Just Had To Share

[Baccus]

I just had to share a few pics of a couple of my Borneo Suckers. Love the little guys

Unfortunately my Zebra Borneos prefer to stay right at the back of the tank or if they are out in front only show off thier bellies through the glass.

 

[Crossfire]

My second favorite kind of loach. Stunning pics, lovely little fish Baccus

 

[Baccus]

Thanks, I love them, they are no bother and even any little arguments amongst themselves no harm is done. But they rarely have any arguments. I will try to get some pictures of the rest of them.

 

[Chad]

I really love those. Is that what they also call the hillstream loach or is that a different fish. They look similar.

 

[phantomlink]

Its the same thing, the fish store in my town had some so I picked up a baby for my 125 to go with my other two and I gave one to my mom for her goldfish tank since they like colder water over tropical. The ones I got are prob only half the size of the other two in my tank

 

[Chad]

I thought so. One of our local fish stores has a great little tank with a stream that goes into it and these guys hang out right in the full flow of the rushing water. Pretty cool to see them climb up stream with their mouth.

 

[phantomlink]

Ya they really like streams to go into I have a really weak powerhead in my tank I just wanted a little current not something drastic its only like 400lph in a 475 liter tank

 

[Baccus]

Most of mine are Gastromyzon species, and I think from having kept them they are easier than some of the other species of Hillstream.
The first pictures are of one of my Gastromyzon possibly zebrinus, sorry they aren't very clear but their favourite possie is on the plant its on at the back of the tank.

Now some of the others

And lastly this guy

I think I need to admit I am a little Borneo Sucker addicted

, if I see a shop has any I always have to see which types they have and possibly add to my collection

 

[Chad]

What size tank do you recommend for them?

 

[Baccus]

Mine are in a fairly wide 4ft, (which is around 56 g -US) the smallest I think I would go for heat transfer and water quality would be 3 ft at a pinch 2 ft. Its not that they are a huge fish as you can see incomparison to my peppered corys, nor are they super active zipping all over the tank like crazy danios. Its just the need for good cool water, and a larger tank allows for better temp stability. The only site I can find that suggests a tank size for these guys is a 20g tank, while another site suggests a 12 g(US) tank. And after a few more searches another places reckons a min of 10g. But then most of these are also saying to keep them in smaller groups of 1 male 2 female. Where as I have at last count around 13 (maybe one or two more, I have a habit of getting any loners in shops if I find them- they are a social fish)
Even though these guys are meant to only like cooler water mine have sailed through some shocking summer heats and done equally well in the depths of winter when their tank can get down as low as 18 degrees cel. The heat mine have survived is not ideal and probably pushing their limit of endurance but the 18 degrees cel is still within a safe range for them, just.
Also mine like being contrary to all the information and regarding plants, they love hiding in them, cleaning the leaves of them and generally just resting on them. They do have stones as well and even a large flat slab of stone that is angled under the inflow from the HOB filter. This is generally the first feeding station that any new Borneo's learn to eat at before they discover all the other places in the tank. I can't say mine have shown huge interest in things like defrosted bloodworms but they do like tropical tetra min flakes, tetramin greens flakes, and Hikari catfish wafers, as well as my crayfish pellets that are for my shrimp. They are not interested in fruit or veg like Pleco's and never damage my plants. Some nice green algea covered rocks are also a great food source for these guys. And of course they do an amazing job on glass.

Oh and to top off them being pretty, peaceful and generally cute they also wink at you like corys will

, nothing beats a winking fish

.

 

[Baccus]

Couldn't resist putting up some more pics of my little guys.
The first picture is of some of them behind the moss wall, in the pic you can only see three but there was at least another 5 behind the wall

Down on the sand eating some native fish food crumble

And lastly on a leaf

and now on the rock

This guy could smell the food on the floor of the tank and was doing loops from the leaf to the rock looking for the food.

 

[Chad]

Great fish. May someday I will get a larger planted tank again and keep a few of them around.

 

[Baccus]

You should, you wont regret it. One of the reasons I rescue single ones from shops is because I know how they suffer (like oto's) in standard pet shops/ LFS. But in a home tank with a wide variety of foods on offer they thrive. They are pretty little guys and mine have got pretty used to my bumbling corys and now often venture on to the sand and feed right along side the corys. And if they accidentally land on a cory, they jump straight off, none of this slime coat feasting that some sucker mouth fish are known for doing.
One other thing I will note about these guys is that it appears at night they venture their noses out of the tank and clean a bit above the waterline, I can the tell tale scrape marks, but they have never tried to go over the side of my open topped tank, and even when they can get into my HOB filter, they have never tried, unlike my BN fry that get into the filters every chance they get.