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Botia striata

Henrik

Member
Joined
16 Nov 2008
Messages
67
Location
Chester, Cheshire
Hi, how often do other owners of Botia striata see the loaches out in the open? I put 5 in about a month ago, they dealt with my snail problem but now live rather sercretively, I have never again seen five, I think I saw three or four the other day, but mostly I see only one or two at a time, even when food tablets are out. They have a lot of hiding opportunities in my 325l tank which is quite densely planted.

Thanks for sharing some experiences, Henrik
 
Hi Henrik,

Can i just say they are wonderful fish and very entertaining to watch. When i first introduced mine to my tank, (3 of them) it was the same all snails gone in a few days and hardly any sign off them, infact i thought i had losed one of them as i could ever only count 2. After about 6 to 8 months they settled in and now are always out, especially at feeding time. Try feeding some Bloodworm if you havent already mine just love it. Good Luck.


Cheers Gordon.
 
I see my five or so, most days, when i only had a couple they were very shy.

I do have about 20 Corydoras Sterbai, though, and they swim with them also.
 
Don't worry Sam those snails will soon diappear. Mine sometimes do the loach dance, swim from the bottom of the tank up to the top and back down again and sometimes repeat this a few times then go and have a drink and a rest, lol then start again, and in one of the front corners, lol very funny to watch.


Cheers Gordon.
 
We have 5 Striata's and more often than not they are out and about, they do have there rest times when they hide away but in the main they are very active.

We have a sand base with a good cover of black pebbles and subdued lighting plenty of bogwood and fairly heavily planted 4 foot (100 galls ish) tank and a good head of active shoaling fish (Rummy nose, X-ray, Neon and Peruvian blue tetras) it's a very busy tank with fish going in all directions (get dizzy watchin em) so the Striata's and Yoyo's (got 5 of them as well) are very confident.

They are also very smart little fish, there is a lot going on in that little head, we tap the tank at feeding time (with the tip of a finger nail which kinda mimicks the clicking sound they make when excited) and they come rushing out and will feed from the surface at times, we also feed them some rather large pellets (4mm) and they click like crazy when they find them.

Anji (my other half) taps the glass and calls them and they come to the glass and click like mad, she ends up eyeball to eyeball with all the loaches and they seem to enjoy the interaction, if she forgets to talk to them they will come to the glass and click to get her attention (won't do it for me :? ). They don't do it for food just seem to like the attention.

Cracking little fish, very addictive, just seen some lovely little Kubatai's which may have to join the loachy throng in the very near future. :lol: :lol:
 
How do the zebra and yoyo loaches get on with each other - do they interact, fight, ignore the other species?

I finally got all of my five zebra loaches out into the open - I have been feeding more frozen food because of a recently added pair of Kribs, and the Botia striata seem to love it! I still usually see no more than three at a time though, and I can only tell apart one, who is significantly lighter than the rest of the bunch. It is probably the one I found as a lone survivor in our garden centre fish store! Who knows, I might pick up one or two more loaches to add to the pack if and when I see them in store (which is rare - my LFS told me that they stopped ordering them as they were losing too many of them...).

Henrik
 
My Zebra's and Yoyo's get on together very well. Most of the time they do their own thing with the occasional very minor skirmish over food or sleeping spots and occasionally they all shoal up together. They have been togther for a couple of months without any problems.
 
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