Caleb's Tanks

[sinibotia]

Do share! I thought there was only one species?
Caleb

There's more than one species... Actually a whole ton of not just species but diverse genus! And multiple families too, but that's a whole nother can of worms (most aquarium species are under one genus)! For comparison, kuhli loaches and dojo loaches are one family, botia loaches (including basically anything that looks like a botia) are one family. Hillstreams are actually the majority of loaches by number, except maybe nemachielidae? I forget. Anyway, that's a whole big can of worms that is irrelevant but interesting!

Most of them are compatible with each other, so it's not much of an issue but there are some ridiculously awesome looking ones. My personal favorites are the lizard loaches, homaloptera. Sewellia lineolata is another one I really like. Loaches.com is a great place to look (and I'm on their forums too)

Hillstream Loaches - The Specialists at Life In The Fast Lane — Loaches Online
Water Movement In The Loach Aquarium — Loaches Online
River-Tank Manifold Design — Loaches Online

Also, look into brookstream loaches. They aren't suckermouthed like hillstreams but prefer the same ridiculous flow. Sinibotia, parabotia, some leptobotia, anything in the family nemacheilidae qualifies.

 

[ImACoolguy]

What didn't know there were so many!

The tiger hillstream, Sewellia lineolata, is what originally got me very interested in them. My tank light is not very bright so I hope to see them out often.


Caleb

 

[sinibotia]

"I didn't know there were so many"- Welcome to loaches- everybody thinks of clowns and kuhlis but there's literally thousands more

I would try to "season" your rocks for this tank with algae! Retics (S. lineolata) can be hard to wean onto prepared foods so it's good to have lots of algae.

I'm actually rusty on hillstream loaches, I've had less of them than any other group of loach, but I have the almighty loach book so I can still answer questions

 

[ImACoolguy]

Guess it's time to leave the light on all day long and grow some algae

Plenty enough to go around. Will they eat Java moss? I got a jungle of it literally.


Caleb

 

[sinibotia]

I haven't tried it but I don't think they will. Better to just have regular algae.

 

[ImACoolguy]

Hmm that is doable


Caleb

 

[sinibotia]

Hmm that is doable


Caleb

Put a strong light on the tank for 12+ hours a day and you'll be ready for hillstreams in no time... no guarantees you'll be able to see them through the algae forest

 

[ImACoolguy]

^ hehe maybe..

Crazy story..... A few weeks ago I put in a wild crayfish(it was QT and fed first to prevent parasites) to feed my JD. I'd done this once before and it was a sight to see.

Well to no avail she didn't show much interest. So went to bed, next day crayfish gone. I assumed it became food sometime during the night.


Fast forward to today, I'm feeding the happy noodles and out of the corner of my eye I see none other than that sang crayfish sneaking out from under a rock cave to snatch some food.

I have really no idea how I missed him all this time but I'm really glad he didn't get a hold of a noodle! He's in my 2.5g till morning where I'm going to put him back in the lake he came from.


Caleb

 

[sinibotia]

^ hehe maybe..

Crazy story..... A few weeks ago I put in a wild crayfish(it was QT and fed first to prevent parasites) to feed my JD. I'd done this once before and it was a sight to see.

Well to no avail she didn't show much interest. So went to bed, next day crayfish gone. I assumed it became food sometime during the night.


Fast forward to today, I'm feeding the happy noodles and out of the corner of my eye I see none other than that sang crayfish sneaking out from under a rock cave to snatch some food.

I have really no idea how I missed him all this time but I'm really glad he didn't get a hold of a noodle! He's in my 2.5g till morning where I'm going to put him back in the lake he came from.


Caleb

Crayfish is lucky he was in with the wrong kind of loach

 

[PoppaRyno]

Fuel the fire


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[Juventus7shop]

Hey there, Caleb! I'm a sorta-newbie in the world of fishkeeping. Due to my lack of funds, I have not purchased a fish tank yet (but I will get one in the future, wait and see). Anyways, your thread and tanks are awesome. I've subscribed and look forward to following your thread!


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[Finntastic]

Hey there, Caleb! I'm a sorta-newbie in the world of fishkeeping. Due to my lack of funds, I have not purchased a fish tank yet (but I will get one in the future, wait and see). Anyways, your thread and tanks are awesome. I've subscribed and look forward to following your thread!


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

Welcome to the wonderful, wonder filled world of FISHKEEPING *jaws theme music in the background* also welcome to the forum

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[TMRC Exotics]

Fuel the fire


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Go for it caleb! I'm digging mine, should have their manifold running this weekend.

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[ImACoolguy]

Hey there, Caleb! I'm a sorta-newbie in the world of fishkeeping. Due to my lack of funds, I have not purchased a fish tank yet (but I will get one in the future, wait and see). Anyways, your thread and tanks are awesome. I've subscribed and look forward to following your thread!


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

Good to see you entering the hobby and welcome aboard.


Caleb

 

[Juventus7shop]

Thanks!


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[ImACoolguy]

Well today was the day. I finally got some more RCS. I ordered from what has become a good friend on social media.

The shrimp have amazing color and are fitting right in.

Sadly, there was a shipping hiccup involved. I have pictures but it appears the box was dropped sometime during shipment. This drop popped both bags of shrimp. When I opened the box everything was soaked and the poor guys were gasping air because there was no water in their bags. 5 DOA... 2 adults and 3 babies passed.

I'm not mad at the seller.. It could have been packaged better but the box should not have sustained the damage it did.

In the end I paid $16 for a bag of plants and around 15 shrimp of various sizes from babies to adults.


Caleb

 

[Finntastic]

Well today was the day. I finally got some more RCS. I ordered from what has become a good friend on social media.

The shrimp have amazing color and are fitting right in.

Sadly, there was a shipping hiccup involved. I have pictures but it appears the box was dropped sometime during shipment. This drop popped both bags of shrimp. When I opened the box everything was soaked and the poor guys were gasping air because there was no water in their bags. 5 DOA... 2 adults and 3 babies passed.

I'm not mad at the seller.. It could have been packaged better but the box should not have sustained the damage it did.

In the end I paid $16 for a bag of plants and around 15 shrimp of various sizes from babies to adults.


Caleb

Oh, bad luck man. The people handing it during shipping should have taken better care and should've been extra careful. At least most survived and you were able to get them just in time.

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[PoppaRyno]

At least you understand better than most. Sellers catch a lot of flak for whats ultimately outta their hands.

Sent from my LGLS991 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[ImACoolguy]

Exactly Poppa..

Even with the hiccup for what I paid in very satisfied and can't wait for them to start colonizing! That 10g is a jungle now!

RCS are $5 a head here at LFS so I couldn't be more pleased at the deal I was given.


Caleb

 

[Finntastic]

At least you understand better than most. Sellers catch a lot of flak for whats ultimately outta their hands.

Sent from my LGLS991 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

Exactly, the only thing you can really blame them for is bad packaging apart from that...nothing.

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