Which fish to breed?

[Harry94]

Hi,

I've recently got a new 1m long aquarium that is set out in the style of an acid pool biotope, with two large pieces of bogwood, a few vallis and amazon swords and bushy planting around the sides.

It is currently home to 11 small tetra, 2 dutch ram, 2

Peckoltia braueri

, 1

Rineloricaria parva

, 1

Agamyxis pectinifrons

, 2

Corydoras aeneus

and a Tiger Loach.

I would like to try and breed a catfish that will be not TOO hard to breed, not too hard to get hold of and not too expensive (exept corydoras). What kind of fish would anybody reccomend breeding in this tank that would fit in with all of the inhabitants?

Thanks,

Harry

[Richard B]

I am somewhat concerned with the inclusion of a tiger loach, if it is Botia hymenophysa or helodes (or whatever the correct scientific name for them is now).

These are generally an inquisitive, fast moving, tough species that can predate on small fish, fry or eggs & i think would interfere with any serious breeding efforts you wished to engage in.

With this fish removed you have a much wider scope for breeding the rams (are they a pair?) or some catfish species. How much breeding experience do you have already? (Are the corys & braueri pairs or unsexed individuals?)

If you have limited experience i'd be tempted to go for a groups of aeneus & go with those as they are not too difficult. The Braueri are harder & obviously need a minimum of a pair before going forward & most people tend to move to species tanks for serious attempts with Hyp's & Peckoltias & it might be better to get some experience of plecos breeding with the common ancistrus as raising fry might be tricky in a community tank - the agamyxis might well tuck into a few fry as an opportunistic snack

[Harry94]

The Ram are a pair, and are currently exhibiting breeding colours. The corys are male and female, and showed some spawning behaviour around a year ago in my smaller tank. The braueri I think are male and female, tough not too sure as they are only 5cm Sl at the moment. However, I think that they may have started some kind of spawning behaviour, as after I moved them to the new tank (water down to 5.9ph from 7.5 , and 3dh from 25dh, as have got an external filter with peat), one of them has dug a large cave under a large piece of bogwood. Many fish, mostly the loach, are investigating the cave constantly and seem to be picking something off of the room, which the braueri is vigourously defending.

I was thinking of rehoming the loach bafore the tank move, as I had to downgrade to a 50cm tank for 2 years roughly after my parents divorce. The only reason that I didnt was because he was one of my first fish, and I became quite attatched to him. I would feel ready to part with him now if needs be, but the rest of the family have become attatched to him and are against it.

Thanks for the suggestions,

Harry

[wrasse]

If the loach is Syncrossus Birdmorei, I'm surprised you haven't had trouble already. As RichardB suggests, you may want to move on this fish. IME its one of the most disruptive fish for its size and best kept in a loach/ barb set-up.

Its difficult, when family takes a liking to a character fish and at the same time you know why it has to go. Stand firm.....

[Harry94]

the only trouble I've had with him is eating other fry - he's never caused any problems with actual 'fish' in the aquarium. He seems very shy and skittish, and is easily chased out of his cave by my Peckoltia. He's only grown to around 7cm SL, and I've had him for five years now. I think the latin name for his species is Chromobotia macracanthus. He was sold to me as a snail eater, which he's very good at, but i was told he would only grow to about 5cm. I believed the people in the LFS because I had only been in the hobby a few months, and haddn't come across them before. It was only when I first got hime that I found out he could grow to well over a foot long. Because of this, I've been trying to find a freind to rehome him for the last 2 years, but nobody wanted him , and my mum wouldn't let me as she was so attatched to him.


Thanks for everyone's help.


Harry

[Harry94]

I also need to rehome him because the conditions in the tank now are 5.9pH and 3degrees dh - well outside the recommended conditions for him.

[MatsP]

The common name for Chromobotia macracanthus is Clown Loach.
From our friend of the site Johnny Jensen:


--
Mats

[bamboosticks]

. He was sold to me as a snail eater, which he's very good at, but i was told he would only grow to about 5cm. I believed the people in the LFS because I had only been in the hobby a few months, and haddn't come across them before. Harry

Alas, so did I...and gradually lost 4 bettas. On the bright side, they accepted the male betta I bought and I swapped it for a Pakistani loach!

[Richard B]

If it's a clown loach it does eat some snails but these get very big & need to be kept in groups for them to be happy - one generally does not fare well.

[Harry94]

I know that now, but when I was sold him, the people in the LFS told me that the maximum size he'd get to would be about 5cm ish, and that he would be fine on his own. I have decided that for his own good, he needs to be rehomed to a much larger place, and I'm going in to speak to them tomorrow, so I'll ask if they can take him in. He was sold as a Tiger Loach, but I did later find he was a Clown Loach. However, his nickname 'Tiger' from my brother made tiger loach stick, and a 'bond' much harder to break.


Harry

[2wheelsx2]

From the local loach keepers here and on some other forums I frequent (gasp!) there seems to be two types of clown loaches. Some get to be 8 or 9 inches and some get to be only 4 or 5 inches. I've personally seen owners with a group of each in the same tank. Pretty interesting. But the others are right in that they are happiest in groups of 6 or so and are super active. I'm glad you're going to rehome him/her.