Loaches Online Forum

A few weeks ago disaster struck one of my tanks. I had cichlids in it, Theraps lentiginosum, a species from rapids in Mexico, but suddenly they all died. I think, one of them died, poisoning the water, which killed the others.

Still, I want other fish in it. Preferably loaches, BUT will the tank be suitable?

It measures 177 * 45 * 40 cm, that is 5 feet 10 * 18 inches * 16 Inches. Its with is larger then the height.

It contains some 318 liters - bruto. I think there is in real 250 liters of water. I have a pump fixated (that is, I can not exchange it for another type) in the internal filter which pump 2500 liters of water an hour, through a pipe to the other side, so the water will flow 10 times an hour through the filter.

BUT this pump uses 38 watts, and this will increase the water temperature by 4 degrees above room temperature.

Apart from a few hot weeks in summer, the temperature will, therefore, be 24 - 26 C.

What can I have? It is a bit warm for hillstream loaches, and the tank is somewhat small for Batiacids

Sids zouden leuk zijn
=sids would be nice.
or how about darios? Striata would fit nicely aswell. With some ditters too ofcourse, and maybe some horsefaces?
will the pump return to the other side to make a bit of a river?

It sounds ideal for a lot of types of fish, although I can't advise about loaches really. Have you thought about panda loaches as part of the stocking?

the tank is somewhat small for Batiacids

5' tank small? maybe one can argue about it being small for clowns, but for nearly any other botia it is either appropriate or excessively large.

I would suggest any species up to about 6" that can handle the temperature.
Yoyos (B. almorhae) with a school of something sturdy, not too small- perhaps one of the mid sized Rainbow fish?
Botia dario
B. kubotai- very active, and willing to investigate all parts of the tank.

so - a lot more is possible than I thought. sidheymunckey are already intended for another tank.

I was concerned the depth - 45 cm or 18 inches would be too little. Thanks, all

So which will it be? Maybe H. Orthogoniata would fit such a long low tank? Looking at the yoyos here, the height is insufficient.

I have not decided yet. The local fish store had not much, and in the next few week, I have not much plans for going far away.

I mean, Duisburg is 100 km, in Amersfoort one can find a good store, and this is 80 km.

For me that is both a bit far away

maybe look up rifwachter in hilversum. big shop, educated people, with a lot on offer and a lot of changeing offer. not cheap though.

Do you know Utaka in Amersfoort? Not far from Hilversum, but a good choice, and not expensive.

However, for Asia they only have rather small tanks - therefore they will not have big fish.

I am a bit lfs-less myself too. Mine closed a year ago when the owner got sick. The other shop here isn't much to my liking. Did see the sids there, thats why i mentioned them.
i actually work in amersfoort and hilversum. The shop in hsum is closest to work, so i have never been to utaka. I might have a look though.
I buy equipment in ede(best prices) but they have a limited offer on fish there.
i am not familiar with anything more to the east.

I live in Nijmegen, and we do have a rather good fish-shop (De Maanvis), but loaches is not what they are good in. Lamentably.