Our dwarf loaches & danios & a fan page in Facebook

[SMK]

Hello everyone!

I'm new to this forum, only discovered this site recently. I've kept an aquarium for 10 years now and have had many different kinds of fish, but it wasn't until my boyfriend bought me a shoal of seven dwarf loaches as a birthday present 1 1/2 years ago that I fell completely in love with this hobby, and my boyfriend became a loachaholic in no time, too.

The sidthimunki live in a 150 l tank (ab. 35 gallons), currently accompanied only by just two Ancistrus cirrhosus as our tetras were frequently chased by the loaches and had to be transferred to another tank a couple of days ago (which is at my parent's place). We're planning to get a shoal of Danio kyathit or D. choprae to accompany the loaches within a week or so. The tetras liked to spend a lot of time near the bottom and I'm hoping that the danios will swim high enough so they won't be bullied by the loaches. We're also planning to grow the shoal of sidthimunki at least with three new members totalling in 10 loaches - do you have opinions, can the tank hold more? Our local aquarist recommended 10-12. The bottom is 40 x 95 cm (16 x 38 inches) in size.

We also founded a facebook fan page for dwarf loaches. It's free for everyone in Facebook to join so you're most welcome there!

All the best from

Soila
Helsinki, Finland

[JonasBygdemo]

Hi, and welcome to the forum! Sids are nice, too bad they're really expensive here in Sweden, I'd get some if they weren't.

[Katy]

Welcome!

We have both sids and Danio Kyathit in our big (120 gal) tank. I think you will find the Kyathit to be overly active for a 35 gallon tank. They are beautiful but seem to like a lot of swimming space, and they move fast!!!!

[SMK]

Thanks for the wishes Jonas! Dwarf loaches are quite expensive here, too, they cost about 20 euros per fish. How much are they in Sweden? It was lucky for me I got them as a birthday present as I would never had probably dared to try them if I would have had to pay the 140 euros myself.

Katy, thanks a lot for the hint. I had a shoal of D. rerios in this same tank 6-7 years ago and they were really active as you said, constantly swooping back and forth the tank. I thought kyathits were a bit calmer but good to know they are just as active... Perhaps I should consider something else then? The tetras I had were rummynoses (5) and cardinals (2) (both the few remaining fish from larger shoals and I was planning to get some more after we had changed the bottom material from coarse gravel to fine white sand, but then the tetras seemed to be scared of the bottom + bullied by the loaches, so I took them to my parent's tetra aquarium).

Other alternatives I've thought have been Boraras brigittae (would they be small enough to be left in peace by the loaches? And/or I could get a shoal large enough for them not to feel stressed out about the chasing? The tank could perhaps hold as many as 25-30?) and Trigonostigma heteromorpha or T. espei. Then again the trigonostigma might have the same problem as the tetras. Experiences, anyone? I would also be very glad to receive suggestions of other possibilities of dither fish.

Another related question is how many Sids the tank would hold as a maximum, as I don't want to lose space from the Sids by getting too many dither fish. Do you agree with the 10-12 my aquarist suggested?

[SMK]

And oh, Katy, how many Sids do you have? Any tips on how to make them feel comfortable? I've tried to read as much as possible and have increased the number of hiding places, changed the bottom from coarse gravel to sand, increased water flow and oxygenation. I suppose there's nothing more to do with the decoration/technic? Our water here is quite soft and neutral, I've added some mangrove extract to it (originally for the tetras) and we have a HO2 spreader so it's been a bit acidic when we've tested it.

Do you have suggestions for foods, especially live food of their liking? Currently I feed them dried Tetra Delica Mix (flakes with artemia/bloodworms/shrimp/daphnia) and Sera vipachips plus frozen mussels, bloodworm and tropical quintet, usually giving them both dried and frozen every day with different combinations from the foods above.

[SMK]

Sorry, naturally I meant a CO2 spreader.

[Katy]

I think we've los t count on the sids, about a dozen, (they are considerably cheaper here!) and we haven't done anything to make them feel comfortable -- despite their size they seem to be perfectly comfortable hanging out with everyone else in the tank. In fact, I kind of wish our fish would be a bit more discriminatory and hang out in shoals of their own kind, but they all just hang together. I think the sids think they are danios or Kubotai..... silly fish

[piggy4]

Hi SMK , Mad Duff has some really nice Sidthimunki and he has had some success with them spawning for him ! they are really nice in groups .

