My Hill Stream Loach Hate My Cory's!

[xamy_valox]

I bought a couple of hill stream loach a few weeks ago now as I wanted a small algae eater that wasn't quite a Plec. They have been munching away at my algae as planned but they are little horrors to my Corydora!! Whenever I put algae wafers down they kinda scoop on top of them like a bat and scare them!! They don't like the Cory's getting too close to them at all and it looks like the go out of their way to make sure they aren't around them.
Can they actually do any harm to my Cory's or is it just a case of shooing them away?
I feel sorry for my poor Cory's!

 

[Shelster]

I have 5 salt pepper corys and added two hillstreams about two months ago to my tank. My hillstreams chase each other off if one comes near a specific algae area where the other is, but never have I noticed them going for my corys.

How big is your tank? My hillstreams don't even bother with the algae wafers I put in, they are content with feeding from plants and the algae I let grow on the rocks I have in my tank.

I wonder whether you have a male and a female? I think I have two males.

Whether that may possibly make a difference?

Maybe when you next feed, drop a wafer at each end of the tank? Hope it sorts itself out.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Corydoras are carnivores, they should not be given a heavily vegetarian diet, so in that respect it is good the "hillstream loach" are guarding the alge wafers.

 

[phantomlink]

I have 2 hillstream and they chase around the corys only when theres food in the tank for the most part, they usually only seem to go after the peppers the most

 

[xamy_valox]

Tank is 125 litre so it's not like they are cramped and competing for space. I have no idea of the sexes, they seem to keep away from one another for the most part? They don't actually come in to contact regularly, but neither of them will stand for my Cory's being around them! It's mainly the Sterbais they seem to have a problem with, probably because they are the most active of my Cory's.

I realise that Cory's are carnivores and so I do feed them other foods, they eat the flakes if they may it to the bottom as well as the blood worm, brine shrimp etc that I pop in their for them. But they do love the algae wafers aswell, even my Angel will venture to the bottom for a swipe at the algae wafers!

I was considering putting some cucumber into the tank for the loach, will they eat that?

And if they do continue to chase off the Cory's, wil they not be able to physically harm them?

 

[Dazzer87]

I had a hillstream loach not too long ago and I noticed him being very aggressive with my cories, I found one dead then relised there was 6 others missing .

 

[Baccus]

Which type of Hill stream loach do you have?
I have quite a few Gastromyzon species Hillstream or Borneo Suckers in a 4ft tank with a mix of corys and never a problem between them. Usually the Borneo's stay on the glass or plants and rocks and if they do venture into the cory's domain on the sand there is no aggression or food guarding.
If anything the Borneo's are easily bullied away by my huge cory's even if the corys didn't mean too.
The only defence a hillstream loach has is its suction mouth, unless it managed to suck on to the cory in a vunerable spot, it shouldn't be able to cause the cory and harm.
Do you have plenty of algea in your tank? Most hillstream loaches aren't real algea eaters, they mostly eat the micro organisms that live in amongst the algea. Perhaps the aggression from your Hill stream loaches is due to them feeling they dont have enough food.

 

[Dazzer87]

Gastromyzon borneensis I think. it used to come up from behind my young sterbai and jump on top of them as they swam away. I moved them to a different tank after that and I no longer have the hillstream loach. There was always some algae in that tank and the loach was the only algae eater in there so I can't imagine it went hungry but I don't know

. I fed a variety of different algae wafers and spirulina based wafers as well.

 

[Baccus]

I can only find one website, relating to that name.
Have you looked at this thread on here, perhaps one of my current ones looks like yours
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/411483-just-had-to-share/

My Borneo suckers happily eat Tetramin tropical flakes, Tetramin veggie flakes, sinking catfish wafers, and sinking shrimp pellets, while showing no interest in defrosted bloodworms. I am yet to try them on live blackworms, but I suspect these would get ignored as well.

 

[Dazzer87]

looked like this one.

 

[Baccus]

That looks more like a Beaufortia species rather than a Gastromyzon. From my understanding the Beaufortia types are more demanding in their requirements and are known for being less peaceful.

 

[mikev]

No beaufortia, but rather Sewellia Lineolata. They indeed can be nasty and capable of killing smaller hillstreams (gastros, for instance).

Whenever I put algae wafers down they kinda scoop on top of them like a bat and scare them!!

'Topping other fish is one way they attack. While I never saw Sewellia topping cories, I saw P.myersi doing just this... poor cories were rather confused....

 

[Baccus]

I knew there was another type but for the life of me could not remember the name, and yes the Sewellia are the ones I mostly recall being territorial and aggressive to other fish. The only time I have seen my Gastromyzons get remotely aggro has been at each other, and all it entials is a bit of pushing/ nudging and maybe a swim over. But it is never long lived and they quickly settle back to doing what ever it was they where doing. I have never seen one for instance continue to chase or attack another gastromyzon once one of them has decided its not worth a fight. Gastromyzons do however use signaling with their tail markings and body posture as ways to intimidate a rival without actually touching it. All in all I find gastromyzon a very gentlemanly fish, and well worth haivng.

 

[mikev]

Sewellias are imho considerably more entertaining. I have a tank of maybe 30 of them (they breed, hard to count) of various sizes, and during feeding this is quite a show, they all chase each other... They don't kill each other -- smaller fish knows to run away from an attack -- but most other hillstreams would not be able to survive the pressure in this tank for long.

 

[Dazzer87]

No beaufortia, but rather Sewellia Lineolata. They indeed can be nasty and capable of killing smaller hillstreams (gastros, for instance).

Would explain why I lost most of my small sterbai

Darn expensive as well which is another blow.