Loaches Online Forum

Hi All-

Been lurking here for a while, and finally got around to registering to post this question.

I keep seeing Sidthimunkis recommended for community tanks as a small, peaceful loach. However, I had 2 in a community tank with an Angel who I thought had chronic fin rot. I picked up 6 additional 'munkis to fill out a school for a new community tank, when I noticed they were harassing the Peppered Cories in QT with them. They promptly got a species tank all to themselves, and once I finally caught the 2 in the community tank, the Angel's fin problems went away!

I love the little guys, they're so fun to watch as they do their little loach-y dance around the glass of their tank, but I'm just wondering if anyone else has had attitude problems from these guys, or if I got a special batch?

Edit-spelling

One peice of information you failed to include is the tank size. I had 6 sids in my 90g plantedcommunity tank, and they were fine.....if you go back through the archives on the old LOL site, there will be the occasional person who has had aggression problems with sids, but they seem to be the exception rather than the rule. And I think that it is more likely to occur in smaller tanks, or tanks without a lot of cover.

Just my $0.02CDN
James

The community tank was 55 gal, 1 Angel, 3 true SAE, and 7 Congo tetras. The QT tank was a 20H, and the sids would alternate between playing with each other, schooling with the 2 new SAE, or picking on the Cories. One reason that had occurred to me for the problem in the community tank is the fact that there were only 2 of them, but the group of 6 did the same thing.

To be honest i dont think Botias and Coryadoras cats are a great mix , Probarbly possible ! but not good , the Botias are more gregarious by nature , and possibly a little mischeivious ! wheras the Corys are more sedate and totally peacefull ! [ this is a general view , nodoubt someone somwhere has some mad Corys] .

I have had problems with Sid's and fin nipping, they did quite a lot of damage to a shoal of Corydoras that I housed with the Sid's for a couple of weeks. They also did some damage to the fins of slower moving fish that they lived with. They now live with a shoal of Puntius Gelius and a couple of Honey Gourami's and there is very little interaction between the two Sid's and other fish.

I have noticed hightened aggression levels when they kept in smaller groups but with regards to the fin damage this didnt change from when there were 10 Sid's to the group of 36 which I now have, They have still damaged the fins of anyfish that is fairly slow moving. It sounds daft but it is almost as if they know what fish should be there and what shouldnt, they are perfectley ok with any Asian Species but put a tetra or something non Asian in the tank and they dont like it.