I keep finding new fish to love, lol

J

jajabinx89

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Jul 21, 2010
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Well, sorry guys, every time I come on here to look up info for landscaping, I come across a new fish that I fall in love with.. although I have a strong feeling this isn't going to end up working out, I just thought I'd throw it out there to see what you guys thought. I will have a 24g nanocube, moderate to heavy planting with a sand/stone foreground..

Sooo how likely /unlikely would it be for me to keep a Sewellia lineolata (Tiger Hillstream Loach?) in a tank like that.. with potentially ottos, swordtails, and tetras? It says they like low to mid 70's temps, would that overlap enough with the other fish? And if I aimed the output nozzle of the filter towards the bottom of the tank, would this be enough "water flow" ? Sorry if these are stupid questions, I'm still learning about everything..
 
Depends on how long/wide the tank is. Length and/or width is more important than height to the fish on your list. You're right, Hillstreams like a lot of current (hence the name), but if you just point the filter output towards the bottom, there might not be enough surface agitation for oxygenation (this is even more important if your tank is a 'tall' tank). You could try something with an extra powerhead, and leave the filter output on the surface as usual. The mid 70's would be OK with the other fish I guess (might not work with the tetras, it depends on which species you choose). Good Luck :)
 
Tough call for Hillstreams but if you ask me..I would advise against it. 20long tanks work excellent wonders for making river tanks. If you have a chance to score one of them, that would be much better.
 
Thanks for the input Waldo. Hmm well it's a "cube" so would def fall more in the tall category.. but I could work something out to make sure there is still surface agitation..

I seem to be having trouble finding their diet info. I have heard loaches like eating snails.. but this guy looks like a sucker fish, so would he eat algae instead? And could he replace some cory bottom feeder I was thinking about getting...

Again I'm still completely in the planning stage.. no definite decisions made yet
 
Whoops didnt see your post James, and yea I was wondering how strong a current it would have to be.. and how a cube seems so not structurally friendly for real currents.. lol
 
Hillstream loaches are natural algae eaters (must have some sort of algae in the tank), so they'll do fine with sinking algae wafers as staple food. Of course, natural algae is always better. A trick I've learned from somewhere on this forum (can't remember where) is to take any decor (usually stones/rocks work best), put them in a bucket or something, and let them sit under the sun/next to the window (or any other direct source of light) for a few days. And voila, you have an algae covered rock, perfect for the hillstreams. Not to mention the fact that it looks far more natural as well :D Algae is not the only thing they eat though. Any vegetable matter you would feed to other fish is taken too (spinach, etc.) Brine shrimp or bloodworms will be relished. I once thought my pleco was strictly vegetarian, only to find out he sucked in a whole cube of frozen bloodworms.
 
"inhabits rapids and riffles. Occurs in, small streams with large and deep pools covered by submerged plants, provided that small riffles are present between these pools; high gradient streams consisting almost exclusively of waterfalls; in larger rivers, at the upper extremity of riffles where current velocity do not exceed 0.2 m/sec, as well as habitats with high water velocities exceeding 1 m/sec. Often associated with Annamia normani, Balitora sp., Schistura spp., Glyptothorax spp., Anguilla marmorata, and Rhinogobius spp. Stomach contents include benthic invertebrates and algae. Observed to be active during daytime searching in the periphyton on both horizontal and vertical surfaces of stones probably searching for aquatic invertebrates"

So this sounds promising. Can be found in deep pools with slow water movement and heavy plant cover? Of course I could just be getting excited and could have completely misread that... and according to this they could possibly eat snails? (aquatic inverts).. any thoughts or comments?

And thanks for the diet info, Waldo :)
 
When you say "Can be found in deep pools with slow water movement and heavy plant cover" you got it from this?: "Occurs in, small streams with large and deep pools covered by submerged plants, provided that small riffles are present between these pools". If so, I guess you could keep them in a slow water movement tank (the "deep pool"), provided that there are spots where the current is fast (the "small riffles"). Also, when the article says "benthic invertebrates", I'd say they meant small shrimp, aquatic insects, and so on, not including snails. I think that because their mouth doesn't look like it's suited to sucking snails out of their shell. Of course, that's just a hunch, I've never kept hillstreams before, so you could be right.
 
Hillstreams come from cooler fast moving HIGHLY oxygenated waters, I setup a tank for them in a 20 long using large stones as a substrate put an AC 50 on the end as well as a Duetto filter on the same end to simulate a rivers movement, unfortunately the hillstreams fell through so I am left with a tank of White Clouds setup specifically for hillstreams.
 
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