Loaches Online Forum

Hi!
In the autumn of 2008 i purchased 3 large sids. These were placed in a (to small) tank of 152l with my other sids (and dither fish). The tank was emptyed short time after, as they all were given a new home in a 300l. I only located 1 of the big ones and presumed that the 2 others had died. I then purchased a T.suvattii which was placed in the old sid tank. Unfortunately he died some time ago, but he lived there for 4-5 months or so.

Anyway; the tank has been emty since then (approx 3 months). No maintenance or water changes has been performed. I have however kept the filtration going, which is sponge behind the background driven by a powerhead. I looked into the tank about 15 minutes ago, and was really surprised. A large beautiful Sid was swimming happily around in the tank (a little skinny, but otherwise fine). This little bugger has survived the company of a large predatory Suvattii, and no water changes for over 6 months! I managed to net him out, and he`s now in the process of beeing acclimatized to move in with the others. Not bad?

All that remains now is to see if the last one is also behind the background, and then find out where the hell they get in and out

Loaches are amazing. I have some kuhli's that were missing for about a 1.5 years. I think they got trapped underneath my old island structure. When I removed the island, they were found still alive, but a little on the thin side.

They are indeed amazing creatures and a lot hardier than a lot of people give them credit for

That`s for sure I personally think that the big amount of filtration is the main reason for the survival of this sid. Regardless of the other water parameters which most definetly have been very variable in this tank the last months