Tiny Horse Faced loach

[starsplitter7]

Hello,

I have been reading this forum for quite some time. Thank you for all the great information and wonderful pictures. I joined today, because I have a question I hope you can help me with. A little background, but I promise this is loach related. I am new (two years) to keeping my own fish, although I did care for AMIGO, a Tilapia born on the space shuttle a few years back, after he returned to earth. My first introduction to a fish, and he was great -- full of personality.

I have found I absolutely adore Loaches and Catfish -- I have 3 Skunk Loaches, who are busy, but not aggressive, 5 Clown Loaches, 4 Dojos (my favorite -- remind me of puppies), 2 YoYos, 4 Polka Dot Loaches (a type of Schistura), 3 Zebra Loaches and 2 tiger botias (not sure of the type -- they are small and I keep an eye on them, so far, no aggression). These fish are not all in the same tank. I have six tanks, and I am in the process of cycling a new 55-gallon. Don't worry, I am using Danios to cycle, and I am using a mature filter. The tank is zeroed out.

I have a small "growing out" tank I use when I have fish who are too small to join the other communities. It has small smooth gravel and a pan of sifted, washed sand. A mix of live and plastic plants and a few decorations for hiding areas. My 3 main chemistries are 0 for Ammonia and Nitrite and 5 for Nitrate. In this tank I have 3 3-inch Horse Faced loaches -- Acantopsis choirorynchus (Not longnoses), a 3-inch yellow tailed spiny eel, 2 1-inch Skunk cory cats, some guppy fry and a 2-inch halfbeak (ghost shrimp and a few snails: cleaning crew). I have no predation and no rough play, but the eel and Horses dive into the gravel and sand with gusto spraying gravel and sand throughout the tank.

I recently brought home another Horse Faced Loach and did not realize at the store how incredibly small it is in relation to the other fish. About 2 cm long, maybe 4 mm high and 3 wide). Very cute. The eel and three larger Horse Faced Loaches hang out in the sand and gravel with their noses sticking out, and the tiny Horse Faced Loach sits on the sand nearby. I have seen him nosing in the sand and sifting the sand out his gills, and he looks good. He's active, not skittish.

Could you tell me what I should be feeding this tiny fish? I feed the tank 2-3 times a day very small amounts of freeze dried Daphnia, frozen blood worms, fortified frozen brine shrimp, flakes, livebearer food with tubifex, algae wafers and shrimp pellets (sometimes I add different foods for nutritional variety). I do make sure some of the food reaches the bottom of the tank. I never see any of the Horse Faced Loaches eating, but the larger ones are growing, so I figure they must be eating something. I have had them three months.

I am in the habit of doing partial water changes every week. My fish really seem to enjoy it.

Thank you very much for your advice. Sorry for such a long post; I will try to contain myself in the future. I am a bit enthusiastic about my fish. Tanja

[Marcos Mataratzis]

Welcome to LOL Tanja!

Could you tell me what I should be feeding this tiny fish?

I think you´re doing a good job there. I would say stop woring about that.
As you said, other ones are growing up despite you can´t see them feeding. So, just keep going!

[starsplitter7]

Thanks Marcos!

I have really enjoyed the pictures you have posted. Tanja

[cybermeez]

You can try crushed flake food. He'll likely be the first to find the tiny bits that the other fish overlook. Another option is newly hatched brine shrimp (nauplii). Brine shrimp are really only nutritious when they have their yolk sack still attached and even then I would not recommend it be the only food you feed. However, when brine shrimp lose itheir yolk sack(after 2 or 3 days) they become the nutritional equivalent of McDonalds Happy Meal.

[newshound]

However, when brine shrimp lose itheir yolk sack(after 2 or 3 days) they become the nutritional equivalent of McDonalds Happy Meal.

L O L
I try to feed my horses after lights out. They are most active and alot of my other fish aren't.

[starsplitter7]

Now I have 3 Tiny Horse Faced Loaches. I decided to rescue the last two. They were in a tank of 1.5" Tiger Barbs that were thinking these little morsels were entertaining and maybe tasty. The new ones are a couple mm longer, not much bigger. I will take all the advice I have been given by everyone and try it out. I always do a feeding right before lights out because each of my tanks has night feeders.

I have been giving the tiny HFL crushed flakes along with everything else, so hopefully everything will be okay. This morning I caught the one giving me heart failure slurping down a spirulina enriched brine shrimp, so maybe I jumped the gun in posting such a long, worried note. Thanks to everyone. I appreciate all the help. Tanja.

[newshound]

wake up in the middle of the night and feed them. You know the middle of the night when you can't sleep or have to visit the can.
That way you are sure that most are asleep except the night owls...
ps-do it in total darkness

[starsplitter7]

That made me chuckle. I was an Astronomer for 15 years, and so I am NightOwl and tend to roam in the dark. Messes up your night vision to turn on the lights. Sometimes I sit up late with a very dim flashlight and watch my night fish. I'll drop some food a few hours after dark. These fish are in my bedroom, so it is dark in there after the sun goes down. Thanks again.

[cybermeez]

Sounds to me like these little horsies are in excellent hands.

[starsplitter7]

Thanks to everyone for your encouragement. I'll be spying on my new Horses tonight.

[starsplitter7]

Thanks to everyone for your help and encouragement.

My 3 tiny horses are doing well, and today I picked up some live tubifex worms for a peacock eel (different tank). I dropped a pinch of worms into the grow out tank, and the horsies, just sat in the middle of the group of worms, and started slurping them down. The worms are alive, so they burrow into the substrate with part of their bodies above the sand/gravel, and I guess that means they are a living buffet for grazing.

All three of the Horse Faced loaches have a dark dot where the tail meets the body. Very attractive.

I know tubifex is frowned upon by some, but my family-owned fish store really makes an effort to provide clean worms.

Thank you, Tanja.