Lets be straight
everyone hates hard work or some of us do, that includes maintaining an
aquarium Cleaning it is a lot of work but what if someone does it for, someone
from inside sounds fun right now that where upstream loach comes in or commonly
called cleaning fish, interesting isn’t it!!!! Almost every aquarist had kept and bread them so let's look at what they have to
say about these interesting creatures
ORIGIN
Hillstream loaches are special creatures that are found
in fast-moving streams in Asia, these animals have unique streamline body which
allows them to glide through fast-moving streams without using much of
the effort, there are around 99 species
of them all around. We often confuse them with catfish but there are really not
alike, These fish have a suction like a cup which help them to stick on the rocks to reduce the impact on
then from the fast-flowing water rushing above them,
FEATURES
Every fish is
unique in their own way, well here are some of the features of Hillstream loach
*Presence of
barbels around the mouth, 3-6 pairs
*Having very few
to no scales, Most of them have smooth bodies
*They are
torpedo-shape
*On the lower
edges of their fins are minute spines that aid them with resisting the drag of
fast-flowing water
*Flattened
undersides that almost make them resemble snakes. Those with highly flatted
underside are believed to have previously inhabited stream with faster running
water as opposed yo those with less flattened undersides
*Have slightly
large fins used to wing themselves into rocks crevices
*Have sucker
type kind of mouth
*Have got
modified pelvic and pectoral fins to a powerful suction like cup Which allows
them to cling onto rocks, crawl and even eat on surfaces that are prone to high
speed water.
here's a video of loach fish cleaning the aquarium
REQUIRMENTS
here's a video of loach fish cleaning the aquarium
REQUIRMENTS
To keep Hillstream loaches happy you don’t need to have a fancy or a
complicated fish tank, Since these fish live in a very harsh environment it
becomes really hard for then to live in a clam, or still environment so I recommend
you to use powerful pump either to keep them active and well worked out. Recommend
you to keep the water PH between 7-8, And they get along with almost any fish
so one has nothing to worry about the tank partner, but they are omnivorous they
feed on both plants and flesh so if they sense any other fish smaller than them, there might
be chances of getting eaten by them, and also keep in mind that these are
freshwater fish and water temperature a major
thing to take note of and the nitrates also can prove to be a challenge
to them.
FEEDING
As I mentioned earlier these fish are omnivorous, they eat almost
anything that hits the bottom of the tank even dead fish, they can even be feed with
normal fish food but they prefer to feed
on algae in between rocks and once on the glass, they even feed on small
shrimps as a part of the food chain
