Loaches Online Forum

Those are quite handsome, whatever yours turn out to be. Are they eating well?

Hi Nancy. Yes, they ate NLS pellets almost immediately after I put them in the tank. I fed them yesterday again and the way they eat is more like ottos or pleco would munch on a pellet rather than sifting and expelling the food through their gills like the other hillstreams do. I am quite relieved to be honest as eating fish food means healthier fish long term. They also appear less skittish. Size wise at the moment they're the same as the Gastros but twice as narrow and I have not seen any of them yet chase a Gastro, but the other way around. This could change of course once they settle but for now they don't quite act like the other hillstreams. They also seem a bit more comfortable moving in open space by swimming rather than hopping from stone to stone.

Also, the white patch seems to have disappeared. That loach had it when in the shop as well but I think it was probably a stress patch of some sort for it to go away that fast. The owner said he had got about 10-12 of them and that 2 of them died upon delivery but the rest did ok and he sold most except for what was left. I got the last 3. He's normally honest about the health of the fish he sells, although he didn't stop me from knowingly purchasing a sick clown loach last year , which was my choice of course...

So finally took a picture of one of the loaches. Here it is below. Any ideas what type?
Looking at the zebra pattern I think they could be Pseudogastromyzon Cheni?

A couple of more pictures:

I was comparing mine to the below picture of Pseudogastromyzon Cheni...look very similar...I can't quite see the dorsals of mine yet. They don't tend to spread them out at all...

http://www.fishbase.se/photos/PicturesS ... s&TotRec=2

Well, could be P. cheni...you know I'm terrible at IDs. Maybe Jim Powers or Charles K. will have a look, I think they've kept them, as several others likely have.

You might start a new thread for help, this 1 is getting long for many "casual" readers, lol.

Thanks Nancy. I suppose I should open a new thread for the ID. I've been too lazy

I passed by my local shop today and the owner said he's getting two types of hillstream loaches next week and to come and check them out. And I will There could be something interesting again.

New loaches!

I think they maybe Gastromyzon Ocellatus?

HI
Yes. G. ocellatus.
About Pseudogastromyzon: NO idea. I have some pics of identified P. cheni and P. myersi. But that's based on the key seen on loaches profiles. By pattern and coloration we have no clue to identify them.
Cheers Charles

Thanks Charles.

I am myself still undecided what the Pseudogastromyzons I have are. They do have a slight coloration on the dorsal, transparent yellow with red edges but the colour itself is not as pronounced as the coloration of the Gastros. Also, their overall colors are grey/black/whitish and not brown/cream like the gastros. Regardless, they're some really active fish and rarely, if ever hide, unlike the gastros which love going under the stones. I can see all 3 Pseudogastros every time I look in the tank..

So far they're all getting well together and there isn't excessive pushing, if anything, things are better with the increased loach load dominance wise. I also saw the Ocellatus going for some fish food here and there so they seem to be eating. One stayed pale for a while but the rest colored up pretty fast. The pale one, however, was out and about eating fish pellets so not worried right now.

Its been extremely warm here so the loaches are subjected to quite higher temperatures right now unfortunately. I hope they handle it well. We don't get these warm spells for very long, unfortunately

I'm glad they're eating well for you! That's much more important than an ID