Loaches Online Forum

I've recently started a new planted tank and I'm trying to decide which species would work better with my tank. It's a 40 gallon breeder size tank. Footprint is 36"x18", 16" tall. I love the striatas and would like to have a group of them, but I'm not sure about the tank size/setup. The tank will be fairly heavily planted, mostly with cryptocorynes. I'm just looking for some advice on whether a group of say 5-7 striatas would be a good choice for this tank. Tank mates will be Glass catfish, Rasboras, a small barb species, and a couple of gouramis. Here's the tank on day one:


Thanks

Hello, thats a wonderful tank you've got there , a small group of B.Striata's would love it in there !

6 Botia striata should fit in there nicely!!

Then consider how many fellow occupants you can add.

Very nice tank.

If I may suggest: be very careful with Striata. It appears that most of imported Striata's now carry a rather unpleasant disease, infectious and wipeout level. I know of a number of recent incidents. Worth making sure that the fish is not newly imported and a long quarantine.

Good to know regarding the disease. If I do purchase some they will go into a quarantine tank for as long as needed. What are the symptoms of this disease? Is it treatable? Anything I should look for when purchasing them?

Thanks

Not much to give you, I'm afraid.

High probability that it is an internal bacterial infection, however even strong antibiotics are insufficient. Incubation time may exceed three weeks. Nearly 100% fatality rate. Immunity appears to be possible but quite rare. Spreads to other loaches and at least closely related non-loach cyprinids. Symptoms seem to be mostly secondary, the true symptoms are limited to drop in activity, which may be hard to realize. Erratic swimming reminiscent of SBD seems to be the symptom of the late stage disease. So really not much to look for, except as I wrote above: try to avoid fresh imports (cf. kuhlis) and quarantine, separately from other fish. At least a month is needed, perhaps more.

get the striata.
do the q think for at least 4 weeks.
I normally do even longer than that. Why not no rush.
A SAE would be good too.