can't ID my loaches

[Danyal]

i picked up a trio of unidentified loaches at a pet store a several months ago and still haven't been able to id them yet. i'm hoping you guys can help me, the closest i've come is Schistura corica. mine look almost exactly like the first picture in the species profile except mine have more of a spotted/blocthed pattern, do you guys think this may just be a difference in the individuals or maybe i have a subspecies or a close relative?

[Danyal]

i just found an almost exact picture of my loaches. if you do a google image search for "Schistura sp. 3" they are the only three that come up, they were apparently on this site before but when i click on the pictures i get a message saying that the item i requested does not exist. soo close

[Danyal]

i've tried taking pics of my fish before, i'm using a crappy 4yr old camera and i don't have the best photography skills, trust me you won't be able to see a thing unless i make a speciem container

[Danyal]

ok, this is an almost exact pic of my loaches- http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q ... rch+Images
anybody?

[Graeme Robson]

Hi Danyal. When the Schistura corica mature, they do tend to have individual patterns. I've witnessed a few out of my 6 all change within time.

Here's more pictures on our main site >>http://www.loaches.com/species-index/ph ... age-search

[shari2]

and here is the schistura unknown 03 profile if that's what you thought you'd seen:

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/sc ... -unknown04
(disregard the '04'-the link really does go to 03 )

[Danyal]

thanks Graeme Robson,
one of those pics is like a carbon copy of my three. so now that i've know what they are, how do i best care for them?
my current setup:
standard 29g
lots of ground cover(fake/live plants, deco)
small, smooth, natural gravel about pea sized.
standard 20w fluoresent hood(18k powerglo) on a ~12hr cycle
a fluval 3plus(184gph)
100w visi-therm stealth heater, i keep the tank under 78* because of my danios but don't want to get too cold because of my dwarf puffer

livestock:
(12) Danio choprae
(2) longfin leopard danio
(6) guppy x endler hybrids
(1) dwarf puffer
(2) kuli loaches(only have seen 1 lately)
(1) Pangio oblonga
(3) Schistura corica
(1) unidentified danio that was purchased with the D. choprae, colouration identical to this one-http://www.danios.info/Contents/species/danio41.asp
but body style more like this one except for a more sharply pointed back-http://www.danios.info/Contents/species/danio18.asp
(2) olive nerite snails

i try to do a wc every 2weeks to keep the nitrates under 30ppm(usually they're at or under 20ppm, sometime up to 40ppm) never had ammonia or nitrites show up on a test. i feed them hikari sinking wafers, black worms and tetramin tropical crisps, all of which they seem to love. i'm planning to switch the gravel out for a 50lb bag of playsand and a bunch of live plants as soon as i can make a new light fixture for the tank(69w cf) and get some nice driftwood and rocks.

[Graeme Robson]

Everything sounds good to me, apart from your water changes and the dwarf puffer. Could you do a water change every week instead of fortnightly. 20-30% would be appreciated, especially from the Loaches in attaining lower nitrates. I'm by no means a expert on these dwarf puffers but something tells me these should be housed in a species only tank set-up.

Here's a little more info on the Schistura corica >> http://www.loaches.com/species-index/schistura-corica

Edit: I thought i had a hunch >> http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/bre ... ffers.html

[Danyal]

<Everything sounds good to me, apart from your water changes and the dwarf puffer.>
i feel guilty about the water changes, i used to do them atleast once a week, sometimes twice a week @ 10% each time but once school started back up i've been slacking so enstead i've been doing 20%~25% every two weeks. i was maintaing it under 15ppm but @ 20% every two weeks they tend to be around 30ppm. i knew about dwarf puffers and their hit and miss aggression when i purchased him, iirc, their life span is only a couple years and i've had him for over 6 months, he hasn't shown a bit of aggression in that entire time(although my 29g is void of all the shrimp i had) before he went into the 29g he lived in a planted 5g cube w/ some endler hybrids, a ghost shrimp and an olive nerite snail. how easy are they to breed? one of my loaches in alot more... plump than the other two, is this likely because it is a more aggressive feeder or does she have eggs/babies?

[Graeme Robson]

Two possibility's, one is that your Schistura corica is female and is Gravid(filled with roe/eggs) and the other one is that your Schistura corica is having a freebie meal, courtesy from the other occupants. Yes, you could say that they are aggressive eaters at times.