Advice On Adding New Weatherloaches

[fishnovice]

I have a weatherloach in a large hex tank and an adult aggressive male Bristlenose in another 3ft tank. This weekend i am getting another 3 weatherloaches (10 -12cm)as companions for mine because I gather they do best in groups though he has always lived on his own. The hex tank is tall with small footprint, not enough bottom space for 4 loaches so i plan to transfer them to the larger tank.
1. Will the new loaches who grew up together attack mine or vice versa? I guess putting them all into a new tank together will avoid any territory problems as they would all be “new fish on the block” Right?
2. Will the BN attack them? I suspect he may have killed my albino BN who was either a large female or submissive male

 

[fishnovice]

URGENT advice needed. Can anyone help please? Need to move fish around now as I'm getting the weatherloaches tomorrow morning

 

[Tizer]

chuck em in and get on with it

 

[ZoddyZod]

I just replied to a thread identical to this.

Posted in two forums?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Those weather loaches are going to need a tank with a 5'x2' footprint, they should reach 20-25cm and they will reach that size within a few years (my group of 8 reached ~17cm in the space of a year from being ~6cm youngsters). While they are very sedatory during the day, burrowed in the soft sand with just their heads sticking out, by night they are very active and will swim midwater (which is why they need a long tank exceeding 4x times length and 2x width plus depth).

Glad to read you have purchased some more, these fish are very social. As for temperature, you should be aiming for something in the 18-22C ballpark for them. Some keepers make the mistake of adding them to tropical setups at 25C and beyond, which not only turns them into monster pooping machines (higher metabolism means they need even more food), but also they are prone to stress induced illnesses at such temperatures.

 

[Vendetta]

I have seven in a 3ft tank with sand substrate, all about 4-5inches at the mo. I am already hunting for a lager tank for when they outgrow this one. Even though the tank is not heated it still runs at about 20C.
They are amazing fish, very social and can become very tame to handle. One of mine, Little Spot, already sits in my hand whilst eating his bloodworm! I love them!
Good luck with the Bristle nose, he sounds quite scary!!

*Larger* not lager! lol

 

[creeker]

Yeah, I wouldn't worry about the BN. They're usually only aggressive with their own kind.