Loaches Online Forum

I'm restarting my 50 gal tank from zero and would love to keep sids as I hear so much good things about them. So I came to ask questions to sid owners.

- They love flow, but how much of it? Is my Eheim e900 (about 250 gal/hour) sufficient or should I place a powerhead? If so, which one and how should I orientate it?
- Can I keep cardinal tetra's with sids or are sids too active for them? Will cardinals cope with moderate flow? What other colorful schooling fish do you recommend? What other tank mates should I consider?
- Can I keep them with dwarf shrimp (1" adults) or will they feast on them? I don't mind losing some baby shrimp as long as my shrimp stock stays stable or increases.
- What plants and decorations do you recommend?
- What other things should I know about them?

Thanks guys!

Koeny wrote:Can I keep cardinal tetra's with sids or are sids too active for them? Will cardinals cope with moderate flow? What other colorful schooling fish do you recommend? What other tank mates should I consider?

Personally, I'm thinking of transforming a tank into a sidheymunckey tank, so I'm quite interesed in the answers for your questions.

However, I'm thinking of Y sidheymunckey and Trigonostigma heteromorpha, the harlequin rasbora. These come from the same water, as your Botias, but contrarily to cardinals, they prefer the upper half of the tank, not the bottomhalf which cardinals prefer where your sidheymunckey will dwell.

decoration - wood, flat and vertical, and some plants - Cryptocoryne in the middle and some Hygrophylia on the sides. And a few red stones

I've kept sids a few times, they don't bother plants IME or other fish. I like to keep their tank "Asian" with rasboras rather than tetras, r. borapetensis, t.espei or harlequins were all nice & could handle a bit of flow. I don't think I'd trust them with cherry shrimp or very small fish, they're a little boisterous & might harass them. Sids may like some flow but IME don't really "need" it. Instead of a powerhead I'd probably do another filter. That way you can really clean 1 filter, then the other 2 weeks later. You'll love sids activity, awesome little fish!

Pretty much all true aquatic plants are just fine with Sids, it will depend on the lights and if you are going to add CO2.

Ditto the other comments:
Cardinal Tetras are slightly light phobic and tend to stay lower in the tank.
Sids are among the mid-tank swimmers at times, more so than many other Loaches, but still, let them have the bottom half of the tank and select some upper tank fish.

Double check the temperature requirements for these.

Glass Cats,
Certain Killies,
Most Rasboras,
Splashing Tetras,
Danios,
most Rainbow Fish. Many Rainbows will thrive in hard or soft water, (their native rivers and streams vary through the year) but there are a few that prefer one or the other, so do a little research.

I would not trust them with shrimp.

I have about a dozen Sids in my 30 gallon Barb tank.
There are some Anubias plants, rocks and driftwood.
I do have a powehead to move water in one section of the tank.
The Sids move from the current to the calmer parts of the tank and back again all the time