45 Gallon Hillstream tank centerpiece fish

[Neil S.]

Hi everyone I'm new to the chat and have recently finished setting up a 45 gallon hillstream tank with a sandy bottom lots of rocks and a high flow, my stock is
-3 hillstream loaches
-one small dojo loach
-a longfin pleco
-3 giant danios
-8 small white cloud mountain minnows
-one blue gourami(considering taking him out, kind of an oddball in here)
-and the tiniest skunk botia you've ever seen
was hoping to add more hillstreams because i just love them, its really why i have the tank, but i'd like to have a nice centerpiece fish that can live in the higher flow. The stocking list is flexible if anyone has a good idea but it worried it might harm something in there. I have a canister filter rated for 65g so it has strong filtration
(sorry for the fog, this picture was immediaely after putting some rocks in and i stirred up the sand a little)

 

[fishorama]

Welcome to AC, Neil! I'm a loach lover too. What species are your hillstreams?

I see problems with your stocking. Skunk loaches are too aggressive for hillstreams (& many fish). Rehome him soon. You're right, the gourami will not like the fast flow, are there more calm areas for it? Dojos I haven't kept but they grow large, 6-8+ inches, would like friends & maybe just too rowdy by it's size & behavior for hillys. They also like more calm flow.

I in my "river tank" with sewellia lineolata & gastromyzon I had smaller danios (choprae) & whiteclouds too. Warning, most danios, especially giant, are often jumpers. Keep a tight lid on your tank! I never kept them with smaller fish, keep an eye on how they act toward the 'clouds.

I also have a lot more filtration & flow on my tank. On a 55g (4ft x 1ft) I have 2 HOBs "rated" for 70gph & a powerhead at 1200gph. My sewellias have bred a few times so I know they're pretty happy.

What are you feeding the hillies? I highly recommend Repashy gel food Soilent Green. Your pleco will like it too. They graze on algae of a few types but really they're aufwuchs eaters, algae AND the little critters that live in it. I've never seen mine eat flake, tablets or bloodworms but I feed those too.

 

[Neil S.]

Welcome to AC, Neil! I'm a loach lover too. What species are your hillstreams?

I see problems with your stocking. Skunk loaches are too aggressive for hillstreams (& many fish). Rehome him soon. You're right, the gourami will not like the fast flow, are there more calm areas for it? Dojos I haven't kept but they grow large, 6-8+ inches, would like friends & maybe just too rowdy by it's size & behavior for hillys. They also like more calm flow.

I in my "river tank" with sewellia lineolata & gastromyzon I had smaller danios (choprae) & whiteclouds too. Warning, most danios, especially giant, are often jumpers. Keep a tight lid on your tank! I never kept them with smaller fish, keep an eye on how they act toward the 'clouds.

I also have a lot more filtration & flow on my tank. On a 55g (4ft x 1ft) I have 2 HOBs "rated" for 70gph & a powerhead at 1200gph. My sewellias have bred a few times so I know they're pretty happy.

What are you feeding the hillies? I highly recommend Repashy gel food Soilent Green. Your pleco will like it too. They graze on algae of a few types but really they're aufwuchs eaters, algae AND the little critters that live in it. I've never seen mine eat flake, tablets or bloodworms but I feed those too.

Thank you so much for the information, the skunk botia is only a 1/4 of an inch big so I haven't noticed any aggressive behavior yet, but obviously as he gets bigger he will so I will rehome him. The Dojo loach as well my girlfriend has a 55 gallon with angelfish and minimal flow so maybe he will do better there.
I actually do feed the soilent green, i found that on a forum a couple months ago when I started keeping them. I have the Lineolata but i'd love to find some of those gastromyzon, did you find them at your lfs?
I have a tank that is sealed except for the holes where i out in wires and the canister filter. Because i have seen the danios jump, especially when there is food.

I forgot to mention I also have three marble hatchets stocked in there, i see no problems with them and they seem to just live peacefully, but if theres something such as the skunk botia, i would love to know

I also plan to increase the flow so that they are a little happier.

I think i will keep it a mainly hillies tank though, thank you so much for the info fishorama and if you have any more info I would love to hear it.

 

[fishorama]

Hatchets maybe intimidated at feeding time by the danios, do they eat well? I'm not sure if they're happy with a high flow, but they're jumpers too. You might want to stuff something around the openings so they can't, they can fit through pretty small areas.

