Sumo loaches?

[marthared]

Anyone have these? I just got one yesterday, and wondering if they need same environment as the other loaches, or need something different.

 

[coldmachineUK]

Fantastic!!! You have here one of the hillsteam loaches, probably from the Nemacheilus (or similar) family. They're generally easier to keep than the flattened hillstreams, but still a challenging fish.

Cooler temp conditions (ca. 23-25c), fast flow of water (preferably unidirectional if you can manage to set that up inside your tank), love fine grained (rounded, not sharp) gravel and/or sand substrate, and my schistura love some terracotta pots I've used for shelters but you could try slate etc.
You will need to be on top of regular PWCs with these guys even more than you would be normally (I'm guessing), since they're more sensitive to water conditions than botia even (and they can be fussy little things as it is).

Feeding: high vegetable content preferably, try spirulina flake. I also feed bloodworm and brine shrimp (frozen) to mine and they love it.

Can be territorial and somewhat more aggressive than botia, for example, but a great fish.

Yours could well be sp. schistura balteata

Edit: Btw, that's definitely a female

 

[plecoperson]

Booful! Dija get it from Frank's Aquarium?

 

[neilanh]

Thats an awesome find!

 

[theotheragentm]

That fish looks great. Now I must find some.

 

[rich311k]

What a great fish. Super pick up.

 

[plecoperson]

That fish looks great. Now I must find some.

www.franksaquarium.com

They have some really interesting fish, well-priced, good service. I recommend them highly.

 

[Zagz]

Great fish, I'd look for some but I bet I wouldn't find any around here. :-( Congrats.

 

[kaz]

i want one

 

[marthared]

Thanks soooo much for the info! I got him/her at our local aquarium shop called Aquarium Paradise. It was in their new batch of fish that came in yesterday afternoon. The original pic I posted is from a tropical fish website. Here's a pic of my actual guy that I took today (and my other new pets!)... a little blurred, but I think you can tell what it looks like. How do you know if it's a guy or gal? Thanks much!

Whoops.. I guess we can't upload more than one image per post... You can see my other guys at:

http://community.webshots.com/user/marthared

under "Fish"

 

[coldmachineUK]

Hey there,

Well, you can tell with schistura & co. whether they're male or female:

Males: as adults usually have slightly more puffed out cheeks.
Females: as adults usually have a more swollen abdomen.

So, in the pic you first posted you can see the abdomen; that's definitely a female

Of the schistura group I keep, I only have one female And three males (the most dominant is the one with the biggest cheeks! lol!)