Hillstream Loach AKA Stingray Pleco

D

Drewhop

AC Members
Jun 28, 2008
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Bought one of these cute little fellas today from my LFS. Very interesting loach. Currently I have him in a planted tank with some platy fry. I will be getting rid of those fish in the next week. Until then they have to deal with a bit colder water. Found out this little guy likes water between 60-75 degrees. Right now I have water temp around 72 until I get the platys out of there.

Anyone else ever had these
I will try to get a few pics up tomorrow.

Mine is less then a inch long now but he looks like this

http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_hillstream.php
 
Yeah I was excited and posted that and then I started searching here for past topics and seen a whole lot of info. I think soon as my platys are gone next week I am gonna buy a small powerhead for my 25 Gallon tank and turn it into a river tank. This looks like a easy enough thing to build http://www.loaches.com/articles/river-tank-manifold-design.

I hate purchasing fish I dont fully research. Luckily it just helps my MTS along and I keep on learning.
 
So today I took a few minutes and modified the current tank I have him in. I took my sponge filter and turned it on its side and cranked up the air bubbles going thru it. It has created a pretty nice current and he seems to love it almost staying directly in the stream moving off to the side occosionally. Time to look for some picture examples of a river tank setup as well as some potential tank mates.
 
One of my favorites, great choice!I have one of these guys and will be getting at least 2 more as they apparently do well in small groups rather than alone. I created a wall of fast moving water along the back side of my tank and he loves sitting in it sucked to the glass. I heard people suggesting white cloud minnows as tank mates. I don't know anything about them from experience, Just hear say but I thought it couldn't hurt to throw them out there as a suggestion.
 
There is detailed info and pics of the rivertank manifold at loachesonline in the articles section. I have one in my 20 long and I like it. But I think a 30 inch tank is too short to have it work properly, it takes up a lot of space, plus the added expense and work. If I had it to do again I would just add a powerhead with sponge prefilter and get similar effect.
 
be sure to get him some friends...
 
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