Chinese Banded Loaches

[Mamba]

Hi people,

I was wondering has anyone on here had any Chinese Banded Loaches at all and if so can they give any hints and tips on doing a good set up for them? I bought them from my LFS. They were kept at 24 degrees celsius but i've read their temp range is about 20-23.8.
I've got six in total which i'm setting up a 48" x 12" x 15" tank for. They only typically grow to 3.5-4". I intend to put a mix of rounded larger stones and small gravel and run with possibly twin Fluval U4 filters to provide a fast flow in the lower region of the tank.

Anyone know what fish I can mix with these as I had a bad experience with having two of these in with Fancy Goldfish?

All help greatly appreciated!!

 

[MBOU]

What species are they? When you google "Chinese Banded Loach" all it comes up with is Myxocyprinus asiaticus. Also called Chinese Hifin Banded Shark. And you better hope to god thats not what you have getting to 3ft each and a banned species in the UK.

http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_high_fin_banded_shark

Though could be Sinobotia pulchra? Chinese Zebra Loach?

 

[DrRob]

I've also seen the hillstream loaches on sale as Chinese banded loaches.

 

[MBOU]

I did wonder if they sometimes came up under that name, couldnt find any examples on google as such but doesnt surprise me. That would certainly make lifea lot easier!!

 

[Mamba]

Cheers for the replies here are a few pics. (Apologies for the bad pic quality).

I have six of them thus far. Just one with these single band markings:

Bypbi at 2012-08-07

The other five have markings like these (thicker bands with a gold section almost cutting through them). I think they are two different but very similar species, at least to my untrained eye.

By pbi at 2012-08-07

Glad they're not the Hi Fins you mentioned or i'd be chin deep in faeces and sinking!!

 

[MBOU]

Ahh... They aren't the Chinese Zebra loach but related i think, they look like a species of Sinobotia, well known for being fin nippers and with a bad habbit of eating the eyes of other fish.

After doing some looking, i would say Sinibotia robusta

 

[Mamba]

Thanks mate.Very much appreciated.

These are a funny bunch of loaches! I was advised they'd be ok with my Fancy Goldfish. I only had two of them in a 3ft tank and all barring one goldfish had it's fins ripped to shreds! As their active at night I had a hell of a shock in the morning!!
From your description I was lucky none of my goldfish had serious damage. The fins are all mended now though.

I had to transfer the two to a goldfish bowl which they really didn't like!! I didn't either tbh but I had no choice at all. I set up a hospital tank as fast as I could and transferred one of them to it. The other died unfortunately. So, the survivor stayed on it's lonesome for a couple of days. I called back to my LFS and bought the last four there. Incidentally I found one on its own in another tank and bought that last week and added it to the five.

They seem to have mellowed out though. I have added six Tiger Barbs and no problem. I had to move a female speckled Molly from the previously mentioned Goldfish tank as that started to have a go at some of the fancy goldfish too but even though that is on its own they haven't bothered that. At the risk of cursing oneself, they seem to have mellowed out a little. I would like to get more but I need to get a 4ft tank for these and do a river sort of set up. Half the floor with larger rounded stones and the rest a gravel substrate. They like medium to fast flow so i'll point the Fluval U4 filter to the lower jet, maybe add another U4 later is the flow isn't up to speed. They don't typically need plants according to the write up but my bunch seem to hide in the plastic plant I have and generally keep away from the little cave set up I have in the other end of the tank.
I don't know what they're like with plants etc for real but I may try a couple, i'm not optimistic as the fake plant is stuck down to a piece of slate which they seem to uncover in short order no matter how many times I cover it.

Well, these are new to me and from the looks of things not that many people seem to have had them so it could all be a steep learning curve. Hopefully though, with a bit of care I won't lose any more. It'll be fun. These have a character of their own, I think that they may in time less secretive. There are a couple that are much more curious so it'll be very interesting to see how they develop their behaviour.