Loaches Online Forum

I have recently acquired a rather large tank with two of them, a tiger barb, two catfish, a knife and many many mickey mouse platys. However, I am having trouble finding any information on them. The lady who gave the tank to me searched locally and did not find anyone who knew anything about them either.

Unfortunately, I do not have a decent camera to take a photo, but I can site this page at loaches.com http://www.loaches.com/species-index/pi ... cker-mouth that has a picture of the species. Mine are a little more cream coloured.

~ty!

-=note=- Have figured it out what kind of fish it is (Chinese Algae Eater, golden variety) but would love to hear your stories about them!

Hey

If you go to the Aquarticles website (www.aquarticles.com) you will find a very informative article on these fish.

Regards David

I don't know about the golden variety but the other ones are horrible things.

two CAE,
a tiger barb,
two catfish,
a knife
many many mickey mouse platys

CAE can do a good job on algae when they are young, but get more aggressive as they mature, and seem to need more protein in their diet. They have been caught in the act of sucking the slime coat off their tank mates.

Tiger Barb is an aggressive schooling fish that is well known for nipping their tank mates. Especially when they are kept in small numbers. It seems the best way to keep a small amount of these is in a tank not smaller than about 30 gallons, then you could keep about half a dozen of so, and no other fish. In a much larger tank you could keep a larger school and hope they keep their nipping to themselves.

The Catfish family is one of the largest fish families there is. Can you ID these?

There are several knives in the hobby, ranging from 'acceptable in a large enough tank', to 'should not be available' tank busters. They are electrical fish in that they sense their surroundings by an electrical field. Unique and interesting fish if the tank is large enough for the one you have. Do you know which one it is?

Platies are fun beginner fish. They are quite willing to breed. If they are all one color type then you may be able to sell them to the local fish store, and at least get some store credit. Otherwise the babies are eaten by most other fish. Still, the population can climb to the point that the filtration and your water changes are not enough.

If you can post the dimensions of the tank we can tell you how many gallons or liters it is.