Loaches Online Forum

Hi to everyone. My name is Debbi. I joined the forum to gather all the information I can about keeping my sids happy and healthy. Recently added 6 to my discus show tank. I just love them! They sometimes school right along with my rummynose tetras. They have settled in well and eat like little piggies. For those of you who also keep sids, just tell me as much as you can about them. There doesn't seem to be the wealth of information out on the internet on these fish like there is on a lot of other species of loaches.

Thanks!

Hi Debbi, welcome to Loaches Online.

have you seen this page?

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/ya ... idthimunki

Do you keep the sids with your discus or separately? How big is the tank and what decorations have you got?

Hi Debbi

I dont have sids, like I told you earlier today on AC , just wanted to welcome you to the forums.

Hi Rocco. Yes I did read that page. Thanks! They are in the tank with my discus, 72G low tech planted bowfront with lots of malaysian driftwood, and some small rocks/caves. And Hi Crazy Loaches!!

Raises hand

I have 5 of them in a much smaller tank. They were SO tiny when I bought them, but have been growing fast. They hide a lot.

I also have Discus in a 72 bowfront, but I keep them with fish closer to their own size.

Hi Debbi,

Sids are my favorite fish! Very playful and gregarious schoolers. Good luck with yours!

Hi Debbi, I currently have a shoal of 36 Sid's

If they are out and about and shoaling it sounds like they are happy enough, I would however keep an eye on them with the Discus. Sid's are by nature very inquisitive and I wouldn't have thought Discus would appreciate Sid's trying to get to friendly, also if the Discus want to spawn the start to secrete a substance that the babies feed on and the Sid's will be straight there and this could stress the Discus.

These are video's of my 75 gallon Sid tank http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php ... t=sid+vids

hi debbi
i have a shoal of 18 of the little beauts, i agree with MD about the discus.

mick

Hi Diana. and fellow discus keeper! What strain of discus do you have and how many? I've been keeping them for several years now, they are my all time favorite fish! I have 7, siz adults and 1 almost an adult....two leopard snakeskins, two electric dreams, one white leopard and two white butterflies. Five females and two males that have paired up (I should say grouped up) as follows: Male LSS with female ED and female LSS, and male WB with female WB, female WL and female ED. I'm not interested in raising discus fry so the wrigglers disappear. I'm not at all worried about the discus going after the sids. This group is the gentlest, laid back group of discus I've ever had. I once threw baby silver mollies in there specifically for them to eat and they didn't touch them and I wound up netting them out since I didn't want the growing mollies living in there! My sids are all at least 2" though I'm not sure how old they are. The sids never bother the discus and the discus don't bother the sids.

Hey BLue!! Somehow I knew you'd be here somewhere!!

Hi Mad Duff! I watched your sid vids....awesome!!

I am just amazed with the sids. I never expected them to be out front and swimming all day long, but they are. And do they love bloodworms!! They eat them until their bellies are visibly round. At first I was worried that they were overeating them, but they just seem so content!!

My Discus are not any special type, I just sort of got "One of each color" about a year ago. I started with 6, have 4 now. It is interesting to see the different personalities. For a while I was thinking that 2 were thinking of pairing up, but they seem not to be heading that way at the moment.

Hi Debbi, I'm at AC too. I have 9 sids with striatas, SAE & rasboras. They seem to like cucumber more than other fish (& more than they like zucchini). Peas are good too. Mine will eat any sort of frozen or prepared food.

I got them in 2 batches & the older ones share a cave with the biggest (still small) striatas, the newer with the smallest zeebs. They are fond of the SAEs & sometimes pester them when they're resting.

My sids often like to swim with the rasboras but sometimes dance up & down with the striatas, usually after some frozen food near bedtime. Very frisky, fun fish.

pinkertd wrote: I'm not at all worried about the discus going after the sids. This group is the gentlest, laid back group of discus I've ever had.

I think MD was talking about the other way around - the boisterous sids annoying the discus but you've probably kept em a while it sounds so I'm sure you'd have noticed if that was an issue or not.

Man I am thinking about some sids now...

Do they tightly school for most folks as well? I'm looking at a couple of smaller fish/tight schoolers like rummy's and if the sids will do that also then maybe I'll just get more loaches! They are quite a bit more expensive than rummys though...

With my sids, its usually only 2 or 3 at a time that swim with rasboras. They seem to like fish with a strong lateral line, red tailed rather than harlequins. They really are bottom fish not a substitute for mid-upper water level fish. Not that thats any excuse NOT to get sids.