Hillstream Breeding

Keeb · Post by **Keeb** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:13 pm

Thank you Martin for directing me to this forum. I have a 50gal long river tank built from Martin's article. Surfing your forum recently, I've seen some incredible river tanks. I love mine. I joined this forum to learn as much as I can about Hillstream's and have hopes that I can get them happy enough to breed someday. I've searched the forum for info and have just began reading the 2500 related hits on Hillstreams. I setup a small river tank before and now I've made this 50gal long Here's my setup:
Stock: 3 Beaufortia's of some sort, 4 P. Cheni as far as I can tell. It also house's a school of 6 Harliquin rasbora's and 6 Sissortail rasbora's.
PH: 7.0
Temp: 72F
GH: 20
KH: 20
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
Ammonia: 0
Filtration: 1XDynoflo 3 and 1X penguin 100

It has 2X Aquaclear 70 powerheads with a 3/4" manifold. My intake's are a little tall but they helped with the flow for me. I do have pics and will post some if that is OK.

Keeb

shari2 · Post by **shari2** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 1:33 am

Hi Keeb and welcome to LOL.

Got any pictures of your nice big river tank?

Emma Turner · Post by **Emma Turner** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 8:07 am

Welcome to Loaches Online, Keeb!

Yes, do post some pictures, we'd all love to see your River Tank.

Emma

gorhaf · Post by **gorhaf** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 10:33 am

pics of fish, tanks, or setups are always welcome. its really nice for those of us that cant afford really nice or big setups like me. I love seeing the large beautiful fish and setups it keeps me dreaming =)

Keeb · Post by **Keeb** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 8:45 pm

Here's a few pics of my 50gal long river tank. It's nothing extravagant but works well. The Hillstreams love it. My camera is terrible. I'm going to borrow a good camera and snap a bunch of shots in the near future. I need some clear close shots so I can get help correctly identifying my Hillstreams.

Jim Powers · Post by **Jim Powers** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 8:53 pm

Nice tank! I'm sure the hillstreams love it.
That fish in the last two pics looks like it might be a Pseudogastromyzon fangi instead of P. cheni.

Keeb · Post by **Keeb** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 9:17 pm

fangi definately looks right to me. Thank you. I'm amazed that you could tell from that picture. The pics on the ID card match those 4 Hillstreams. The other 3 I think are Beaufortia kweichowensis but not positive. 1 or 2 of them might be a type of spotted. I hope to get better pictures this weekend. Is there any potential for these species breeding in my tank?

Keeb

Jim Powers · Post by **Jim Powers** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 9:33 pm

I thought it might be a fangi due primarily to the dorsal fin and body shape. The spots helped too.
While I don't know of fangi spawning in captivity, I would imagine its highly possible that they would. As you probably know, P. cheni spawns in capitivity so there is good reason to believe fangi would too.
Someone reported on this site a few years ago that they had spawning of beaufortia, but we were never able to confirm that.

Martin Thoene · Post by **Martin Thoene** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 9:44 pm

Hi Leith.....told you that you would get lots of response on here (rabid hillstream enthusiasts).
I encoded your pictures so they came up in the post. You need to highlight the URL, then click on the Img button above the message box.

Like Jim says, it's quite possible that you could breed particularly the [img]P.%20fangi[/img]. It's possible though that you might need to remove the rasboras for small fry to survive though. Harlequins particularly are quite effective fry hunters.

Martin.

Keeb · Post by **Keeb** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 11:46 pm

I originally posted the images to show but edited them to link after I read the rules of posting pics. But now that I know, I'll just post the image. I was gonna ask about the Rasbora's....I guess I should probably remove them then. Is their any link's to breeding info? What does it take to get colours to show in Hillstreams fins that I've seen?

Keeb

Martin Thoene · Post by **Martin Thoene** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 12:12 am

Breeding info on Pseudogastromyzon cheni:

http://www.loaches.com/articles/sexing- ... yzon-cheni

You won't see colour in Beaufortia, but the P. fangi should get yellow in the dorsal fin. Just keep their water clean, give them a variety of foodstuffs and once they settle in they will colour up.

Martin.

LoachOrgy · Post by **LoachOrgy** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 12:47 am

cool. i notice you have your jets very low to the bottom of the tank. i was worried that the chord would get water in it. i am assuming this is safe. do you get better filtration having the water flow near the bottom of the tank?

Martin Thoene · Post by **Martin Thoene** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 6:49 am

I don't think there's a single power-head made now that isn't a completely sealed unit. I've operated Aquaclear 802s at low level for about 8 years now. Never had a problem.
Lowering the pumps has no effect upon filtration. It just gets the water flow down close to where hillstream loaches primarily live.

Martin.

Graeme Robson · Post by **Graeme Robson** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:35 am

Lovely looking set-up!

Emma Turner · Post by **Emma Turner** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 12:53 pm

Very nice indeed!

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