Do hillstream loaches sift through sand?

[Loachloach]

Thank you. I'll order these then and see how I get on.

[Loachloach]

I ordered a bunch of these. Yey. They said next day delivery. I hope they honour that as they've failed me before.

I am going to try to culture most of the white worms. I also have an empty tank with just one platy in it that has been running for years. I can try culturing some black worms in there. It has a nice matured soil/sand substrate

[Loachloach]

I've been trying to identify the sex of my beaufortia loaches. I have a couple of pics of two different looking ones.

I wonder if the below would be a female? In person she/he is wider than the one on the second picture. She/he also has a bigger belly



And then this one below looks like a "he" to me. He's narrower overal, sort of pointy snout as well. And his underside looks different as well.



I admit, I am only observing differences without much experience/knowledge on the issue. I just noticed they're different.

[ch.koenig]

Hi
First: male
Second: female
Cheers Charles

[Loachloach]

Ha, ha. Thanks. I had it the other way round

[Loachloach]

He, he, lets get back to the topic...."Do hillstream loaches sift through sand"

I got the live food today. Instead of white worms they sent me white mosquito larvae so that was a disappointment but besides that the worms were in good condition and alive.

I dropped a couple of packets of bloodworms in my clown loach tank. They were gone in 60 seconds Then I dropped 2 packets of daphnia as well, the clown loaches weren't seeing what the fuss was about with that lot but the harlequin rasbora and denison barbs had a crazy hunt nearly bumping into each other

I then dropped a packet of daphnia in the hillstream loach tank, no response. The daphnia is still floating around alive.

Then come the black worms. I put 3 packets in the platy tank. She absolutely ignored them, not one bite at them lol. I actually fed her some pellets afterwards as she was still staring at me

The other two packets of black worms went into the hillstream loach tank. I figured if they don't eat them, the worms might as well breed in there. 20 minutes nothing....hillstreams munching on stones.....Then I see two loaches flying around sifting through sand, making sand storms, same way the beaufortia ones in the videos. One of the loaches dug so deep you could only see his top, lol

So success although so far even if its just two loaches. There is hope the rest will figure it out too. And I hope some worms survive to breed in there and give the loaches a constant supply of food...If they're eaten, even better, and I'll get more

[NancyD]

Well, it sounds like I need to try black worms with mine again

I've only tried frozen daphnia...but with a similar lack of loachy response. I did mix some (& other frozen foods like chopped blood worms, artemia & cyclops) into Repashy but didn't see an extra special excitement over it.

I would not offer live mosquito larva, lol. If they don't get eaten they'll hatch into my house No!

[Loachloach]

The Repashy was an overall failure. I failed to feed the beaufortia loaches with it too. The second time I put it, it got blown almost immediately all around the tank creating a large mess. I did a large water change but it triggered a diatom outbreak. Yesterday the front glass got covered in brown film...And I am also tired of siphoning it out of the new loach tank.

Yes, definitely try black worms. I think it was quite a success. The loaches continued to sift through the sand. I've got stones all over the place and they were squeezing upside down, sideways, all kind of ways to get to the sand, lol...One loach was up against the glass and only used his mouth in the sand, throwing the sand up as high as his tail and doing the same along the entire side of the tank into each crevice between the stones. The black worms I got are thinner and smaller than the bloodworms, I think way more suitable for them to eat as well. I am going to order a bunch of them again and throw in more. I forgot about my 7g tank that's been running for 7 years. I think the black worms might do well in there too so I'll seed that as well. It's stuffed with exploding anubias all over that's grown roots into the substrate, so no room for anything bar the snails and shrimp and the black worms won't have a problem evading predation. I am reading they like mulm so they're going to have lots of it in there...I might try feeding the repashy to the black worms, lol.

As for the daphnia, I think they just can't catch it. A bunch of it hid behind the filter sponge and seemed to be actually munching something from it. One loach squeezed himself in there and was trying for a while to get to them, not sure he caught anything...

And I spoke too soon about the platy...A bit later I came back to see this balloon below that used to be a platy

[NancyD]

Dang. that's fat platy!! Although I never saw a platy that wouldn't eat...anything! Eating & breeding machines, that's my platy experience.

[Loachloach]

Yep, they're pigs...I've been trying to get rid of them for years. That's the last one standing refusing to die I feel sorry for her alone as they're very social with each other...but she's several years old now so no point getting her friends. I hope she doesn't eat all the black worms, lol. I sort of invested the majority of the ones I bought into this tank.....We'll see. I think a lot of them hid in the substrate. Also, black worms are quite cute, sort of thin elegant worms

And I am going to take your advise and feed the mosquito larvae to the clown loaches....They won't last 2 seconds in there

[Loachloach]

I turned off the filter for a few minutes to check if I could see worms in the substrate. There were quite a few sticking their heads out of the substrate sort of half hiding under the stones. I fed them some NLS pellets and they seem to go for them, lol
The sand in the platy tank is brown so very difficult to see the worms in there but I guess I can just feed and see how it goes.

