Loaches Online Forum

Well first I purchased 2 and put them in with my weather loaches 4' tank good water flow, loaches are flourishing and growing quite long now, but I noticed that one of the sewellia was missing then the other disappeared as well. I purchased 2 more and decded that maybe they wasn't getting enough food with the loaches being very eager eaters (I feed them once a day) so I put them both in a smaller tank so they would I hoped grow on a bit, there is plenty of algae on the back of the tank also, well within a week I lost one??? again he seemed to just disappear? the other one was fine so after a while I put him in with the loaches again, now he has disappeared also. I won't purchase any more until I can find out what I am doing wrong?? so any ideas?

Val

These graze biofilm from smooth rocks don't they? If that's not abundant they may starve, not forgetting that they are often starving when purchased.

I believe they also need clean, fast flowing water.

I have F-1 (first generation from wild parents) sewellia that were used to Repashy gel food Soylent Green. I don't know if it's available to you, but it's an "auf wuchs" (algae/biofilm) replacement. I have had fry a few times (F-2s) I also have many live plants that help with both water quality & biofilm. What, beside algae, are you feeding?

What are your water GH & KH levels? I have quite soft water & I know parts of the UK have very hard water. How do you acclimate them? If you can get F-1s or F-2s locally they may be better suited to your water.

Bigger fish can outcompete small fish for food especially, grazers that eat slowly but almost continuously. I've never had weather loaches (yet).