Loaches Online Forum

Throughout the winter and probably into the spring I'll be doing the tank shuffle. I am upgrading my big tank and will be bumping up a few other tanks. That will leave a 75G tank for me to upgrade my coldwater tank. I definately need a bigger home for my 3 shubunkins, and also need to get my 3 dojo's out of my plant tank which is tropical temps.

I dont know if its sacrilege here to put loaches and goldfish together, but I atleast plan on the dojo's and shubunkins. I was wondering if there are any types of coolwater loaches like hillstreams that would be compatable?

There are still lots of variables with the tank, but that really depends on what I want to keep in there first.

Put the dojos with the shibunkins. Good mix actually.

what angelfish said... (there has to be a first time to type anything, yes? )

please don;t add hillstreams, they are utterly incompatible...

white clouds.
lots of whiteclouds.
unless the goldfish are huge enough to eat them, obviously...

Ok then no hillstreams. They are a new to me since finding this forum, and am sure I will eventually want to setup a nice river tank. As for the goldies in such a tank - I am guessing they wouldnt like all that current? Or is there another reason for the incompatability?

BTW I guess I should have been more specific when I say coldwater I mean that it'll be unheated but at room temp. If I put it upstairs that'll be around 70* if I put it donwstairs which is more thanb likely will probably be around 65*. This may sound silly but I am also going to build a relatively large sump filter for it since I like DIY projects and been wanting to try to build one for a while. A wet/dry trickle so far isnt compatable with any other of my tanks so this is the only one. But seing how goldfish are so messy anyway, I guess its fitting. If there are no other species I'll probably add a few more Dojo's to make a nice group of them.

The Goldfish and hillstream compatibility was a question I had asked in the past and one of the reasons for the incompatibility was because Goldfish put out so much waste that the water would not be in top condition that the hilstream loaches need. Plus these fish are way to cool to risk it I ended up setting up a tank just for them I love them they are like having peaceful miniature rays.

I do have a few Cory’s with my goldfish since they came with a the tank and prefer cooler temps Then I also have some cool snails since I can’t keep a plant with the goldfish I might as well have snails

Defiantly think the white clouds are a good suggestion

Earthgoddess wrote:The Goldfish and hillstream compatibility was a question I had asked in the past and one of the reasons for the incompatibility was because Goldfish put out so much waste that the water would not be in top condition that the hilstream loaches need. Plus these fish are way to cool to risk it I ended up setting up a tank just for them I love them they are like having peaceful miniature rays.

I do have a few Cory’s with my goldfish since they came with a the tank and prefer cooler temps Then I also have some cool snails since I can’t keep a plant with the goldfish I might as well have snails

Defiantly think the white clouds are a good suggestion

Thats not true Goldfish despise java fern and anubias. They'll bite it twice and never do it agian

angelfish83 wrote:

Earthgoddess wrote:... Then I also have some cool snails since I can’t keep a plant with the goldfish I might as well have snails...

Thats not true Goldfish despise java fern and anubias. They'll bite it twice and never do it agian ;)

Hah! fat chance, if it is in the tank a Goldfish will try and eat it, having it fit in the mouth is just a bonus. Ours are particularly partial to the tender growing tips of young Java fern leaves, stopping the plants getting bigger than a tattered mess. I'll grant you the adult leaves don't get eaten but they are now an abomination of "not food" so must be worried and mauled until there is enough broken bits of green floating around the tank we have to do a water change. The only way to apease this behaviour is to provide plenty of tastier fast growing greenery, Hygrophila polysperma, cabomba and Water Wisteria seem to work well for us. Admitedly i have not tried anubias but seriously doubt there is anything that can withstand and Goldfish on a mission.

:-)

Well maybe its hit or miss with the goldies and plants, although I have heard plenty of evidence they will try to eat just about any plant, I also know of a few who hae heavily planted tanks with co2 injection with goldfish w/o any major problems. I havent figured out for sure what I am going to do but will more than likely try heavily planted and see what happens. I have kept anacharis with them for a while and never seen em touch it, but thats the only plant I have tried (other than floaters outside).

zebra danios and peppered corys can actually go in coldwater. but not to cold when doing water changes.

david

Earthgoddess wrote:The Goldfish and hillstream compatibility was a question I had asked in the past and one of the reasons for the incompatibility was because Goldfish put out so much waste that the water would not be in top condition that the hilstream loaches need.

I was thinking that too but as I stated above I am going to be building a mega filter for this tank Probably a 55G sump with a few gallons of bio-balls along with perhaps some other media. Mechanical will be prefilter on the overflow plus a large filter floss plate on the drip tray. I also plan on seperating the sump into a couple sections, were I could run a UV filter and even a fluidized bed if I have any doubt that my diy wouldnt be adequate but I would amagin thats totaly un-needed. Plus if I do decide to heavily plant it then the plants will actually be the primary ammonia absorber since they prefer to get thier nitrodgen directly from ammonia without needed to wait for it to be brocken down to nitrate.

In any case, the goldfish will be the first in there to try the diy filter out and all. When things look good in will go the dojos. Any other fish (if any) wont be added for a while later. The usualy problem with DIY stuff in longevity and ease of maintainence so I want the tank to be up in operation for several months to see how it goes. BTW this wont be probably until spring that I set it up. Thanks for the great discussion!