Loaches Online Forum

Hello everyone,

I have managed to get hold of 20 chain loaches btw 3.5cm to 5cm. They seem rather lively and school tightly. They're kept with a breeding pair of angles in a 2ft tank, with gravel and potted crypts. I use a small power filter and change 40% of the water once a week.
My concern is that they don't seem to be interested in feeding. I've had them for about a week, and I assume they've settled down and should be eating well, but they're not. I use Hikari Lionhead sinking pellets.
So what's the deal? Is there anything I can do to fatten them up. What should I try, I don't want to use tubifex/blackworms. Are the angles the problem?

Thanks
Fatty500

That's a nice shoal of Sid's, but the tank they are in is to small really for that many Sid's they should really be in a 3ft tank at the bare minimum. It may be personal preferance but I wouldnt keep Sid's with Angels, there is the possibility of problems from either party but the fact that the Angels are a breeding pair could explian why the Sid's are not feeding, have the Angels shown any signs of territorial aggression towards the Sid's

I have noticed that Sid's don't seem to take foods that equally sized Loaches would. Mine started eating flake straight away and also eat JMC High protein granules, they will take most frozen foods like black midge larvae, white midge larvae, daphnia, cyclops, bloodworm and artemia.

There will always be a couple of braver fish in the shoal, if you can get these to come out and feed the others should follow suit. I have found them to be quite a deceptive fish where food is involved, I have had Striata and Rostrata as small as the Sid's that would readily take larger pellets and even mysis shrimp but the Sid's wont really entertain the slightly larger foods.

Yes, pictures would be great!

Here's something I just whipped up. Not the best pic
The algae eater, stage left, is filling in for one of the sids.
I bought the first 10 on impulse, and went back for more the next day
To my suprise, there were still heaps left. Going price was about 2.8 GBP or 5.5 USD. Over here in Australia, we didn't get them imported until a couple years ago. I've wanted to have a go at these fish ever since I first started keeping fish years ago. Though being in Australia, I didn't get my hopes up. But here they are, and now I've got a whole bunch of them in my tank.
Woo Hoo

Great find!!!

It's so nice to see so many of them together. I'm sure they are lots of fun to watch. Someday I hope to have a nice group of them.

Thanks for sharing.

I have to echo what Mad Duff has already said. A 2ft tank is not big enough long term for these loaches. Despite their comparitively diminuitive size, they do still need room to swim with fast bursts of speed when they choose to. A 2ft tank is too restrictive and it's not so easy to keep conditions as stable as they could be in a larger tank.

You will need to feed them on a variety of foods, not just sinking pellets. They usually appreciate the smaller frozen foodstuffs such as white mosquito larvae, brinehrimp, and for smaller specimens: baby brineshrimp, cyclops and daphnia.

Emma