Loaches Online Forum

Hi! I'm new here and would like to get some hillstream loaches, what would you reccomend as the best food for them? Do they have preferences over which types of commercial food? I found that plecos relish hikari algae discs, do these guys share the same tastes? Thanks!
Don

Mine eat all types of pelleted foods such as algae wafers and shrimp pellets.
They also love frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp and mysis shrimp.
Some species will also eat par-boiled spinach and kale leaves and other vegatables.

"hillstream loach" covers a wide range of species. Which species did you have in mind? The suckermouths ( gastromyzon, sewellia, beaufortia, etc) require mature algae growth on as many surfaces(rocks,wood,plants) as possible to graze on. I my experience, gastromyzons are the most difficult to get to accept offered foods. Some will, some won't. The ones that do will eat just about anything they can get in their little mouth. Their natural food is largely algae & the organisms that grow on it so IMO it's essential to provide this in the tank. Get your tank up & running for several months before adding them.

A good option for the algae grazing loaches is to alternate rounded rocks: Put a few in the sun, with some old tank water, and when the algae and microorganisms are growing well, put one of those rocks in the tank, and take out an old rock. Keep several rocks rotating into the algae growing tank, and back to the hillstream tank...
If you have 2 or more fish that are somewhat territorial you may have to put one algae covered rock at each end of the tank. Vegetables are a good choice for these guys, too. They are not pure vegetarians. They also eat the microorganisms that live in the algae, so they do need some protein in their diet.

Some of the not-sucker mouth types are more carnivorous, and I would try an assortment of frozen and freeze dried 'worms', 'bugs' and 'shrimp'.