Walmart Rescue

[hsherman1986]

Well, was in the fish section at walmart, pricing new finlters, and happened to see this guy....(click for larger image)



price tag? Only $7.49 (super cheap compared to the $19.99 at my lfs).

So, I took the chance and picked him up. He's an angelicus botia. He doesn't look too bad, no ich, or other signs of disease. He is in qt now, and if he makes it through qt with no problems, I will pick him up some buddies. Wish him luck!![/img]

 

[theotheragentm]

Good luck. I wish I could rescue every poor fish at a LFS.

 

[zenkatydid]

oh what a cute little guy! i wish we had more interesting loaches here

 

[farmgirl]

Good for you!! Our Walmart has a fish section, but the fish are ALWAYS sick or ichy or they're missing half their fins. Good luck, and I hope you enjoy your new buddy!!

 

[coldmachineUK]

He has quite uniform markings for a botia kubotai.

I think this is rostrata, not kubotai (kubotai is the real name for 'angelicus'). The markings are too uniform, and the twin banding is another giveaway. Check out botia rostrata on Loaches Online (or on Google)

Nice looking fish, and glad s/he's gone to a good home!

 

[hsherman1986]

i will look that up. He was labeled as a border loach, and I came home and did research before I went back for him, and everything I found said he was an angelicus. I will do a little bit more to double check though.

I think I may go to some of the other local walmarts and see if anyone has anymore. I have been wanting this loach for a while, but had to get up the guts for the $20 price tag. That is the only reason I can rescue them lol.

 

[coldmachineUK]

There's a lot of border loaches (aka Burmese Border Loaches), ranging from botia such as kubotai (and variants within that), to a huge variety of schistura which look nothing like botia.
There's so many variants, I guess the shop erred on the safe side in the ID

The rostrata and kubotai have pretty much identical requirements and you may even find they'll school together (if you had one rostrata and two kubotai for example).

 

[hsherman1986]

yea upon looking at more pictures, he does look more like a rostrata. Hopefully anymore that I find will be the same. I considered putting him with my yoyos if I can't find him any buddies.

 

[LandGhoti]

Cute! Good luck to your [whichever species you think he is] loach. I rescued a botia kubotai from Petsmart last November; couldn't believe my eyes when I saw such a cool fish there.

I'm sure this one will provide much entertainment for you. Mine used to notice me sitting right next to the glass watching and he would come over and sit on the gravel and have a staring contest with me.

 

[hsherman1986]

ok, so I went to the lfs today to find my new guy some buddies, and had already decided to lay out the $20 per fish to get him at least two more friends. Well, not only did they have the same loach, but they were marked down by HALF PRICE!! They were only $9.99!! So, I picked up the last three that they had!

They are SO BIG compared to my little guy from walmart, still have the same markings, but looking at them, they are defintly the kubotai, just juvis that haven't fully colored up yet (apparently their markings change and they show more black as they get older).

The little guy seems to appreciate the company. He comes out every now and again and trys to swim with them, but can't seem to keep up sometimes. They have been out and about all night so far (unless I come up to the tank to take pictures, then they go hide).

edit: was able to get somme pics so ya'll could see. I really think now that they are both kubotai

little guy is in the middle of the pic, see two of the big guys in the upper left corner (click for bigger pics)


little guy is at the bottom, closer to the grass, big guy is more in the corner


the three big guys


see the similarities? am I right?

 

[coldmachineUK]

It could be that all three are juvies, yes. Kubotai show very similar markings to rotrata at the juvie stage (and even through to semi-adult stage):

Juvenile kubotai, from loaches online:

But, you need to see if the dark patches develop further. The reason I came to the conclusion that was a rostrata was because there's no apparent continual lateral black marking linking up the twin banding, as you would normally see, and I was assuming your fish was an adult:

I would have to wait and see the markings down the line. If they don't develop this really evident lateral marking there's every chance they're rostrata:

Either way these are both lovely fish! If they turn out to be rostrata, be happy because they're more rare!

 

[hsherman1986]

so i have heard. I will wait and see what kind of color they develop. I don't think any of them are adults, isn't their max size around 4-5 inches? if so, even the big ones will have 2 inches or so to go. The little guy still has at least 3 inches to go.

