Hi from a new user. and not certain what these are..

[Mordikar]

I was sold these 3 little guys as "angelicus loaches" and told that as they get older the stripes will expand and form the traditional spotted look. I'm really not so sure I'm buying that and as such I'm not sure what these little guys are.







I would like to know more about them so I can make sure to properly care for them.

What I do know about them is this:
1) They love digging up my new corckscrew vals and occasionally other plants.
2) there are absolutely NO snails in my tank anymore.
3) two of them think they are race car drivers and run back and forth doing laps along the front glass. (is this normal?) Sometimes together, sometimes not, some times in opposite directions.

Sorry for the blurry pics but it's hard to catch them they are so active.


They have a big brother that I know is an angelicus and he gets along well with them



Water parameters (I use API freshwater dropper style master kit)
Temp : 76 f
PH: 7.8 (i know this is high. I am looking into safe preferably non chemical ways to get it back between 7.0 and 7.5 but this is how it started coming from my tap about a month ago)
Amonia: 0.25(I do 30% water changes every week religiously. Water change day is tomorrow)
Nirtite: 0
Nitrate: 0-5 (My tanks are well planted and they seem to eat all the nitrates)

My 60 gallon tank:



My 10 gallon (beside the desk) tank:

[mikev]

Quite blurry indeed but I believe I see a botia histrionica (does not mean that all of your fish are).

[Mordikar]

Thanks. They were moving quite a bit and i was using a bad cell phone camera to try and catch em.

[mikev]

Donno what happened but now I see them on all photos (did you change the photos?--much less blur), yes, b.histrionica... except to the one sitting on the large stone, that is probably b.kubotai.

[Mordikar]

I resized and re-added the images so they'd fit better.

[longshlong]

They look like Botia Histrionica to me, but when they are that size its quite difficult to tell. There isn't, as far as i'm aware too much of a difference in behaviour and they live sympatrically in the wild. Nice fish, iv'e just got a new group myself.

[Mordikar]

This does leave me with one concern though. This leaves me with only 1 angelicus loach. I don't really have room in the tank for more fish right now.

I know they are supposed to be kept in groups. It seems that he gets along and plays well with the b.histrionica. Will they function adequately for a group for him?

[mikev]

You probably do have space... b.kubotai is a *very* slowly growing species, histrionica is a faster growing one. (this is btw one way to confirm the id). I'd consider getting some more kubs, they are beautiful --- if you live long enough for them to mature

[NancyD]

How big are your loaches? It's often hard to tell kubotai from histrionicas when they are small...not that either is a bad choice, just get more of any "others". Lots of foods & water changes will help them grow faster ... but they do seem histy than kubs...for the most anyway.

[Mordikar]

I have had them maybe a month or so. definitely no more than 2.
they are about 1 1/2 to 2 inches long.

I have been alternating their food. One day i will feed heavy on the flake food so some gets to the bottom before the rest of the tank mates get to it, the next day I will toss in a small hand full of bottom feeder pellets that are shrimp based. and then the next i'll toss in a few extra algae wafers.

[Mordikar]

with the 4 botias, the eventual size of the pleco (he's maybe 3 or 4 inches now) and the two black angels, and my platy horde. I really don't want to put anymore fish in.

I'd love a 125gallon, or even a 210, but the wife has already looked at me with the stern face and told me no more tanks. (I have the 60 and the 10, and my daughter has a 5 in her room with some shrimp and a couple mollies)

[mikev]

Loaches should be kept in groups, at least 5 in each species, better more. Actually your own photos show that two likely histrionicas school together.

125g is not needed for these, it is the size you want if you were to keep clowns.

My living room 65g (which is actually worse than your 60g! -- smaller footprint) has a dozen of adult kubs, and other fish, including a 14" pleco. Works perfectly.

Here is how an adult kub looks like:



You can see more photos here:
http://rainbow-fish.org/fishpic/kubs

hth

[Mordikar]

Ok i just have a lot of fish and didn't want to over stock the tank. You see all the time where people overstock the tank, and then fish start getting sick and die. Trying my best to be responsible.

Total current stock is:
7 platys
2 Mollys
2 black angels
1 true Siamese algae eater
1 flame dwarf gourami
3 Serape tetra
1 pleco
1 kubotai
3 probably histis


I was concerned I was getting overboard.

At the same time i'm running an emperor 400 HOB and a c-360 canister filter.

[mikev]

That's the problem of trying to have too many different animals in the same tank.... you either end up overcrowded or make the fish unhappy by not providing them with sufficiently large groups, this is true not just for loaches but also for example for tetras (8 is considered the minimum #, surely not 3.)... fewer species and larger groups tends to work better.

[longshlong]

I'd definitely put more loaches in there. A few more won't make much difference to the over all stocking and you'd have happier loaches.