New member here with some questions about my gastromyzon sci

[bosh]

Hi all Im quite new to fishkeeping in general and about 2 months ago bought one of these to eat the algae that was invading my tank! I absolutly love my little guy and was wondering if these fish do better in shoals?

He is in a 70 lr community tank and after reading the article in PFK I added an external canister filter which causes lots of surface agitation and he seems much happier. There is lots of smooth bogwood that he grazes over and still lots of algae but I was wondering if there was anything else I should be feeding him. I put alage wafers into the tank mainly for my plec but i have never seen the loach eat them.

If I was to get more of the same type would there be enough food for them all?

Many thanks for your help

[Jim Powers]

Do you know what species you have? Check out the species index on this site if you don't.
http://www.loaches.com/species-index

You might also want to read Martin Thoene's article on hillstreams also on this site. Its really a must read for hillstream owners.
http://www.loaches.com/articles/hillstr ... -fast-lane

Hillstreams can be kept alone but seem to enjoy having another of the same or similar species around. While algae and the organisms living on it are an important part of their diet, they will eat many other foods. You should not expect yours to only eat algae.
Mine love frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp as well as algae wafers and shrimp pellets. Some species will enjoy par-boiled spinach leaves too. Be sure to give yours a varied diet.
Also, it may take individual fish a few weeks to acclimate to the above mentioned foods. Once they do, however, they will usually feed vigorously. In the mean time, algae can be very important.
Good luck!!!

[bosh]

Hi thanks for the quick reply. he is gastromyzon sctilusu ? With the feeding i also feed my other fish frozen daphnia but my loach does not seem to eat it. should i try the bloodworm and shrimp?

[Jim Powers]

You mean this?
http://www.loaches.com/species-index/ga ... n-scitulus
I think the bloodworms and brine would be easier for the fish to find and more of a meal than the daphnia.

[bosh]

Hi and thanks again. Yeah that is the one ive got. so far have tried feeding bloodworm and brine but he hasnt eaten either of them. Anything I could do to encourage him to eat? Was in my LFS and got 2 sewellia linoeliata aswell as the food though they seem very shy at the moment compared to the first guy.

[Jim Powers]

There's not much you can do but offer the food.
Just make sure you don't let any uneaten food foul the water.
THe first gastromyzons I purchased took three weeks to start eating anything other than algae. I have had others that took months, so you just need to be patient.
My sewellia started eating much sooner than my gastros and were enjoying pellets, bloodworms and brine shrimp within days.
Sewellia tend to be a bit more shy than gastros so that behaviour is normal.

[plaalye]

I've got a 20l RT with 2 sewelia, 4 schistura savona, and until last week I had 2 g. scitilus and one g. ocellatus. I've never seen my gastros actually eat anything other than their grazing on algae and I always wondered if they did eat any of the many foods that go in the tank. On the other hand, the sewelias are very aggressive feeders. I've had the 3 gastros for about 6 months now since the tank was set up and they were doing great until about 2 weeks ago. One of the scitilus and the ocellatus became noticeably thin and died in a week or so. I'm still trying to figure out what happened? One possibility is that the sewellia just bullied them off of the prime algae and food as I've observed them doing to the remaining gastromyzon.
Don't want to hijack your thread bosh but your stock sounds similar to mine and I know Jim has a similar tank too. I'd be interested in your observations now and in the future.

[Jim Powers]

Sewellia will definately run gastros away from food given the chance.
If you can, after they start eating food other than algae, put the food in multiple places to allow the gastros to feed. I have gastros and sewellia together in one tank and that seems to work for me.

[plaalye]

I've tried everything I can think of! I've noticed the lone remaining scitilus feeding a lot after lights out, he hides most of the day while the sewellia feed. He's bigger than the other 2 were also. i think I may have an overly aggressive male sewellia and it being a small tank there's not a lot of room to get away.

[shari2]

Here's an old thread about getting hillstreams to eat

[bosh]

i'll have to try sticking a cube of bloodworm to the glass or some rock, i had just been moving the cube about at the surface.

The is a lot of algae still in the tank but do you think the sewellias might bully the gastro? From what ive noticed so far it has been the other way around! The sewellias seem to just sit there while the gastro cruises all over the tank pushing them out the way! I hope they wont start to bully the gastro as then i might have to give them back.

[Jim Powers]

Just keep offering food and I am sure that the gastros will eventually take to it. I would also keep an eye on the sewellia to see if it bullies them.
How do the two fish compare in size?
I think that may have something to do with the degree of bullying. In the tank that I have both species, the sewellia male is much larger than the gastros and slightly larger than the female sewellia , the beaufortia and S. wui. He tends to dominate the tank but all the others get to feed. The gastros are the smallest and are thus also pushed around a bit by the large beaufortia and S. wui. Even with that, I am able to spread the food out and everyone is eating well.

[bosh]

The sewellias are a bit bigger but at the moment it seems the gastro is doing all the pushing around, he seems to follow one of the sewellias around and sit on it lots lol.