Sids or striatas? Or....?

[AnneH]

Hi,

I'm new here and in need of some advice. I have a 160 litre tank (42 gl?) with a variety of fish. I got them from a friend who among them kept a single yoyo without knowing anything about the species. I am now trying to give the different species what they need to be happy, and meanwhile I have grown very fond of the poor yoyo.
Keeping a yoyo alone and in a 42 gl tank is not at all ok, so I am trying to find a new home for him. I would, however, love to have other loaches in the future, and after weeks of reading and watching videoclips I think sids or striatas might be peaceful enough to share the space with other fish.

Here are my concerns, because I seriously don't know which to go for:

1. If I love the way the yoyo moves around in the tank and all of its strange behaviour, wouldn't striatas be more like it than the sids?

2. Could I possibly keep some of the fish I have already (e.g. guppies and long fin danios) with any of them? Or would the loaches tend to be nippy (in that case I would get rid of the other fish)?

3. How many striatas would be a good number? Or how many sids? The tank contains lots of plants, rocks, roots and other hiding places.

4. Would it be a bad idea to buy new loaches while I wait for somebody to come and get my yoyo (it might take a while, they don't seem to be very popular here in Denmark), or should I rather wait? He has proved a little aggressive towards the cories (he ate an eye of two of the poor things before I could move them to my other tank), so maybe he would be rude... or would he instead be likely to to enjoy some loach company?

5. Please tell me why you personally love the sids or the striatas more. I have read about both, I have watched them on videoclips and in the petshop, but I lack the personal experience (... and my husband would never accept more or bigger fish tanks, he is jealous already).

I would be very grateful for your response.

[zenins]

I have sids, yoyos and striatas in various aquariums.

If you are keeping the yoyo, then striatas would be a good choice, at least 3, but 5 is better.

I would not put the sids in the same tank as the yoyo.

If you rehome the yoyo elsewhere, even your local pet shop, then I would get at least 6 sids, 9 is better.

Good Luck and keep us posted as to what you choose to do.

Some photos would be nice too

[AnneH]

So you think I could actually keep the yoyo with a good handful of striatas?

[bookpage]

I would not keep the yoyo by itself. And, I think the aquarium is too small for it.

I like sids more than striata. I have both in a 75 gallon tank and the sids are much more active.

Here is a video of them at feeding time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMLMD11G ... ature=plcp

[NancyD]

I agree, sids are much more outgoing than the shyer striatas, but I like them both. But I think I give the lone yoyo to a lfs, it's bigger, needs it's own kind & really isn't a good fit with the smaller loaches. I don't know the dimensions of a 42g, it's not a "standard size" in the US.

[AnneH]

Thank you all for your answers and advice

Both the sids and the striatas appeal to me and I don't mind the fish being shy if it is part of their natural behaviour (at daytime the yoyo hides a lot too). But do both the sids and the striatas move and dance the way that the yoyo does? I can watch it for hours

I am already trying to find a new and better home for the yoyo because I understand that I cannot offer him the space and company he needs (I just hoped for a second that I might keep him anyway because of the first answer to my initial questions). Unfortunately so far only people living quite far away from me have shown interest, but I'm not giving him away until I know somebody else can offer him a better home than the one he has now.
Actually I thought about giving him to a LFS, but if I do, I risk him being sold to somebody who do not know what he needs. Unfortunately many lone yoyos are sold in Denmark to people as an easy solution to a snail problem - without knowing anything about the fish and its needs.

[Diana]

Striatas are more of a bottom species like the Yoyo. Mine (striatas) never did any of the weird Loach things, they just grouped together near the back of the tank. They were more active in the evening.

Sids tend to travel more willingly, more often higher up in the tank, and if any Loach was a schooling fish, sids are the closest to this behavior.

In a 160 liter tank (Depending on what else you go with) I would look at perhaps 6-8 striata and a dozen sids. You could go with more if you do not have a lot of other fish.

Striatas ate all my Red Cherry Shrimp, but did not eat very many Endler Livebearer babies. They may have eaten some, though, the Endlers were not reproducing so fast when the striata were in their tank. There were no pond snails in that tank, and I think the striatas were also attacking the Malaysian Trumpet Snails. I saw a lot of bare shells on the floor of the tank.

Sids are OK for snail control, but IME they cannot handle the adult snails. Very few baby snails survived, though. I do not have shrimp in any of the tanks with sids.

