Royal Banded Loaches

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Dschaefer
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Nov 09, 2013 10:12 pm

Royal Banded Loaches

Post by Dschaefer » Sun Nov 10, 2013 10:04 am

Hello all. I'm new to the forum and would love to get your advice on an issue.
I currently have 6 clown loaches, 5 blue red tail loaches, and 2 Royal Banded Loaches. I added the RBL's a couple of weeks ago, and in the time since the RBL's have killed 3 angelfish, 2 catfish, and taken nips out of the tails of several of my rainbow fish.
My question is this: are they being so territorial because I only have 2 of them? If I added 4 more, would that balance the other two out so they aren't so aggressive, or would I just be creating a "wolf pack" that would decimate the remaining non-loach fish population?
They get along with the other loaches beautifully, but man are they mean to the other fish. They are particularly nasty when I turn the lights out. Seems the other fish can defend themselves fairly well when the lights are on, but once they are off the RBL's attach relentlessly and the other fish can't see them coming.
I've tried netting them, but my tank is 38" tall, so I've not been successful. I'm trying to avoid draining half the tank since I think I'd lose more fish to the sudden change in water conditions than I would to the RBL's. I've taken to leaving half the tank lights on during the night. That seems to have helped, but I'm not sure that is a viable long term solution.
Any advice or information on RBL's would be greatly appreciated.

Dan
Sarasota, FL

Fishwife
Posts: 31
Joined: Sat Aug 17, 2013 12:37 am
Location: Eugene Oregon

Re: Royal Banded Loaches

Post by Fishwife » Wed Nov 27, 2013 5:04 pm

Latin name?
http://www.bigfishcampaign.org/ .... Don't buy colored or tattooed fish! Let your LFS know you won't stand for it.

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DainBramage1991
Posts: 274
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2012 8:56 pm
Location: Northern New England

Re: Royal Banded Loaches

Post by DainBramage1991 » Sat Nov 30, 2013 9:42 pm

A long term solution would be to put the RBLs in their own tank, then do some research and find out what they are (species), what they need for a setup, and what kind of fish they can be housed with.

Without actually knowing what species they are (common names don't help, different regions have different names for the same fish, and vice-versa), I can only recommend that you don't add more of them. For now, isolate them before they kill the rest of your fish.

I did a Google image search and came up with nothing definite, but the Syncrossus berdmorei showed up more than any others. Here is the link to their info page:
http://www.loaches.com/species-index/sy ... -berdmorei

Please note that they are aggressive.

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