Loaches Online Forum

Are Gastromyzon punctulatus and G. ctenocephalus the same species?
I read somewhere on the internet that this is one and the same fish, while a nother site claims there are difrent species.

I will soon get my hillstream loaches and in Slovenia they are very rare. A pet shop got them, but has mixed species. there are at least two species( Gastromyzon ctenocephalus and Gastromyzon ) and i want to have a group of 4. I have in my tank the condicions they want. They will live with white clouds and my shrimp and snails. the tank has also mave plants (strong ones, couse the reast would be torn out of the gravel).
I wonder one thing could there be problems if I put into the tank 3 G. ctenocephalus and one G. ocellatus. Both are really cute .
the temperature in the tank is through most of the year 22 °C, sometimes in the sumer it gets to 25 or 26 °C. Could this be a problem?
Also why doeas it say on one site that they are aggresive and on the other that they are not and live in small groups?
Please someone answer my questions.
Oh and if there are any mistakes in the text, sorry I come from a country that doesn't speak english.

For many years, several of the Gastromyzons were not identified correctly in most books and websites. In the last few years Dr. Tan properly identified many Gastromyzon species. What had been called Gastromyzon punctalatus, has now been properly identified as G. ctenocephalus.
You should have no problem keeping various species of Gastromyzon together. Most people who post regularly on this site and keep hillstreams, keep several Gastromyzon species together. I can't explain why another website says they are aggressive. Use the information on this website and you can't go wrong.
Your temperature range sounds fine for Gastromyzon. Just make sure you have good oxygenation of the water.
Good luck!!

thanks you for the reply
Don't worry i will only ask questions here. In Slovenia these fish are really rare as pets and most people don't know much about them, except that they like cold water and strong current. Also a big problem are out pet shop who sell all these loaches under strange names that translated would mean chinese sucker or. chinese kissfish.
my tank has probably much oxygen, couse my filter has a strong makes a strong current in most of the tank. Just at the oder site it isn't strong and i planted there some not so strong plants protected with three roots. Anyway my tank has also got plenty of algae.
Do you think it is better if i have 4 G. ctenocephalus or 3 G. ctenocephalus and one G. ocellatus? I don't want that it feels lonley.

You could have two of each species or maybe three of one species
and two of another if you have room for 5 hillstreams.Watching the two species interact is very interesting.