Look into another Loach, which seems to be a bit friendlier toward other fish, and I see them during the day, and I have seen them do the odd things that other Loaches do. I currently have these Loaches in a tank with some Rainbow Fish, Clown Barbs and several catfish. There are plants, rocks and driftwood. Almost every time I look at the tank I can see at least one of these guys, often several. They get a bit larger than the striatas, so maybe stop at 6 in your tank.

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/botia-kubotai

[AnneH]

Wow, I looked the kubotai up and they are really beautiful.
I do have lots of plants, rocks and driftwood in my tank plus other hiding places. I do, however wonder if a 160 litres tank would be big enough for them, it seems that they grow as big as 11-13 centimetres?! I was told that 160 litres would not be big enough for yoyos, and my yoyo is as big as that.

Also, I read somewhere that the kubotai only tend to live for 3-4 years? This really surprised me because the other loaches I have read about can live as long as 10 years or even more.
What is your experience with the lifetimes of the kubotai?

[Diana]

The ones I have now are only about 3" long (8 cm) and are about 2 years old. I do not know how long they live. I had some several years ago, but I am afraid I do not have good luck keeping fish alive to any record age.

How long is your tank? I could see kubs in a tank of about 1 meter, or longer. Mine are in a 4' tank (1.2m).

[AnneH]

The tank is exactly 1 meter long. I have now read about the kubotai in several places and some of them recomend tanks not smaller than 250 or even 375 liters.

It is becoming more and more difficult to decide. The kubotai look wonderful and I like the way their temper is described - especially if they are loach dance experts like the yoyos
But then again: if the tank is not big enough to keep them really happy and if they only live for a few years...

Still, this is the species that, according to your experience, is the most peaceful and the one you would recommend for my tank?

[bookpage]

Still, this is the species that, according to your experience, is the most peaceful and the one you would recommend for my tank?

There is almost a foot difference between 1m and 1.2m. They need that extra length for swimming. JMO, but I think you should get sids or striata for the size tank that you have. Or, get a bigger tank if you want yoyo and/or kubotai.

[AnneH]

I really appreciate your opinion and I am grateful whenever somebody takes the time to answer.
When reading the descriptions of the species on the different sites, many of them disaggree on the minimum size of tank, and I would not want to give the poor things too little space for swimming. Unfortunately my husband would not enjoy more/ bigger fish tanks in the house, so chosing the right kind of fish is the only option... and that is why I ask you

Why do you prefer the sids? Just because they are more active than the striatas or are there other reasons?
From just seeing them (rather inactive) in the lfs they all looked beautiful, but I was unable to tell their common behaviour in the small tanks they were kept in (that is also why I ask about your experiences). I would love to have several of the loaches, but the ones doing the loach dance the way the yoyo does would be the first ones to catch my eye.

[bookpage]

Sids move around in the water at all levels; whereas, striata stay mostly on the bottom. I have 7 striata in with my 30+ sids in the 75 gallon tank. And I have 9 large sids in my 125 gallon tank.

You can also put more sids into your tank than you could pet striatas. Not all loaches do the loach dance. I have found that once my loaches are in there home for 4-5 months they do not do there loach dance very often at all. Other's mileage may very.

I posted a link to my sids feeding, but here is a link to my YouTube channel that has 17 videos of my fish and tanks.

http://www.youtube.com/user/bookpage1?feature=mhee

[AnneH]

Hoooowww I wish that I could have a few more tanks... So many beautiful loaches... They are amazing to watch . If my husband ever changed his mind, I would buy a tank big enough for kubotais, sids, striatas, yoyos and maybe even clowns.

But at the moment I think I'll go for the sids. Just a shame that they are rather expensive here in Denmark, but then again: if I can manage to keep them alive for many years, they will be worth it in the end
So by now I think I know more or less what I need to know before making the final decision. Then time will tell when I actually make the move. Sids are not always available in my LFS.

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts

[AnneH]

Time flies and sometimes good things happen. I found a good home for the lonely yoyo (with other yoyos ) and decided to leave my 160 litres tank as it was. Meanwhile I got "permission" from my husband to get a bigger tank, so now I can finally have a loach tank with a nice group of kubotai as the main attraction.

If anybody wants to read more about it, I'll keep you updated here: http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=24935 (but it will be a slooooowly progressing project, so I must advise you to be patient )