Loaches Online Forum

A general question first: does anyone here know anything about hillstream species that require brackish water (or possibly hard water)?

I'm checking on a remote possibility that I keep some hillstreams improperly---it may be that they actually need slightly harder or even brackish water. It makes no sense to ask about the actual species since it is not something kept by anyone else here (and we never reliably ID'd it anyway), but in the process of googling I came across something peculiar

The link below goes to Google Cache
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:-ev ... =firefox-a
or the same directly (but requires a forum logon)
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/sh ... php?t=5895

I'll try to contact the author too, but is this something that may have some substance to it? I do see that he lists as Brackish some species that some people here kept more than successfully in fresh water (brackish Cheni's?), but it is likely that the list is actually a merge of the species that can be acclimated for brackish water and those that may actually need it.

I'm betting that these are fish that are freshwater but can venture into brackish, tidal flows in part of their range. Brackish water does back up into rivers during high tides and that could be how these fish come in contact with it. Largemouth bass in North America can be found in these areas but can hardly be considered brackish.

Thanks, Jim,

I have a very strong recollection that I've seen something "official" (not a forum post) about two Vantanmenia species actually being brackish. (Spent the entire evening yesterday and cannot find it again.)

All right. I had a chance to think this through, I'll probably post the story a bit later.