chinese butterfly plecos/hillstream loaches?

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Elle2

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Does anyone have these or know anything about them? From help I have received here I found that they aren't plecos- but the LFS said they were good algae eaters?
 
I have one of these guys, started out with 2, but 1 died during it's first week. I've been waiting patiently to find another one so I can get another buddy for my existing one, but haven't seen any yet. Mine is still very small, probably about 1.5" and while it's pretty active I don't really consider it to be a 'really good' algae eater. I've also found mine LOVES zucchini. When I feed it to my pleco I put a smaller piece in for the loach as well. They are peaceful and very cool fish to watch. :)
 
I bought mine at an auction 3 months ago there were five now wish I would have bought at least 2. Cool fish to watch especially when he gets on the bottom flops around to get to the driftwood or some food. Mine is fairly active when the lights are on it goes back and forth through the tank. I am not sure if he is a good algae eater or not since I have very little in my tank. He is able to hold his own when it comes getting his share of food he is right in center with the Bristlenose and the 3 Coolie Loaches feeding frenzy. I feed algae wafers, Shrimp pellets, and a bottom feeder discs
 
I have 2 of those guys. From what I read, there are some 30 species of Hillstream loaches, some are pretty good algae eaters, some are not. Mine had not make a dent in the algae, but they are fun to watch and easy to maintain.

Some had reported that hillies can be fragile, but mine had done well with really no work on my part. I think key to keeping them healthy is have high O2 content (which means lowish temp - 75 in my tank - and high current flow - about 500 gph in my setup). A mature tank with lots of microorganisms is needed (lots of driftwood, rocks, etc. for stuff to grow on). A light layer of algae can't hurt.

I find mine mostly active at night. They don't seem to go for prepared food (although my goldies vacuum up food so fast that no one else would have any chance of finding any!)
 
jsoong said:
I Mine had not make a dent in the algae, but they are fun to watch and easy to maintain.

They don't seem to go for prepared food (although my goldies vacuum up food so fast that no one else would have any chance of finding any!)

If they don't eat algae or prepared food what do you feed them?

I was hoping that they might be good algae eaters. I am having a hard time finding a bristle nose pleco and a regular pleco would be too big for my tank. I really need something small. The lfs said I could just trade a regular pleco in once it got too big, but lame as it probably sounds, I can see myself getting too attached.

I have an oto but it doesn't seem to like my driftwood, which is where most of the algae seems to be growing.
 
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