[Loachloach]

Well, it looks like the black worms and I are going to become friends. The pellets I dropped this morning are gone. I fed the worms again this evening and I literally saw them pulling the pellets with their heads/tails, or whatever end they use for that purpose

Tomorrow I am going to take out a few stones to make some room for the loaches to sift and get to the worms. I will also drop a repashy stone again where the worms are and see if they'll eat the stuff that falls on the sand. I am pretty certain they will if they can devour the hard NLS pellets. I think my search for scavengers for the tank is over. The food won't go to waste Hopefully in time, with constant food availability the loaches will start eating pellets too.

I don't know why I find these black worms quite fascinating. I spent some time today observing them eat. They act like miniature kuhli loaches, lol. I hope they get to live.

The loaches act happy for now, chasing each other around, have good colour on them too. I however noticed they're not keen on very bright light. They tend to hide when I switch on the overhead LED that lights the emresed pot. That would make about 100W of LEDs over a 100 litre of water so I can't blame them....but I don't keep it on that long, only a couple of hours in the morning and a couple in the evening.

I wanted to share my flowering peace lily in the other tank

[NancyD]

Very nice!

It's strange, my black worms were much thinner than blood worms but also much longer. Age maybe, or a different CA black worm species? I do offer them as a treat to my bigger loaches sometimes. They were a bit hard to get here during our drought years. Lfs stores, if they had them, were limiting how much you could buy at a time. They're all from the same supplier & need lots of fresh water. Last time I bought some I forgot all about them in the fridge for a long time My husband is quite squeamish about live stuff (worms, clams, etc) or even dead "gross" stuff like beef heart, shrimp when I had discus, or even raw "people food meat". I told him I'll keep them in an opaque bag & not to look inside

My Repashy doesn't fall apart & fly around the tank, or cause diatoms. I wonder why yours does, although I'd think diatoms would be ideal hilly food. Maybe it's your bright LED lights & not the Soylent Green? I have not tried LEDs yet, I still use T-5s 100 watts seems like a lot! I do a little bit more Repashy than 3:1 but close. I remember we have very different water, maybe that's part of it

[Loachloach]

The 100W is over the other tank, not the one with the diatoms. The diatoms exploded in the beaufortia tank, although I am trying to grow them in the G. Ctenocephalus tank, lol. I think it's the flow. The small beaufortia tank has way higher flow, definitely over 20X and more, and the tank itself is only 30cm tall so the repashy got literally lifted off the stones and went into the water column and then all over the tank. The tank is heavily planted so no riddance.... No one had a chance to eat it either. I was "smart" enough to put two stones which was way too much at once...I know the shrimp will eventually get to whatever I couldn't get out so no harm, plus the loaches have already discovered the diatom growth. Even in the other tank, which only has 14x flow, I find that I need to put the repashy near the outlet, and not the opposite side, otherwise it gets swept by the flow and gets carried back towards the inlet/outlet on the opposite side, some of it getting caught under stones etc...so it makes quite the mess for m

The black worms I got look to be "young" worms. I don't know if there are species variants or not... They were not that long, slightly longer than bloodworms. I think they reproduce by regeneration in fish tanks. I am even reading being suggested to cut them before culturing and they would regrow all necessary parts, in essence multiplying themselves, etc...So they don't die if chopped up I just couldn't do it. The LFS sells them in pre-packaged vacuumed bags. They appeared all alive as they clumped up after I stirred them in a plastic bin. I was trying to acclimate them, lol.. I am reading they're fully aquatic, require a cycled tank, water in the low to mid 70s, need high oxygen, flow and substrate helps with division, etc...And they'd feed on any left overs. They supposedly show their tails/heads above the substrate when hungry....Mine certainly appear hungry and are going for the pellets...I am curious to see if they ate all that I put there last night. I just want to get a feel of how much they can eat for a day...

The platy in the other tank appears to be hunting the substrate for them. I tried to distract her with pellets but she isn't having it....I hope she leaves some alone!

I converted to LEDs on all my tanks over the last few years. I like them a lot more because of the shimmer effect, plus the energy saving but all LEDs are not equal. They need to be designed for plants otherwise they may not grow anything at all. Although I find flood lights are quite a good substitute as a cheaper option...

[Loachloach]

The worms have grown massively over the last couple of days. I lifted a few stones to make room for some larger stones from the pond and it was buzzing. They've grown up longer and have gotten darker.