Horse Faced Loaches

[Keith Wolcott]

I acquired 7 of these yesterday. They are about 3.5 TL. I think that they will make a nice addition to my 300 gallon tank. They are in quarantine for now. I have already seen them disappear under the sand and then just have their head poking out. It is also interesting how they eat blood worms. Instead of aggressively gobbling them or grabbing them and swimming off to eat in private, they just all sit in a group, hardly moving, but casually munching.

[starsplitter7]

Love my Horseheads. Have you had them before?

See if you ever have a problem with a bent head. I have one with a bent head. Makes it hard to dig, so I see him most. I have read about other people having them with bent heads, so I am curious.

He's had a bent head for two years, so it isn't fatal.

[Diana]

Mine spends most of his time under the substrate, too. Saw him yesterday, though.
How aggressive are these guys to each other?

[Keith Wolcott]

Tanja- I have not kept them before, but yours and others descriptions of them has made them a priority for me for quite a while now. I have also thought that it would be good to have the sand constantly burrowed through to help keep it stirred up and thus cleaner. I will watch out for bent heads.

Diana- Good question about aggression. I had thought that they were quite peaceful toward others and each other, but I am not sure now where I got that impression. It does not seem to be mentioned on the species description. Mine so far seem very cordial to each other and lay around on the sand in fairly close groups. Maybe Tanja and/or others can comment on aggression.

[starsplitter7]

Mine have always been peaceful to each other and to all other fish. Never a problem. I have no idea how my guy got the bent head. Actually a sharp bend in the neck area.

I know that the horseheads have a dopplegaenger (one has a shorter nose and one has a longer nose), and I think they are a little more aggressive.

My horseheads are some of my favorite fish. I love when they are buried and food hits the sand. The nose slowly inches above the sand to the food. May not see anything except a nose, then some eyes.

[Mark in Vancouver]

You'll love them, Keith. Very peaceful fish that mind their own business. I have come to believe that they serve an important role in filtering substrate materials... Whenever I vacuum out the sand in their tank, it is almost totally clean - quite unlike the other loach tank I still have.

One bit of advice though - make sure you want them where they're going to end up permanently. They are extremely difficult to catch. I have only a male/female pair, but the female gets gravid about every six months or so.

I'd be very interested to see them in a group, but in a tank like yours seeing them at all might be a challenge.

[Keith Wolcott]

Tanja and Mark- It is good to hear that they are peaceful.

I was already figuring that I will most likely have to siphon out the 1/4 inch of sand that I have in the quarantine tank when the time comes to move them to the large tank.

[Diana]

Thanks! I had been told, long before I met all you good people, that they were aggressive, and only keep one per tank.
Now, if I can find more, I will get more!

[Mark in Vancouver]

Tanja and Mark- It is good to hear that they are peaceful.

I was already figuring that I will most likely have to siphon out the 1/4 inch of sand that I have in the quarantine tank when the time comes to move them to the large tank.

Best of luck with this project. I hope you film your attempts! I must have tried ten different methods of trapping them, removing sand, etc... In the end, I moved them inside the drained tank with just a bit of water and sand.

Incidentally, they seem to have a short term memory for this kind of trauma. I find that after I clean the tank thoroughly, they do not emerge during the day for several days. Then they calm down and are out, waiting for food at the appropriate times.

My female is just about 5 inches long now.

[Keith Wolcott]

I have now moved the 7 Horse Faced loaches from the quarantine tank to the 300 gallon tank. Here is one in the quarantine tank.


I had to siphon all of the sand out to have any chance of catching them since they would just disappear under the sand. Then, even when I cornered them with a net I had to use a second net to get them to go into the net. They are the hardest to catch fish that I have faced.


How many horses in the above picture? Just two, not five.

Looking happy in the big tank.


I really like these loaches. I usually see 2 to 4 of them out and about filtering sand through their gills. They seem very social and are almost always in groups of two or three.

[mickthefish]

Keith, i've seen pics of them in the wild and they are always in a decent shoal, i've been looking for them but no-one seems to have them over the last 6 mths as i only have two but would like to expand the group to 6 or 8 fish if possible.
i've found them to be very peaceful between each other.

mick

[Keith Wolcott]

I continue to enjoy my horse faced loaches. Of the seven, three or four are usually out and about at a time. Sometimes they are in plain sight, but hard to spot, like the one below.

[chefkeith]

Great picture!

[Francois van Brederode]

Such nice fish!

I have just 2 of them, but they are some off my favourites.

How is it that you can take pictures of them during de daytime?
Mine only come out at night (led-nightlight is great )

Should I get some more to see them more??

[Keith Wolcott]

Some of mine are out all day. Usually they are moving across the sand in pairs and are filtering the sand through their gills. Mine are still pretty young (certainly less than a year old) and I have heard that they become more reclusive as they get older, so my situation may change.