newbie question

[DIMH]

Hello everyone

I've just joined this lovely forum and am looking forward to learning a lot from you all, so here is my first question.

I have two tanks - a tropical tank with community fish and some Bristlenose plecs and cherry shrimp in - algae free!!

My other tank is a 97litre one with a black moor and fantail goldfish (both about 2"long not including tails) in and I am having the Mother of all algae problems in it. It varies between diatoms and green algae despite me changing the water every 3 days to maintain cleanliness for the goldies. At the moment is has artificial plants and a Fluval 3 filter with spray bar.

I have recently read that Hillstream loaches are coldwater fish, and am wondering if they would be suitable for this tank. I know I would have to put wood, hiding places etc in for it, increase oxygenation and water movement etc.

My concern is that I have today seen other info that the goldfish would basically see the loaches as dinner- not what I want at all!

Could someone clarify what the situation is with these lovely fish. If they can't go in with the goldies, I do have another tank which I can set up for them, but it would certainly be the answer to a prayer of they were goldy compatible!

Thanks a lot.

[palaeodave]

Hi and welcome to the forums.

I think the major problem is that the amount of water flow you would want to generate for the hillies is much to high for the goldies.

[helen nightingale]

Hi Dimh, and welcome

sorry to dissapoint you, but you shoulnt keep hillstream fish with goldfish. i know some shops do, but the hillstream loaches will be sufferring through the shop's ignorance. there are several articles on this site you should definately read. http://www.loaches.com/articles you can find them here, and if you would seriously like to keep them, you can find out more about how to set up a tank to provide them with the masses of water movement they need here too.


goldfish kept in good conditions for goldfish will not provide enough oxygen or water movement for hillstreams, and if you were to have a hillstream tank with goldfish in, the goldfish would find themselves being "washed away"

do you test your water in your goldfish tank? and do you test it from the tap? it could be that you have high levels of phosphate or nitrate in the tapwater, and that could be causing your algae problems

[mikev]

Hi, DIMH,

If your concern is about the algae, your easiest solution may be to move a couple of BN's into the other tank. They will be perfectly fine at 72F-75F, and they will remove most of the algae within days, especially if they are young. Even if your other tank is unheated, it is likely warm enough for them for now.

As for hillstreams with GF: some do this, but it is really not a good thing to do. One problem is that GF are dirty fish, producing lots of waste, so you will have to clean up all the time. But GF is quite unlikely to attack an adult hillstream. Same problem, incidentally, with mixing BN's with hillstreams: BN's would not hurt hillstreams (I keep a couple of BN's in a hillstream tank now), but BN's make the tank much dirtier, and the amount of waste they produce of course increases as they grow, making proper tank maintenance difficult. At their current 3" size, mine will have to be kicked out to another tank pretty soon. The other problem with GF is that they don't need hillstream-level current.

If you want hillstreams, you will be much better off using an appropriate small dither (white clouds, danios, some barbs) or no dither at all... Incidentally, Gastro's are pretty good for solving some algae issues. But getting hillstreams just to solve an algae problem makes no sense.

Read Martin Thoene's article on hillstreams on this site, it will give you the sense of how to proceed.

[DIMH]

Hi Dimh, and welcome

sorry to dissapoint you, but you shoulnt keep hillstream fish with goldfish. i know some shops do, but the hillstream loaches will be sufferring through the shop's ignorance. there are several articles on this site you should definately read. http://www.loaches.com/articles you can find them here, and if you would seriously like to keep them, you can find out more about how to set up a tank to provide them with the masses of water movement they need here too.


goldfish kept in good conditions for goldfish will not provide enough oxygen or water movement for hillstreams, and if you were to have a hillstream tank with goldfish in, the goldfish would find themselves being "washed away"

do you test your water in your goldfish tank? and do you test it from the tap? it could be that you have high levels of phosphate or nitrate in the tapwater, and that could be causing your algae problems

Well it looks like this idea might have to be forgotten then, even though the lfs said it was ok!

Thanks for the suggestion about the phosphate etc. The nitrate is 10, but I have to admit I haven't tested the phosphate levels. If that could be the problem I will get a testing kit on Monday.

[DIMH]

Hi, DIMH,

If your concern is about the algae, your easiest solution may be to move a couple of BN's into the other tank. They will be perfectly fine at 72F-75F, and they will remove most of the algae within days, especially if they are young. Even if your other tank is unheated, it is likely warm enough for them for now.

As for hillstreams with GF: some do this, but it is really not a good thing to do. One problem is that GF are dirty fish, producing lots of waste, so you will have to clean up all the time. But GF is quite unlikely to attack an adult hillstream. Same problem, incidentally, with mixing BN's with hillstreams: BN's would not hurt hillstreams (I keep a couple of BN's in a hillstream tank now), but BN's make the tank much dirtier, and the amount of waste they produce of course increases as they grow, making proper tank maintenance difficult. At their current 3" size, mine will have to be kicked out to another tank pretty soon. The other problem with GF is that they don't need hillstream-level current.

If you want hillstreams, you will be much better off using an appropriate small dither (white clouds, danios, some barbs) or no dither at all... Incidentally, Gastro's are pretty good for solving some algae issues. But getting hillstreams just to solve an algae problem makes no sense.

Read Martin Thoene's article on hillstreams on this site, it will give you the sense of how to proceed.

Here's where I show my ignorance, but what's a 'dither'??

I had thought about using one of the BN's. The tank has a temperature of 24-25 degrees.

[helen nightingale]

a dither is normally a small shoaling fish. in the wild some fish feel braver when there are small fish swimming about in the open water or nearer the surface of the water. when these small fish dissappear it could mean there is danger such as a predator - so when they are happy swimming about, there is less chance of there being a heron or other fish eating creature nearby.

if you have dither fish in your tank at home, then the other fish in your tank are more likely to come out rather than be shy.

[DIMH]

a dither is normally a small shoaling fish. in the wild some fish feel braver when there are small fish swimming about in the open water or nearer the surface of the water. when these small fish dissappear it could mean there is danger such as a predator - so when they are happy swimming about, there is less chance of there being a heron or other fish eating creature nearby.

if you have dither fish in your tank at home, then the other fish in your tank are more likely to come out rather than be shy.

Thanks Helen - hence the expression "all in a dither" perhaps??

Only been on here 5 minutes and I've leaned loads already!