Hillstream loaches?

[reun]

Anyone familiar with these fish? My LFS has some for sale, and it seems almost too good to be true...an algae eater that stays around 2 to 3 inches, peaceful, and loves a strong current. Do they eat any sinking foods? I read their mouths are small. I have some information on my tank, and hopefully someone can tell me if one of these would be right for my tank.

I have a 29 gallon, and the tank has a soft sand substrate, slate rocks, and plants. There is a huge amount of current from two Aquaclear 50 over-the-back filters, a Aquaclear 50 powerhead, and a airstone. It has a 14watt full spectrum light that stays on from sunrise to sunset, and two full spectrum 23 watt mini CFL bulbs on for 7 hours a day. The tank also gets some direct sunlight in the late afternoon hours in a well lit room.

It does grow algae, and I have just been using a scrubber sponge to clear it off the glass. The water should be high in oxygen, and more plants are sprouting up each day. Right now the only occupants are cherry barbs, danios, and a small school of corys. My proposed stock list is 3-4 cherry barbs, 7-8 zebra danios, 7 bronze corys, and 1 tiger hillstream loach.

These are the water peramiters:

Temperature: 75 degrees
GH PPM: 160
KH PPM: 150
PH: 7.0

I cycled the tank for about 2 months before adding fish, and then added a school of danios, and eventually will move the 3 female cherry barbs from my 10 gallon, and perhaps add a male as well.

any thoughts on hillstream loaches would be great!

 

[mfdrookie516]

My first question is why do you want it? If it is because you really like the way they look and interact, great. If its because you have algae and are tired of scraping the glass, you're making a bad choice (I'll tell you why if thats the reason). I'm definitely not an expert on hillstreams, I dont really know a whole lot about them. I wanted one because I thought they looked cool and would be a nice addition to my tank. The reason I did not get one is because they're a cooler water fish and 75 degrees is right at the top of range they do best in (i keep my tanks at 78).

 

[reun]

I love the way they look and act. I can still scrub the sides of the tank, if I was just lazy I would get something else. I LOVE fish like them(sucker fish), but my 29 gallon is not big enough to house most plecos.

The fish I have can do fine if I drop the temp a few more degrees over a few week period of time.

Any help from anyone that has experience with these is greatly appreciated!

 

[strokinbyeu]

i have one and its really neat to watch it move around. there underside is neet looking to. they dont free swim, there always againdt somthing i dont take any special care for mine just pwc and food. there not just alge eaters they actully omnivors mine will eat blood worms(takes a few for him to get it down) he works on the dark brown alge, never seen him going after green alge. he dosnt keep my tank spotless by any means but idk i got it bc it was cool looking and fit in the paramiters of my tank. he hides under a rock stack i made most of the time but i catch him on the glass alot also and sometimes on rocks eatin away. somting neat iv noticed is mine eats in a grid, works forward a half inch then backs up and moves over and repeats, i find almost perfect squars of alge cleaned of my rocks somtimes. i would recomend 1 if you like them

 

[reun]

does anyone know if I dropped my tank down to 70 degrees if that is cool enough for the loach? I wouldn't want to go much lower than that with the cherry barbs, danios, and corys.

 

[strokinbyeu]

my tank is between 75 and 78 and mine is just fine.

 

[jsoong]

I have Hillies. They are cool fish, but don't expect them to be good algae eaters.

They are cool water fish. However, they can do fine with mid 70's or even higher if you have a ton of oxygenation. <Lots of flow, and good surface area for O2 exchange.> It is basically O2 dependent. You don't need a lot of flow at cooler temp (say 70), but at higher temp, high flow & surface turbulence is mandatory. <My tank is at 75, higher in summer. The hillies never have problems, but I do have a sump with a wet/dry, which is about the most efficient O2 exchange setup around.>

There are several species of hillies in the trade (600 or more in the wild). Some are more vegetarian than others. All survive off the microflora growing in the tank. They will not take prepared food, so a mature tank with a good biofilm is necessary. The more common hillies (Beaufortia) are more carnivorous than algae eater. They eat microscopic animals in the biofilm. The Gastromyzons are reputed to be better at algae eating, but i can't vouch for that as I have never seen one. At any rate, I would suggest you get one not for algae eating ability, but for their looks & the cool factor.

 

[reun]

I don't want one for the algae eating ability, I want one because they look nice, and I had lots of fun watching them in the LFS.

I will wait for a while before I get one, I want to do more research first. The 29 gallon tank has decent surface area, with a ton of surface turbulence(check out the original post to see the tank hardware).

anyway, I was thinking about keeping the tank at 72 degrees and keeping the high flow filtration and power head and air stone, and I should be good to go. I should have even more plants soon to provide more niches for the cherry barbs.

so far it sounds like the hillstream loach might not be a bad idea for my tank.