Loaches Online Forum

I think it was 5 years ago that the genus Acantopsis grew a lot. Earlier, it was all A choirhorhynchius, but than this species was split into 8 or so. All closely related, soome growin a few cm larger than others, but the care is generally the same: clean flowing water, sand and food tendiing to be ...

While my Botia do have such spines, I never saw them in a life fish.

So if it is the look what scares your kids, I would not worry

I expect the island waters to be hard and alcalic. For the rest they are very clean and rich in oxygen.

The clenaness migh be a problemn, chances are Stiphodon fry has little resistance against deseases.

Not only ius the water very fast, it is also very clean. That is, there will not be much bacteria in it. In our tanks the same water will meet the fish not once, but hundred times -each time getting a bit dirtier. These loaches will therefore require very frequent waterchanges. too. And a tank as fr...

Pimelodus pictus comes from a huge area, and yes I think the ones from Peru, Colombia wll need lower temperatures then the Brasilian ones, from lowland Amazonia.

Still, I would not have guessed 22 C would suffice. I would have guessed around 25 C

Nice observation!!

It certainly matters a lot of energy. I was less lucky with mine - P angularis

Enjoy

When you add ammonia, you expect NH3 -> NO2 -> NO3 That is, every molecule of ammonia is turned into nitrate, and this will be removed by water changes. And you know the last step is the slow one So, the appearence of NO3 would imply the bacteria for the second step have, finally, reached sufficient...

Assuming the tank is freshly decorated, yesterday or the day before, there is nothing to be afraid of, you just need to wait 2 or 3 weeks before entering fishes.

I suggest measuring iagain in a fortnight

Personally I feed my fishes 5 or 6 days a week. I think that is better for them.

Now I don't know whether ploaches need to be feed more often a day, but to me, 4 feedings a day seems a bit much. Mind you, I work from home, I could feed them 6 times a day should I want to, but I don't

Having 1000 mealworms a week for 128 fishes, will imply 8 worms a fish per week. Most fishes will not be able to cope with that much food. It would also mean not feeding anything else, and while mealworms might be a good food, no fish could survice on them alone. Personally I will stick to feeding f...

In fact, I would not excect predation. After all, P pictus only reach 10, 12 cm, and your Archerfish - if these are Toxodes, thay don't get much bigger. However, thinking of Toxodes, as far as I know they all come from brackish water and the Tigers like their water soft.

The problem with tiger barbs - I think these are Puntius tetrazona - is their mobbing. In nature they re eaten by snkeheads fish, which have long ponited fins. These barb attack all such fins, i order to chase the predators away - and this is a behaviour they will not loose. I think this might affec...

I thought Toxodes come from brackish waters. Not a place one would expect to find loaches

Waterplants don't need CO2 addition. As long as your watersurface is moving, the CO2 content of the water will be close to 5 mg a liter, at night and during the day. My own experience is, even witout water movement and plants, nothing goes wring during the night. But perhaps my tanks are never too o...

Personally I think plants are rather easy, contrarily to what I read on many english forums. That is, easy plants. Personally, I am rather found of Echionodorus (I've bred them from seed) but Botias like them too - that is, they like to nibble the young leaves - in other words, you better not keep E...