The 4 main points when looking at hillstream loaches are;
temperature; 20-24 degrees celcius, they will tolerate temps above this but it isn't ideal. I have a fan blowing on my tank at almost all times keeping the temp at around 22.
aeration; they have high oxygen requirements, this is best maintained by having alot of water movement (and not letting the temp climb) at the surface of your tank. I also use seachem purigen but this is another issue altogether.
water movement; these loaches tend to glide on the currents that water movement provides, the greater the water movement you can acheive at all levels of your tank the more natural the behaviour you will see
natural food sources; There are no guarantees your loaches will take to manufactured foods and at first may completely ignore them. You need a good build up of algae in the aquarium to start with on the off chance they don't take to the foods you offer quickly or in case they never do.
This can apparently be acheived by keeping rocks in tank water in a glass vase in strong sunlight, maybe with some added fertilizer. This didn't work for me, but we have fairly poor weather.
Tank conditions;
Plants are not neccesary for hillstream loaches, the main thing is too have some good size smooth rocks for grazing off. Also to have lots of rocky hiding places, i use smooth rocks siliconed together to make nooks and crannies. I've heard sand mentioned as being neccesary but don't believe this to be true. Ph requirements vary from species to species. Temp as above
Suitable tankmates; obviously what is suitable depends (mainly) on the amount of water movement you can acheive but IME suitable fish are;
zebra danios
white cloud mountain minnows
otoclinus
paraotoclinus
various other loaches
Breeding;
They are rarely bred in home aquarium, breeding behaviour has not been observed thoroughly.
Suitable foods;
bloodworm, blanched kale, blanched spinach, good quality flake, blanched courgette, sinking catfish pellets, algae wafers
There is no guarantee the 'loaches' will take any of these, mine will only take algae wafers (small JBL).
Some species have a greater requirment for meat for example sinogastromyzon wui you'll find this out through species specific reseacrh.
Interesting facts;
Aufwuchs; hillstream loaches main food source is not algae itself but the aufwuchs (tiny organisms) that inhabit algae. The more mature your algae build up, the more aufwuchs that will inhabit it.<---ignore this!
Colourloss; many hillstream loaches lose colour over night as a means of conserving energy, this also commonly takes place when they partake in a particularly serious territorial battle. Strong colourloss, from green by day to off white at night.
Territorial battles; these take place over single rocks more often than not and involve sideways displaying, jumping on to of each other or sumo battles where they will attempt to push each other of the rock in question.
Family; (i think i recall tis correctly) Hillstream loaches are not catfish or cyprinids, they have their own family name which is Balitoridae
Good luck with your loachy decisions
-germ-
307
177
159
158
136
125
95
89
89
82
64
60
54
46