Help ID a loach..../Hillstream tank setup question

[Emma Turner]

On the leveretti-Hainan connection: the poster on your old thread was correct

I knew that HH would be correct.

With regards to your "SpB", I really wouldn't like to hazard a guess. Not seen those turn up in any shipments before.

Emma

[mikev]

On Hainan: yes, but Hainan cannot be excluded: it is not that much of a restricted area anymore, it even has tourism. It is also less industrialized, so fish can come from there all right.

On SpB: whatever this is, I'm now certain it should not be kept together with other hillstreams. Without SpB, I can see SpA settling down much quicker and not avoiding ground like the first time. They probably are suitable for a schistura or single species tank, not a mixed one.

On Pseudogastros: I've seen the weirdest show yesterday. After a few hours in the Q-tank and heavy algae eating, two of these were fighting for an hour, and it was a strange fight: all kinds of motions, mostly chasing each other tails, but also one climbing on top of another, with the bottom fish occassionally turning upside down. Almost all of the show took place on a small stone: neither one wanted to leave it (there were several other empty stones available). A few times in the middle of the fight they got really tired and were simply lying next to each other. Then they moved to sand, together, contunued the fight there for about ten minutes, then stopped. (All hillstreams arguments I've seen so far took seconds to resolve, this one was going on forever; and it is usually the largest fish that fights -- these were only a bit above 1"; others ignored them.). No damage noticed, however.

Maybe the algae got into their heads....

.....

Oh well, will see how it works out this time. I did intercept them before they got mixed with the store tanks (while the store SpA is not dying anymore, there were several dead plecos in their tank). The problem is that with taking them right after being shipped in, I'm certain to have at least some dying here....and, sure enought, one down this morning.

They are through one levimisole treatment already and are on ich med. I probably will wait with Maracyn's a day or two, to let them recover from the shipping a little, and also time it when I'm at home more (in case of ammonia spikes, it helps to notice them faster).

[mikev]

Update, possibly of interest to Emma,

Previously I wrote:

Very interesting, thank you Emma.

I'm pretty sure that your photos show the same fish as I have. (They change their color depending on where in the tank they are, mine change from nearly white to very dark green or black).

As for the Sp. id, it seems that kweichowensis have a rim on their fins, while leveretti's don't.

Wrong on my part. One of mine developed a rim, just like on the kweichowensis pictures. So rim is not an identification feature.