I found three more at $9.99 at the store closer by, they are smaller, but still the same loach, so now I have a school of 7...some people are addicted to cories for bottom dwellers, I am a loachaholic...4 of my 9 tanks have loaches

 

[lovemybarbs]

I have one exactly like it I bought at Petsmart for $20.00.

I always called it an angelicus botia.

 

[coldmachineUK]

I am a loachaholic...4 of my 9 tanks have loaches

They're just the best aren't they?! I love loaches; they used to be my favourite fish but that position is now held by brackish puffers. Still adore them though!

I have two kubotai in one of my smaller community tanks at the moment: they're going to be moved in with my schistura loaches (you should check schistura and the other families out sometime, they are just as much fun and as intelligent if not a little bit more perhaps than the botia -> though less friendly...lol). We'll see how they all like that :S lol! I expect they'll fall out with me for a while! Hehe.

The reason I say they look more like rostrata, lovemybarbs, is for the lateral line marking as mentioned above. If yours are adult grown (4" or so) and haven't got this pattern then you may want to double check your ID via loaches online. My adult kubotai are near identical to the photo I posted of adult kubotai from loaches online, as are a trio kept by a friend who is also a loach fanatic, so I don't think there's much in the way of marking variants...
hsherman1986: at 2" and 1" though you're right, they're definitely juvies!

 

[hsherman1986]

lol. Yea, I absolutly love all of my loaches. Hubby and I are planning to build a tank for our clowns. It all started with them. I bought one without doing any reasearch. Found out they were schooling fish, so I went back and bought a few more, then found out about their size. Thank goodness they are slow growing fish and I have time lol.

On the new loach subject though, they are already making short work of the MTS in the tank (YES!!). This tank was beginning to become overrun with MTS, but these guys love them. There are half eaten snails all over the place in the tank now. (another reason loaches are in 4 of 9 tanks)

 

[cappieBridget]

I read this tread yesterday and then went to my wal-mart looking for some loaches and there were 2 poor little guys sitting on the floor of the tank losing color, almost no fins and covered in ich with about 15 pacu and 2 glass catfish. I felt so bad but they were almost goners. I would have bought them and treated them had they had any chance of surviving. They were priced $6.49.

 

[coldmachineUK]

Loaches, as scaleless fish, are highly succeptible to ich as well. Fish stores really don't treat stock well, in general...
Tbh, its always advised that if you see a sickly fish in the store chances are it wont do well in the move and adaptation to its new home, so its best to leave them. You did the right thing. It's such a shame though, esp. when it comes to loaches like clowns (macracanthus) because I've been hearing lately there's concerns about them being over-farmed at the moment

hsherman, botia love snails, you're right! Hillstreams inc. schistura won't touch them though

 

[Reefmonkey]

I'll second what coldmachineuk says about botia loaches being really suceptible to ich. Normally I do not have a problem with it, but I remember having a lot of trouble with them, and pictus cats as well. Still, I love the loaches - started with kuhli loaches and then discovered botias, with all their great colors and patterns. Funny, it must be the patterns for coldmachineuk, too, because I also love brackish puffers, probably first attracted to the psychadelic patterns on the F8s.

 

[coldmachineUK]

Hehe, you're right, it must be a subconscious thought: "must...have...psychadelic...fish" lol!

The problem with loaches, once they have ich, is that they're also really sensitive to aquarium salt which can be used as a tonic for assisting with the treatment. They're also not fussy about high temps either. So, curing it is extremely difficult and usually takes a long period of time. I've only experienced that once, touch wood, and they came through it ok.
I used a product called EsHA Exit, which is an ich treatment specifically for sensitive/scaleless fish. I really recommend it to people. The only downside is it will dye your fingers green if you spill any!!!

I think loaches and puffers are some of the most intelligent of fish I've ever kept. Strongly recommend both (with the precursor research obviously!) to anyone who's not kept either

 

[hsherman1986]

agreed on the ich thing. I had a bad breakout when i first started up my tank, and it took its toll on my first clown loaches.

So far so good though, just fed everyone, and they are eating like crazy. They still run away when I approach the tank though, i have to sit there for some time before they will come back out so I can take pics lol.