Do hillstream loaches sift through sand?

[NancyD]

Those look like mine usually do, but it's hard to judge size. Must be all the pellets

I've seen different LEDs, some have colors I don't care for & there seems to be, like you said, quite a difference in quality & plant growing abilities. We have solar electric panels for almost all of our usage so the incentive to change over is much less right now Many people make their own but I'm not into that kind of DIY

[Loachloach]

Those worms are quite the hungry bunch. I am surprised at how much they can eat....
I also didn't need to siphon poop since I put the worms. I don't know if the loaches stopped pooping or the worms ate the poop too

Earlier today I was reading someone's old thread about his/her new G.Ctenocephalus. That person got them eating almost immediately on food called Mazuri gel food. I don't think they sell that heer There was even a video and the loaches were fighting over it. I am so jealous

[NancyD]

Yes, I think Mazuri is long gone. They also used to make baby bird foods from back in my bird keeping/rehabilitation days.

A poop eating animal that is also fish food? Sounds too good to be true, lol.

[Loachloach]

Yesterday I fed NLS pellets twice and put one stone covered with repashy. Normally the entire lot would still be there the next day and I'd siphon it, plus poop all over around the stones near the inlet/outlet where it gets blown.

Today there's just a bit of repashy left around one stone. There's no poop around the stones where it normally gathers and that's also where the worms have decided to set premises...There is a bit of poop around a stone under the driftwood. That's about it but it's very little in comparison. I don't know why there is less poop, could be the worms, could be for another less pleasant reason.....The loaches are quite active otherwise. They're almost always out now doing about their business. There is lots of fights and chasing though. I feel sorry for some of the loaches. Having said that, my beufortia also bully each other.

Also, the baby G.Scitulus that had gone through traumatic experience is recovering. His tail area looked like it was skinned, now its getting it's colour back. He's active and eating around the stones. I am now positive it's not a G. Scitulus but it is another G.Ctenocephalus, just a baby version of them as he's about 1/3rd size of the others. He doesn't have the large white dots on the back and the tail is like that of G.Ctenocephalus. So I still have just one G.Scitulus. And I think all other loaches are bullying the G.Scitulus. He ends up on the side of the tank a lot more than any other loach and even the baby one is better tolerated...

I also took your advice and put more water when making the repashy. I also didn't put it on stones but let it settle and cut it in cubes It seems to hold way better now

[NancyD]

I'm happy everyone is settling in now. Maybe the worms eat any undigested parts in the poop & make smaller droppings than the loaches? Magic poo?

I'm also glad the Repashy is working better for you. Like I've said before, I don't think I would have tried hillstreams without it.

It'll be interesting to see how the small "scitulus" grows. My sewellia are very slow growers, my ctenos were adults.

[Loachloach]

Thanks Nancy.

The worms cleaned up the remaining bits by the evening and the sand was spotless clean. The sand is quite bright beige colour and every bit of detritus shows up very well but the last few days it has stayed relatively clean since the introduction of the worms. This morning there was not one bit food left anywhere to be seen, neither there was poop.

I put a block of repashy over a large flat stone yesterday. The loaches avoided it all day. The loach that set premises on the same stone cleaned around it all day but not once did he land on the repashy. When I took it out in the evening, the repashy piece was almost intact, but of course started to fall apart as I touched it. The loaches are just not going for any food so the repashy may not be the problem.

In the beaufortia tank, anything I put gets eaten. They don't care what it is, they go for it. And they're very inventive at how they eat it. The other day one loach was on the glass upside down with his nose near the substrate. I had just fed NLS pellets. He started nosing the substrate near the substrate. At first I thought he was trying to get to the bits of green algae near the substrate I hadn't cleaned. Then I see him lifting up two NLS pellets, tucking them between the glass and his body, rolling them up and swallowing them at once. The remains flew out of his gills. So he didn't even bother sand sifting with the rest, lol.

[Loachloach]

A couple of loach pictures.








And here you can see the worms sticking out of under the stones,lol. They ate another lot of pellets and I just dropped more. The way they're going I may have enough to feed all my tanks, lol. My other half was disgusted with the view

[NancyD]

They look good! They must be eating more than the little bit of algae on the rocks or they'd be getting skinny, don't you think? Maybe they eat some worms when you're not looking?

[Loachloach]

I hope so Nancy.

I saw the occassional loach sand sifting when I went over. There is also food available all the time just in case. Who knows, they may be getting bits of it when I am not there.... Also, yesterday I could see a slight green tint on the rocks so something is growing. It is still too early to relax about the loaches....

[Loachloach]

I wanted to show some progress. I think some loaches are indeed fattening up....or so I hope and imagine.

Anyway, this is the G. Scitulus the day I got him.



And here is he now. The picture quality gets worse but the loach looks fatter?



And below is a short video of the same loach as he's at the moment.

https://youtu.be/qMdVlrlvH7I

[Loachloach]

Also, to add to the above...I came home late tonight. All the food I put yesterday evening was completely gone. The fish poop is still nowhere to be found. Sand is spotless. I haven't siphoned(but I did water changes) since I put the worms in last Friday, so nearly 5 days now.

I sprinkled another load of NLS pellets and sat down for no more than 5-10 minutes watching the tank. In that period of time one loach sand sifted about 4 times around the stones, same area where the worms are and the NLS pellets are. I can't even tell if he's going for the NLS pellets(which by the way are very loved by my older beaufortia) of if he was going for the worms, but he was definitely eating something. They maybe accidentally tasting the NLS pellets while searching for the worms as I've since been placing the food where the worms are. Either way, the worms are helping out with the sand sifting and searching for food. I haven't seen a skinny loach yet, though it is hard to tell because starving fish would hide all the time and what I see is only the active, fat ones. But I hope this is not the case.

[NancyD]

I hope they are eating pellets or worms...or algae. They don't look thin at all, who knows?

[Loachloach]

Thanks Nancy. I hope so.

I think someone is eating the food and someone is also eating the worms. There are a lot less sticking out from under the stones now...

I may need to order worms again but there's a chance the fish have started gobbling on some of the pellets I put for the worms. There's a lot of sifting going on.

[NancyD]

How did your microworm cultures work out? I killed off my banana worms, I think they got too hot I couldn't really see much of a size difference, maybe it's just me

[Loachloach]

How did your microworm cultures work out?

They didn't. I haven't seen one worm yet inside....It's been a few days.... Unless they are....Micro-scopic