I got my gastros from someone here on AC, but I live in a big city area & can get others. They sometimes have odd common names like Borneo sucker, the unhelpful hillstream loach, UFOs etc. Look carefully, they often not all the same species in a shipment. I keep mine with stiphodon gobies. Look out for "patchy disease", areas of skin that look, well, splotchy. Loaches.com has good info as does seriously fish.

The problem I see with dojo & angels is temperature, angels like it in the upper 70sF; that's pretty hot for dojos. I don't heat my hillstream tank, but sewellia lineolata can handle slightly higher temps than some. It's more oxygenation they all want, hence the flow rate. Warmer water doesn't hold oxygen as much as cooler temps. You really want the water surface to ripple as opposed to fine bubbles from an airstone, although that helps a little. Personally, I like a second filter on almost all tanks.

You might want to get a few more s. lineolata & see if you can breed them too. It's very exciting to find 1/4inch fry. I've only had a couple survive each year but so cool! I also have sponge prefilters & lots of plants...just something to think about, lol, I can tell you're hooked on loaches too. All I can say is you need more tanks!

 

[Neil S.]

Hatchets maybe intimidated at feeding time by the danios, do they eat well? I'm not sure if they're happy with a high flow, but they're jumpers too. You might want to stuff something around the openings so they can't, they can fit through pretty small areas.

I got my gastros from someone here on AC, but I live in a big city area & can get others. They sometimes have odd common names like Borneo sucker, the unhelpful hillstream loach, UFOs etc. Look carefully, they often not all the same species in a shipment. I keep mine with stiphodon gobies. Look out for "patchy disease", areas of skin that look, well, splotchy. has good info as does seriously fish.

The problem I see with dojo & angels is temperature, angels like it in the upper 70sF; that's pretty hot for dojos. I don't heat my hillstream tank, but sewellia lineolata can handle slightly higher temps than some. It's more oxygenation they all want, hence the flow rate. Warmer water doesn't hold oxygen as much as cooler temps. You really want the water surface to ripple as opposed to fine bubbles from an airstone, although that helps a little. Personally, I like a second filter on almost all tanks.

You might want to get a few more s. lineolata & see if you can breed them too. It's very exciting to find 1/4inch fry. I've only had a couple survive each year but so cool! I also have sponge prefilters & lots of plants...just something to think about, lol, I can tell you're hooked on loaches too. All I can say is you need more tanks!

Believe it or not the hatchets seem to eat very well, they bunch together and move slowly across the surface and the danios seem to dart around them, they seem to use a schooling technique that the danios seem to respect. I definitely plan to add more plants, flow, and lineolatas, i just wanted to make sure that I have a good tank for them first and then grow the population. After I up the flow of course. I've read about the disturbing the water surface instead, the same way you do in a sw tank so i have been doing that. Those Stiphodon gobies are awesome i'd like to get my hands on some of them too. I am absolutely hooked

 

[fishorama]

Great loachy minds & all that, Neil! For the gobies, if they look pretty blue/green in the face & maybe lateral line, males. Females are all very similar brownish, not nearly so pretty, but the boys show their colors best for girls...or to scare off other males. If you decide to try them get 2 or 3 males & at least as many females. They can't breed in our freshwater tanks & have viable babies, the fry need brackish or more to survive...but still fun to watch!

 

[Neil S.]

Great loachy minds & all that, Neil! For the gobies, if they look pretty blue/green in the face & maybe lateral line, males. Females are all very similar brownish, not nearly so pretty, but the boys show their colors best for girls...or to scare off other males. If you decide to try them get 2 or 3 males & at least as many females. They can't breed in our freshwater tanks & have viable babies, the fry need brackish or more to survive...but still fun to watch!

Awesome fishorama im gonna keep my eyes out for them, I know of an LFS near me that stocks them but its an hour and a half hike, maybe i'll go for some more lineolata(because they have them at my lfs near me) im thinking 3 more, then make the venture for so of the stiphodon, and with luck some of those awesome gastros.

 

[fishorama]

I've never seen the spawning behavior with sewellia but have fry to prove it! I have what I think are 2 species of gobies, both males, but lately no pretty colors so I need some girls...of either kind.

The easy way to sex sewellia is males have squared off pectoral fins, females have more sloping 1's as seen on the tank's glass. You may have a pair already...but the "breeding guide" (lol) says the more, the merrier. Yes, get more...& sponge prefilters for your intakes. You, too, can breed them, it's pretty easy.

Keep us updated on your tank.