Loaches Online Forum

Killforfood provided excellent pics of his new river tank set up, and I mentioned that in my similar tank proper Ballitorid hillstream loaches did not do well, while Nemacheilid species seemed to be in paradise. I wonder if this doesn't call for more exploration...

Those of you who have actually seen hillstream breeding take place, can you talk a bit about the dimensions of your tanks? Based on ALL the habitat shots I've seen of Balitorid species, they like to be fairly near the surface - which would be consistent with their high oxygen demands, IMO.

My 65 gallon river tank was 20 inches deep, with about 9 inches of flattish cobbles at the bottom. When I would add hillstream loaches to the tank, they would (I can't recall an exception) cling to the glass near the upper reaches of the tank. Maybe it's water pressure, or possibly oxygen, but it's my guess that KFF has designed himself a tank that is ideal for Botiid loaches if the water is kept warm, or Nemacheilids if it's a bit cooler.

It's my guess that we can come to some agreement about the ideal conditions for hillstreams - and I don't know if tank depth has been dealt with before here.

I wanted to pull this into a new thread and hear other people's thoughts. Any takers?

My cheni tank is a Juwel vision 180. It's a bowfront, 36" long, 12" to 16" in width and about 18" of actual water depth. There's air injection out of the powerheads, a bubble wall and an internal power filter with the output about 1/2" above the surface, so there should be plenty of oxygen.
My cheni don't favour any particular spot- they've all got their preferred territory, but these are spread all over the tank. It's rare to see more than one or two on the glass at any one time, and they don't stick to the high flow areas.

So you see your hillies hanging out at 18" of water? Do they work the substrate at that depth?

I have have kept my hillstreams in (US Gallons) 20 long which is 12" deep, a 20 high which is 16" deep and a 29 which is 18" deep. I have had breeding activity in all three tanks. Most of the breeding activity has been in the 29, however.

Mark in Vancouver wrote:So you see your hillies hanging out at 18" of water? Do they work the substrate at that depth?

Yea, my boys spend most of their time on the bottom. They're actively browsing across the sand or poking about under cobbles a lot of the time. I can see how water depth may be a factor, but I'm sure it's not significant for my tank.