Recently there has been a lot of posts about compatible species. And inevitably for every response that says X&Y should not be kept together there will be someone who says yes they can, and someone else who says I have done it and everything was fine. Well I have learnt 2 important lessons in the last week. The first of these is that you cannot change, or supress, instinctive behaviour or genetic programming.
Around 18 months ago I was enchanted by a group of dwarf chain loach in my LFS. The man in the shop said they would be fine with my community. I was still missing the clown loaches that I gave away when I shut down my large tank. Since the man in the LFS is not always regarded as a reliable source
I checked the SF profile on my phone. It had this to say:
Fast forward to last week and my glowlight tetras started losing chunks of their fins. I quickly identified that the loaches were the culprits and moved them into their own tank. Quick response, disater averted, no harm done - Well done Sean, or so I thought. Lucky escape too, I'm off on my hols tomorrow, who knows what may have happened if they had turned (actually I suspect its just matured) one week later.
Turns out the corys are not as thick as I thought. Now the loaches have gone they spend a lot more time out in the open and regularly bask on the substrate. They rarely did this before although they often basked on leaves, or on higher objects in the tank including little nests of tangled frogbit roots. I never thought much of this as I know that they use more of the tank and aren't as bound to the bottom as other corys. My only sterbai also spends a lot of time out in the open with the rest of them. When I rescued him he spent a lot of time with the peppers (and the loaches) but had become quite withdrawn of late. He is quite old and I want to stick with the peppers, but I feared that I would have to buy some more sterbais to get him to come out.
Needless to say I am now really sorry I did not separate them a long time ago, and that I missed the signs of the corys changed behaviour
. On a more positive note the glowlights' fins are growing back nicely and the loaches are thriving in their species only tank - I will probably up their numbers shortly. It's also much easier to meet their need for flowing water without having to balance the needs of the tetras and pencilfish - who like calm water.
And what about the second lesson? Well that's easy...
@Byron is usually correct with his advice - even if it does take many months for that to be proved.
Around 18 months ago I was enchanted by a group of dwarf chain loach in my LFS. The man in the shop said they would be fine with my community. I was still missing the clown loaches that I gave away when I shut down my large tank. Since the man in the LFS is not always regarded as a reliable source
I checked the SF profile on my phone. It had this to say:Well that doesn't sound bad so I bought the 6 juveniles. I asked for opinions on here (albeit a bit late). Not many responses but @Byron did suggest this wasn't a good idea and I should excercise caution. For the next 18 months I kept a close eye because everyone knows corys and loaches should not be kept together (but of course my little sids were different). Anyway they showed little interest in the corys aside from occasionally swimming with them (when they were younger). My concern was that the corys are too stupid to recognise danger or to observe territories. (Anyone who has ever kept c.paleatus will know exactly what I mean.) I did lose a few corys over that time, but they were all over 5 years old and there was no sign of anything unusual.
Fast forward to last week and my glowlight tetras started losing chunks of their fins. I quickly identified that the loaches were the culprits and moved them into their own tank. Quick response, disater averted, no harm done - Well done Sean, or so I thought. Lucky escape too, I'm off on my hols tomorrow, who knows what may have happened if they had turned (actually I suspect its just matured) one week later.
Turns out the corys are not as thick as I thought. Now the loaches have gone they spend a lot more time out in the open and regularly bask on the substrate. They rarely did this before although they often basked on leaves, or on higher objects in the tank including little nests of tangled frogbit roots. I never thought much of this as I know that they use more of the tank and aren't as bound to the bottom as other corys. My only sterbai also spends a lot of time out in the open with the rest of them. When I rescued him he spent a lot of time with the peppers (and the loaches) but had become quite withdrawn of late. He is quite old and I want to stick with the peppers, but I feared that I would have to buy some more sterbais to get him to come out.
Needless to say I am now really sorry I did not separate them a long time ago, and that I missed the signs of the corys changed behaviour
. On a more positive note the glowlights' fins are growing back nicely and the loaches are thriving in their species only tank - I will probably up their numbers shortly. It's also much easier to meet their need for flowing water without having to balance the needs of the tetras and pencilfish - who like calm water.And what about the second lesson? Well that's easy...
@Byron is usually correct with his advice - even if it does take many months for that to be proved.
