Loaches Online Forum

Hi, I have 7 tiger brbs in my tank and want to add loches but not chain loaches or khuli loaches. Would Botia staiata or botia kubotai be suitable for 125 litre juewl tank?

I'm not sure what Juewl tank is but I'd say both species would be fine.

Hi karl71,

Is your tank the Juwel Rio 125? If so, I'm afraid that really is too small for Botia kubotai, and Botia striata could only be housed in there short-term before needing more space. Besides the Y. sidthimunki and Pangio (kuhli) loaches (which you said you didn't want to go for) there are plenty of other small species, but tiger barbs really limit what you could put in there. If you were able to replace the tiger barbs with smaller, more peaceful dither fish, you would have other choices with regards to small loaches. Nemacheilinae and Botiinae types would require you to use additional filtration, as the in-built Juwel filters are not powerful enough to meet their needs.

Graeme

Thats a pitty, it is a juwel 125 rio. I was hoping to get small botia straita.

Let me retract what I said. The first time I read your post I thought it was a 125 gallon tank which would be plenty for Straita and Kubotai. But 125 lieters is about 30 gallons which would be a tad on the small side in my opinion. I've used my 30 gallon tank to grow out small Kubotai loaches but they end up moving on to a larger tank.

I still wouldn't worry too much about the tiger barbs. I've kept kuhli loaches with tiger barbs before. And right now I keep Kubotais with Arulius Barbs which are larger and about as pushy. As long as your tiger barb school is large enough they should keep their aggression to themselves.

So you think 5 straita will not be a good idea. I have had the tank set up for over a year and got plenty bogwood and coconut shells and do a weekly 15% water change too.

Different people have different opinions. I'd think a tank that size would be a tad too small. Not way way too small but just a bit on the small side. My dad keeps 12 tiger barbs in a 20 gallon tank, I think that's not enough room for them either. But they're alive and he takes care of the water. But in my opinion the fish would benefit from having more space to swim in. For grown Straita and Kubotai loaches I'd recommend a 4 foot by 1 foot footprint or larger.