (see Martin's thread on the effect of temperature on hillstreams).

After all this we have seen a lot of young fry, not all of them survived (we have probably lost whole spawnings) but there are now over 20 young fish in the tank.