hillstream loach??

[confusedHILLSTREAM]

..hmm.. well i am new to all this...
i am in love with the butterfly/hong kong/hillstream loach...
i had a few a while ago but they all died after a few weeks... i have no idea why.. anyway, i recently just sent up a small 15g tank with just one butterfly for now.. the only problem is that it will not eat!!!
...well i dont see it eating and all the food is always just there... (algae wafers) .. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.. i dont want to kill anymore of these cute things...

[Total Package]

It seems to be pretty normal for hillstreams to take some time to acclimate to dry foods.

This may work:

Get a jar and a aquarium safe rock.

Drop the rock(s) in. Fill it with water and put it in front of a window. Add a bit of aquarium fertilizer. That'll make a nice algae covered rock for them to snack on. You may need a couple of these going.

[Martin Thoene]

I'll move your PM over here confusedHILLSTREAM so I can answer the post as well:

i am very new to this hobby.
very very new...
i was just wondering.. where do you get all those different kinds of hillstreams??... with there different colours and markings...
also.. the real question is... i think ive done everything i can to make the tank a good home.. but my one butterfly that i have is not eatting.. i dont know what to do... can you help??... please....???

When you say that you've done everything to make the tank a good home, what does that mean exactly? What is the setup? A 15 gallon tank is a bit small if you intend to keep a few of them.

Total Package is correct about the eating acclimatation. They have to get used to aquarium foods and in the interim need a mature tank with lots of micro-organisms growing on the rocks and aquarium sides for them to graze on. They are likely to starve in a newly set up aquarium when first purchased. Subsequent moving to a new tank is not a problem once they recognize aquarium foodstuffs.

Have you read the LOL articles on Hillstreams?

On this page: http://www.loaches.com/articles

Finding lots of different species is usually a matter of luck. Shipments of primarily one species may contain some other individuals sometimes of several different species. You have to look closely at a tank full of them and sometimes rarities show up. Having a good contact within the trade helps too. My most recent purchases were a complete suprise because I've never seen any hillstreams in that particular shop before and these were some of the most desirable ones.

Martin.

[confusedHILLSTREAM]

thank you both.. i have read a lot of the stuff on the hillstream... but here is where the confusion starts. i read and saw that these hillstream eat algae... but when i went to big al's and asked, they said they dont eat algae. ?!?!?! ... but to get shrimp brine or bloodworms instead... ??.. my first hillstream has a white blemish on him now so i am very worried..!! they said to medicate the entire tank with e.m. ... a.m. ... something??.. it is a tablet that disolves in the water... but i took pics and showed them and they said it isnt ick but may be bacterial..
as for the tank, you are correct. it is a small tank, but the guys at big als said it is big enough for a few of them since there will be nothing else in the tank. i have four. i read they like soft acidic water so i have wood and plants which i heard helps.. lots and lots of smooth rocks and pebbles with about a half inch of pebbles underneath.. a heater set to 74 degrees a very strong powerhead and lots of bubblers... i did read about the 'river tank' ... i wish i could set up something like that.. but it is a small tank and i am new... it seems very confusing. ... right now, the four are doing good.. but they hide as soon as lights are turned on.. and the heater is under rocks and gravel but they stay very close to it which makes me nervous.. im starting to realize that i should have joined and asked all this BEFORE purchasing... and suggestions and recommendations greatly appreciated.. thank you

[confusedHILLSTREAM]

oh.. and about putting a rock in a small container outside.. i read about that and so i put one outside about three days ago.. not too sure how long it takes or if i should flip it or something...
the big als guys said to let the butterflies adjust for about two weeks before introducing food...??.. but i think thats a little mean.. everyday i drop an algae wafer and take it out after a few hours... not eaten though... :*(
... btw my butterflies are ranging from about 1inch to about 1.5inches. and the guy at the store said they were bred and raised in captivity... which all adds even more to my confusion... @.@

[helen nightingale]

i cant really advise you properly as i dont have hillstreams yet, but i will say that if you listen to people like Martin and study the articles on here, and ignore most of the stuff Big Al's have been telling you, that might help your confusion. lots of shops dont have a clue when it comes to hillstreams, and some people just make it up

people like Martin, Emma, Les and others here have bred hillstreams, so they could be right on that

could you put pictures on here? that will enable the experts here to help more. could you also tell us more about the tank? do you know the pH, and levels of nitrate, nitrite and ammonia? how long was the tank set up for before adding the fish?
do you have a theremometer in the tank? heaters dont always give the water temperature they say they do, and if yours is under rocks and stuff, it could be that there isnt very good water flow around it, so the tank will not be a very even temperature.

best wishes, and do feel free to ask anything you are not sure about

[Martin Thoene]

Thanks Helen. Yes, while I don't want to come across as blowing my own trumpet or that of any others here ....and certainly none of us knows it all, I think I can safely say that this is the highest concentration of long-term keepers of Hillstreams on the Internet and advice you'll get here should be trusted.

I'm suprised that you got any sort of feedback from Big Als staff to be honest. Most don't have a clue about these fish. I've been keeping multiple different species since 1998 so I think you could safely say that I've got feeding worked out.

As it states in my article they eat algae, plus the microscopic life-forms that live in it. Therefore they are basically omnivorous and should be given a varied diet.

Martin.

