RE: Aquatic Plants Digest V5 #88

["Charles Kuehnl" <ckuehnl at mmcable_com>]

From APD # 88
SMB wrote:

> Date: Sat, 11 May 2002 20:23:53 -0500
> From: Steven Bach <moof1138 at mac_com>
> Subject: Re: flat sucker.
> 
>  From your description it sounds like a hillstream loach:
> 
> http://www.loaches.com/beaufortia_kweichowensis.shtml 
> 
> If it is, they seem iffy as Aquarium pets to me - I had some that
died.
>   They live in very fast flowing cold streams (hence their body
shape),
> and while they can adapt to an aquarium, you would need to suit their
> needs - they really like current.
> 
> SMB
> 

and Loh wrote:

> 
> Wayne, if you are talking about the fish that has a profile like a
> keyhole, I think it's called a Borneo sucker.  Supposedly, they live
in 
> streams near waterfalls where the water is very fast-moving.  In tanks

> that have aeration, they will hang around the stream of bubbles coming
out > from the airstone.
> 
> With a sucker mouth, they look like algae eaters but as far as I know,
> they don't eat algae.  They usually don't live very long in our tanks
as
> it is difficult to feed them.  Someone told me that they eat only
insects.
> 
> In the fish farms, they are kept in tanks where a net has already been
> laid.  This is because it's almost impossible to pry them from the
sides 
> of the tank without injuring them.
> 
> Loh K L
> 
> http://www.thedefensefund.com

If the fish SMB described is the correct identification, I had a couple
of these in a 10 gallon, high light, CO2 planted tank.  It used an
Eclipse 1 so the flow seemed fairly good to me but they did not both
hang out in the high flow areas of the tank.  I originally had a small
cave in it and one would hide in the cave.  They seemed to be pretty
territorial (with each other only) so the other wound up in a dark area
near the filter pickup.  

At first I thought they were not happy to be together in the same tank.
I mean they would really go after each other although they did not
appear to have anything that would damage another fish.  It seemed more
like a shoving match - nudging would probably be a better description -
but they would really go after it.  After being in my tank and observing
them for a while I began to wonder about that too.  Sometimes it seemed
like they were really playing.  One also seemed to grow more than the
other and also seemed to have a darker coloration but I could not find
anything on sexing them.  I then replanted the tank and did not
reconstruct the cave.  They both found darker spots in the aquarium to
hide.

I have mentioned hiding several times but IMO it is not entirely a
nocturnal fish.  I think the fish seemed to be very shy.  On several
occasions I would come into the room and they would both be out moving
around or "sunning themselves" on a rock.  As far as requiring high
current and low temperatures, my tank runs about from 75 °F to about
80-82 °F and one's favorite place was on the tank wall behind the filter
pickup (probably one of the lowest flow points in the tank).  Feeding
was pretty easy, they love algae wafers and will take regular food.
Mine lasted about a year until I lost power for a couple of days.  My
tank was desperately in need of cleaning at the time and I think that
some of the above comments about them being somewhat delicate are true
as I only lost one other fish.  However, mine did fine as long as the
filter was running and they had an occasional algae tablet.

As far as being good algae eaters, I would occasionally notice a few
small trails of algae removed from the glass but I would not count on
them for major algae removal.  They are more entertaining in nature, if
you are interested in fish that have unusual characteristics.  Speaking
of which if anyone knows where I can get a saddleback loach
http://www.loaches.com/homaloptera_orthogonita.shtml, please e-mail me.
I would really love to find one.

Charles