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Recently my 9y/o Angelfish passed away after getting chronic indigestion from eating 2 amano shrimp, silly girl, and although I am very sad it does free up some space in my tank (reasonably well planted 22gal, PH ~7.8, other levels are normal). I am thinking of what to get next and would like something quite unusual looking or strange such as my kuhli's (if they are strange?), but am not sure what to go for, the other inhabitants are:
2 Kuhli Loaches, 1 Hillstream Loaches, 1 Clown Pleco and 8 Platy's (although they keep trying to increase their number!)!
I will most probably get some shrimp too as I no longer have anything that would eat them!
Any suggestions for something small enough for the tank would be great!
Many thanks,

James

p.s. I also own a 15gal tank with 1 Saimese Fighting Fish, 7 Silvertip Tetra 3 Algae Shrimp and 3 Zebra Loaches.
Just in case you want to jumble them up a bit?

Hi there,
Id move the Zebra loaches out of the 15g tank.
Even 22g is quite small for Zebras.
I dont think I would recommend them for a tank
smaller than 40 gallons due to their size and
activity level.
Why not move the zebras to the 22,
the kuhlis to the 15. Then I would add 2 more
kuhlis at least.

The Zebras would be fine in the 22g I guess,
maybe you could add a nice dwarf gourami or something?
Maybe a dwarf cichlid of some kind?
Blue rams are very nice.
So are Apistogrammas of many kinds.

Im actually really surprised that your Zebra loaches
havent eaten your shrimp yet.


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Funny you should mention that, I could only see 1 of the shrimp when I investigated last night, I fear they may have been gotten while shedding their shells?!
I understand that Zebra Loaches grow to 10cm, which I guess is too big for the 15gal? I will take your advice and, as long as I can catch the kuhlis, will take the advice on swapping them around. I am waiting for th zebras to get a bit larger (at the moment they are no more than 4cm) then hopefully use that as an excuse to invest in a 40gal/3ft tank (wife permitting!).
The Apistogramma viejita look really nice, I'll see what the shop has this weekend.

Has anyone tried the www.thinkfish.co.uk community tank calculator? I just put in the details of my two tanks and it's told me that my 15gal is stocked just right and my 22gal has 40cm more capacity for fish! That sounds great but 40cm more fish seems like a lot?

10 cm is right for zebra loaches,
but you have to take into mind the fact that
they are highly active and boisterous fish.
I have for example 3 Yoyo loaches in my 75g tank,
which are the same size as adult zebras, and if you saw
how they are all over the tank in a flash, you couldnt
imagine them in any smaller tank, even though these
fish are also recommended for 20g tanks.

Im my 10g tank, for example,
I have 3 Beckfords pencilfish,
5 Corydoras Hasbrosus, and some ghost shrimp,
and it is looking fully stocked.
It if it was 15, Id only add a couple
more hasbrosus corys.


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Loaches are extremely active along with prefering company and generally best suited to a 29-30g or larger tank. Many botias such as zebra will eat shrimp although you may be fine with slightly larger shrimp such as amanos. My yoyos would eat cherries and rainbows. They will also eat any fry from your platies. Kuhli loaches being less active than most botia species would do better in the 15g than the zebra and some even agree with putting a few in a 10g. Catching them will be fun though.

How much filtration do you have on that tank? Hillstream loaches are highly specialized fish from very fast flowing waters saturated with oxygen. Most hillstreams die quite quickly in normal aquarium setups because of that. Try reading some of these articles http://loaches.com/hillstream_intro.html

Just a little hint here - these are UK gallons that PurestDJ is probably referring to. They're a bit bigger than US ones.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

So 18 and 26 US Gallons then.
Again, I still concur with the swaps
on the loaches.


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On the weekend I re-measured my tanks and to make things simple, my large tank is 95 litres (a little larger than I firth thought) and my small tank is 53 litres (a little smaller than I first thought).
I went for some Pearl Gourami (1M 2F) in the end, they look very happy in the tank. I don't fancy moving the kuhli's as they are the fastest moving fish I have ever come accross! I will give it a go though as I think the Zebras will be happier in the larger tank.
I have an internal pump set to it's highest output in the large tank and have the nozzle pointed along the rear of the tank with a air curtain along the rear as well, the Hillstream Loach loves this and sits on the rear of the tank being battered with the bubbles and high current from the filter.