[confusedHILLSTREAM]

yes.. the big als guy was a little cocky to say the least.
anyway.. the tank is very weird.. i think i may not be cut out for this hobby.. the water has started turning VERY yellow!!!... even after water changes... ???... i just read one of the forums on the rocks inside the tak having rust streaks and i noticed that all my rocks have them.. possible cause??.. but i just bought all those rocks from big als for almost $50 dollars!!!!... =p
i will try to post a pic.. but i took some pictures with my camera phone.. does not look good..=(
also.. looks like they are all still very scared.. i cant even find two of them..!! are they trapped somewhere??.. alive?? dead??.. =p
what was supposed to a cute tank set up is now causing much unneeded stress...
oh.. and i also noticed that the plant was rottting.. so i took it out.. not there is only wood and rocks.. =p...
im thinking i will just take all out and start over.. put the hillstreams in my bfs 160 community..??.. they'll probably be happier there anyway...=(
btw.. so algae wafers are good to give them??.. if they are very small wafers.. and there are four hillstreams also very small.. how many should i give and how will they find it??...

[Whitey_MacLeod]

The yellow water is most likely from tannins leaching out from the wood.
If so, it's not going to harm your fish. I've got very yellow water in my hillstream tank, and the fish love it in there

Yellow water:


I'm not an expert on rocks by any means, but I think it's unlikely there's enough iron in them to dicolour the water.

[confusedHILLSTREAM]

thank you... i was wondering if it could have been the wood.. feel better now..

can snails develop on their own??.. i noticed some snails in the tank.. but where did they come from??.. are they okay to leave alone??

and if i dont see a couple of the hillstreams for a few days, should i go in and look for them??.. lifting rocks and such..??

[dlenn]

Snails probably came in with the plants. That's where ours came from we have a lovely colony of snails .......too many grrr.

Ahem stop rant

Hillstreams like to hide! (different species hide more than others) Our Cheni are not that enthusiastic over blood worm or
brine shrimp but I know other people on here have Cheni that love them!. We have fed ours over the years:

Tetra Tabimin (green sinking algae pellets) - green
Nutrafin Sinking complete food tablets - pink - they liked these
Nutrafin Spirulina Algae tablets
Interpet Liquifry No.3 Baby Plus - very small granules mainly for fry
Interpet Liquifry No. 1 for egg laying fish
Frozen bloodworm, daphnia and shrimp (never too successful)
Blanched courgette and chard

(not all at once I hasten to add!)

They will also chow down on goldfish flake food if they float to the bottom

Currently they are loving the wonder food that Madduff recommended from the guy who makes his own on ebay.

When we were worried about our first Wui eating we would put some of the liquifry in the tank then we were sure he was getting something! Eventually he realised that the sinking tablets were food and would go after them but this took a very long time. He now looks sleek and well fed on the add time we see him!

I wouldn't recommend going looking for them unless you haven't seen them for a long time and are V. worried. This may just stress them. If you have rocks in the tank they are probably suckered to the underside of the rocks!

We have some Sinogastromyzon Wui in Our tank and you are very lucky to see any of them at all!

Good Luck!

[shari2]

Hi, confusedHILLSTREAM.

Don't fret. Hillies are very different from your usual community fish. I was worried about mine at first and didn't have any success at getting them to eat flake or algae wafers. All they did was browse the rocks. What i did was defrost a brine shrimp cube on a piece of paper towel, take out one of the rocks I saw them on that was a bit rough, and then dry it and smeared the brine shrimp all over it. They found it pretty quickly (since they were on that rock often anyway) and went nuts. Now, whenever I take the rock out they come up to a nearby rock in waiting mode and attack shortly after I remove my hand. The dithers like it too.

Now they will eat everything. Bloodworms, flake, brine shrimp, algae wafers (but they always seem to wait until the wafers start falling apart before they bother) and pellets.

In their natural habitat there are few plants, just rock and sand and fast moving water. Most of us like plants, and they help absorb nitrates, but they are not essential in a hillstream tank.

do you have any algae in the tank yet? if not, the idea of putting some rocks and fertilizer out in the sun in some water is a good idea.

anyway, be patient, don't worry and give it some time. keep the water clean and moving and watch. he'll settle in.

[Jim Powers]

I forgot about your brine-shrimp-on-the-rock method, shari.
That's a good one to remember. Maybe we need to put something in the hillstream section with suggestions on how to get them to eat since this comes up fairly often.

[confusedHILLSTREAM]

wowzers!! thank you!!
about the 'liquifry'??.. is that just liquid you put into the water so it eventually goes into them without actually being eaten?? (sorry if its a stupid question.. )
and thank you SHARI2!!! that is so simple yet such a smart idea!!!!! im completely wowed!!!
.... i had a few of these before in my boyfriends community tank and out of no where they died one by one.. i think probably because of starving...
i have no other fish in the tank just the four butterflies.. so i really dont want them to die... i will try the shrimp method!!!!!! hopefully it works.
i took out the plant when i noticed it was rotting...
thank you so much again!!!...
really.. im very glad forums like this are here for new beginners.. i read a lot about the hillstreams the first time around, but reading information and hearing suggestions from experienced people really are very different!!
thank you all again!!

[confusedHILLSTREAM]

It seems to be pretty normal for hillstreams to take some time to acclimate to dry foods.

This may work:

Get a jar and a aquarium safe rock.

Drop the rock(s) in. Fill it with water and put it in front of a window. Add a bit of aquarium fertilizer. That'll make a nice algae covered rock for them to snack on. You may need a couple of these going.

i did this... i put a rock into a container with tank water and put it onto my balcony.. it has been there for about two weeks now.. or more.. i just checked on it and nothing... how long does it usually take??..