[soul-hugger]

If you are a Loach Lover, you can relate to one thing: It is SO easy to find bottom-dwelling fish, but the top ones are harder. It seems that those of us who love Loaches love other bottom-dwelling fish as well.

Some of the Danios can be very active. Most of them, though they are small, require a lot of swimming space. The fish you choose must also be robust enough, as you say, to withstand a little bullying from a healthy school of Loaches. I have 3 Sids in my 55 Gallon tank, and from what I can see, they use the entire tank for swimming but usually rest at the bottom.

I would recommend the Cherry Barb (Puntius Titteya). It stays small, is colourful, and comes from the same part of the world as the Sids. The Gold or Schuberti Barb, (Puntius Sachsii) would be another good choice. It is a peaceful fish, but like others in this family, they won't take crap either. They won't always stay near the top, but will use the whole tank instead. They are easy to keep, intelligent, and very easy to feed.

Another fish I would recommend is the Rasbora. Either the Pork Chop (Trigonostigma Hengeli), or Harlequin (Trigonostigma Heteromorpha) would be a good choice. This is another species which comes from Asia and will thrive in the same conditions as the Sids.

If you are looking for something a little less common, just Google either Barbs or Rasboras, and you will find a world of colourful and interesting fish.

soul-hugger

[SMK]

Hi,

Piggy, I've read Max Duff's success story at least five times now and taken hints from there. It's too bad my shoal is probably too small for spawning, but nevertheless I'm planning to try. Found an article on how to imitate climate change from dry to rainy season in a tank and as Thailand has both, I was thinking on combining this article's hints with Max Duff's story and trying out spawning. I'll have to get the dither fish first, though.

Soul-hugger, I can so relate to the problem of finding top fish and the other side of it: having to give up all the bottom dwellers that I can't fit in my small tank. Some day I am sure to be owning several tanks with at least 2 x 1 metre bottoms, I'm sure.

Thanks for the tip about the Cherry barb. I've considered T. heteromorpha (T. hengeli are not available at our aquarist's) but from what I've read so far Trigonostigma would prefer a darker aquarium (dark bottom, a lot of plants, less light) than what is available in our tank at the moment (white/light-coloured sand, a lot of lighting, plants still small/growing). So I'm not sure if they would get overly stressed in all the brightness. Don't know why I haven't really considered barbs - perhaps they would really be a good match to our overactive Sids. I probably got stuck on the danios on the idea that they would fill the empty space in the top of the tank, but after all these disrecommendations I probably should give them up until I have a bigger tank.

Katy, I've sometimes wondered if my Sids think they really are a horde of wild dogs. ;D

- Soila

[SMK]

Some photos of the tank at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37316964@N ... 728748578/

The tank is situated at the end of our sofa for better viewing. Thus both long sides are open. I keep a long tablecloth on top of the aquarium so that the other side is covered most of the time (less stressfull for the fish).

[JonasBygdemo]

Thanks for the wishes Jonas! Dwarf loaches are quite expensive here, too, they cost about 20 euros per fish. How much are they in Sweden? It was lucky for me I got them as a birthday present as I would never had probably dared to try them if I would have had to pay the 140 euros myself.

In Sweden they range from 120-160sek (12-15eur), but they are rarely available.

[SMK]

In Sweden they range from 120-160sek (12-15eur), but they are rarely available.

Hmm, it seems that they're really expensive here then. Wonder if my aquarist is a bit on the expensive side or if there is some reason why they cost so much more here...

[JonasBygdemo]

I've only seen them in real life once, and then they were 120sek, or 125. We found them at ~160sek on an online stocklist. It's hard to say why they seem less expensive here, but maybe Finland have higher taxes for importing animals to shops? I don't know.

Just for comparison: A Clown loach cost between 59-75sek here. A Gibbiceps (pleco) is ~80sek. Sewellia Lineolata is roughly 125sek. Ancistrus is around 45sek. Compare this to your local prices, then we'd be able to see if there's a pattern or just an extra high price on sids...

Edit: I just realized that Finland is using Euro as currency, maybe that has an impact on prices?

[NancyD]

Hi SMK. I keep 9 sids & 6 striatas in a 4ft x 1.5ft tank so I think with only sids you could have 10-12.

I keep rasboras with mine, T. het, T. espei & rasbora borapetensis (red tailed rasboras). The red tails are more danio shaped, my sids don't bother them or the others.

Your tank is very pretty.