hillstream loach fry

When I tilted the container a bit, I thought I saw some movement. But they don’t just look really neat, they’re also quite easy to keep. My males are two inches in total length and the females are a bit smaller at one and three quarter inches. Regina was more excited than I was and yelled out “Baby Loaches!” I thought so too at first, and then remembered what I was really looking for in the first place. Two days after the first find of these tiny fry, I found a single Rainbow Shiner fry from the known Shiner spawn. I placed a 90° elbow on the end of the pipe to allow aim towards the left side. The male swam under the female up to her right side and clamped his pectoral fin between her pectoral and pelvic fins. However, the S. lineolata, with its attractive color and markings, grabs your attention and won’t let you go! The pair of Rainbow Shiners were constantly swimming and playing in the current and all the Loaches were hidden. This proves to me that the growth rate of the young varies considerably with each individual. That’s because they are the smallest fry I’ve ever seen in my thirty-four years of fishkeeping! Several days after I knew they spawned, I removed the Rainbow Shiners and the H. tweediei from the spawning set up to eliminate any chances of these fish eating the young. Female on the left Their preferred food is Northfin Kelp Wafers and natural algae or biofilm. This went on non-stop for about an hour until they seemed to lose interest, or maybe got tired, and each went their own way. I watched for another half hour but didn’t see any further spawning activity at all. In addition, newly hatched baby brine was added to their menu. I think it is important to offer a wide variety of foods. I grabbed a chair and planted myself in front of them. At forty-one days, August 10, the largest fry seen in the grow-out shoebox was one centimeter in total length, which is from head to tip of tail. I called my fish geek girlfriend Regina over from her half of the fishroom and told her to get her glasses on and see if she could see anything. I filled the coaster with pea-sized gravel similar to that in which the Shiners’ were said to deposit their eggs in the wild. They skipped across the bottom in short bursts. I dumped the fry back into the shoebox, filled it with water from the spawning tank, added a small bunch of Java Fern and an airstone, and crossed my fingers that I could grow them up. nest I moved some of the larger stones from the center of the rock pile and made a pit just large enough to add a one-inch deep, four-inch round, terra cotta flowerpot coaster. Fry ranging in size of just 2 millimeters on day 1 to a centimeter on day 41. It just about drove me crazy (and blind!). Using a turkey baster I sucked up what I guessed was a fry, along with some sand and debris, and squirted it into a white cereal bowl. These fish have provided me with countless hours of enjoyment and amazement, but I do have a rather large waiting list of fish I plan to “work on spawning!”, A pair of Sewellia lineolata: This is considerably larger than the newborns, but still really small for their age compared to the growth rate of hundreds of other fish I have spawned over the years. He was active at the surface and much, much larger….I knew at that moment that I truly did have Loach fry! Their special body shape and pattern make them really stand out from the crowd. Normally, within a few days, the rocks are stripped clean. As I intently looked into the shoebox, I didn’t see a thing except for a little bit of dirt and sand. I removed the gravel, grabbed a bright flashlight and looked for eggs. I did add the clump of Java Fern thinking there might be some tiny “bugs” or algae in it that the fry could feed on. Your tank should be one hosting loaches exclusively to minimize the risk of other fish species feeding on the eggs and fry of the hillstream loach. From this point on, I have decided to leave the set up alone for a while and simply see what happens. Fry ranging in size of just 2 millimeters on day 1 to a centimeter on day 41. If that happened, it would surely wipe out the small loach fry so I only used a very small amount. A few minutes later, they repeated the activity, this time in the middle of the aquarium towards the back glass where I was able to watch the entire sequence.

We feed our Hillstream Loaches a mix Northfin Veggie, Community and Fry Starter. Some of the fry were still as small as half a centimeter! The Hillstream Loach is a really neat little fish that is great at eating the small crustaceans and larvae (aufwuchs) that grows in algae.

Though quite challenging to breed the loaches in your aquarium, it is possible with the right water conditions. They have proven to be one of the most interesting fish that I have ever worked with and successfully spawned.

On the morning of June 30, I found that my two pair of Rainbow Shiners had spawned, depositing a hundred or so eggs in the artificial Stone Rollers nest in their fifteen-gallon spawning aquarium. The head of the females appears almost to run into their pectoral fins, making the entire front of the fish look round. I didn’t even consider newly hatched brine or microworms because they would be way too large to be eaten. Ph: 7.2 to 7.5 With light colored bodies as thin as a hair and just over a millimeter or maybe two in size, it was baby fish! Males have a more pronounced head. Did you notice I mentioned several times in the article that the fry are tiny?

I’m telling you again, these fry are tiny! My thought here was to make a deeper layer to protect eggs (and fry) better in future spawns. I think it is important to offer a wide variety of foods. I would speculate the reason not many fry are found growing out in the spawning aquarium is that the adults, larger siblings or any other fish that may be present were eating them. On June 27, 2007, the water temperature was at 74°F, pH 7.0 -7.2, GH 200 – 225ppm and KH around 70ppm.

In addition, I unplugged the power head, fearing that the tiny fry might make their way through the foam pre-filter and be destroyed in the power head’s impeller. Even though they eagerly accept live black worms and frozen meaty foods, algae may play an important role in their diet and conditioning for breeding. To double check, I slid the shoebox halfway off the counter top to dry off the underside, but much to my surprise, it wasn’t wet at all! I pulled up a chair and sat quietly, watching to see if I could catch any spawning activity.

See Species Description for sexing photos. The growth rate of the fry was very slow for the first few weeks. They were fed twice a day with a diet consisting of live black worms, frozen bloodworms, live baby brine shrimp, live daphnia and a little bit of finely crushed flake foods. Adult males and females are easy to distinguish by their head formation when viewed from above or the underside. The same day I was setting up the lineolata’s aquarium, I was also setting up my three pair of Rainbow Shiners (Notropis chrosomus) in another aquarium to attempt spawning them. I figured that all the young would do better in the larger tank rather than the small, possibly unstable, shoebox. The hillstream loach is an awesome looking freshwater fish that doesn’t get the attention it deserves. In the breeding set up, I occasionally add some algae covered, golf ball sized river rock that I find in my local stream. She spotted something moving right away. Whenever she would stop, usually on the glass, the male would skip and bounce all around her while pushing his head into her body. Later that day, I noticed a good bit of activity between the adults. Unfortunately, at the time, I was not ready for them and they went into a fifteen-gallon tank, put on my list of fish to “work on spawning.”. I checked the coaster two or three times a day for eight days and always found fry, anywhere from two to six each time. The current blew it into the area of the power head and that is where I left it. Some of the fry were still as small as half a centimeter!

I had seen the area where some of the eggs had fallen. Since I had the top layer of river rocks removed to try and collect eggs, I decided to make the layer of pea-sized gravel deeper. The fry were added to the grow-out container for a period of only eight days after I found the first baby. I used a hair to give a reference on just how small these fry really are! No salt or other chemicals were used in the aquarium except for a de-chlorinator when the water was first added. The next day, I found a baby, just two millimeters in total length, as thin as a hair and almost clear.

Within a minute or so, five of the tiniest, little slivers that you could possibly see darted from the debris. Loaches Online

It kept me up at night for several days thinking about how in the world I would grow out such tiny fry.

I first saw these fish in the early part of 2004 and I knew right away that these were one of those fish that I had to have. I have had problems in the past with Hydra showing up when baby brine is overfed. This newborn baby was noticeably thinner than the fry I removed the day before which led me to believe that they were from different spawns, maybe a few days apart. Much to my surprise, the largest one in the grow-out box was larger than fry seen in the spawning aquarium!

If he did manage to push his way under her body, she would swim off and he would follow. A one to one-and-a-half inch layer of round river rock was placed on top of the pea gravel. The aquarium received indirect, fluorescent light for about twelve hours a day. I dumped in some green water and sponge scrunge for good measure, as well as smaller, algae covered rocks from other tanks in my fishroom. It appeared he was trying to get under her. I removed the top layer of river rocks, pushed a gravel washer into the gravel bed and siphoned enough water to fill up a shoebox. However, if you do this, you will have to have a lot of patience. I rigged up a half-inch PVC bulkhead fitting thru the glass and extended hard pipe about four inches in towards the center of the aquarium. I am lucky to see one or two at a time. To simulate a Stone Roller’s (Campostoma sp.) The next afternoon I pulled the coaster out to see if I could find some eggs. At this time, I also turned the power head back on to get the ‘hill stream’ system running again. This would allow water to flow from right to left to produce my fake ‘hill stream current’ hopefully mimicking the water movement found in the S. lineolata’s natural environment. With the tip of the baster, I stirred up a whirlpool in the bowl causing all the sand and dirt to settle in the middle.

Hello world!

Click to share thisClick to share this