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Borneo Suckers


Janelle

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I left the zuchini in only a few hours before pulling it out and feeding it to my flatmate's plecs. They were completely ignoring it, wouldn't even go near it. With algae tabs the little one ignores them and the larger one just pushes it away like it was another Borneo Sucker in his territory, haha.

The yellow colouring has gone now. They are both as active as ever and now they have their own rocks in the tank they hide behind the filter much less, usually too busy fighting each other for rock space to bother running away when I approach.

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Borneo suckers is a general term for many many species, so chances are your suckers may not be from the same family if they have different markings. I love em though, mine eat discus pellets as well as algae. I have some in a wild betta tank where the temp is 26 degrees and they do fine

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The Hillstream Loaches are one of my favourite groups of fish (I've currently got over 70 from at least five different species). If your looking for information check out these links from Loaches Online:

http://www.loaches.com/articles/hillstream-loaches-the-specialists-at-life-in-the-fast-lane

Most of the borneo suckers in NZ fish shops are from the Gastromyzon genus and usually one of the following three:

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/gastromyzon-ctenocephalus

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/gastromyzon-scitulus

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/gastromyzon-zebrinus

But my favourites are the Sewellia species.

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Hey purplecatfish,

I saw your post about breeding your sewellias. Congratulations!!

I had wondered what genus the most common ones were so thanks for the info!

Do they all like the same conditions and do you know if they would all have similar temperature requirements? Are yours in a heated tank?

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Thanks for those links, purplecatfish.

I definitely have one "zebrinus" which is the little one I get second. The first one, I can't be sure which of them it is but from what I can remember it is more like the "scitulus" type, with the broken up pattern on the tail. It is almost twice the size of the "zebrinus" that I have, but their maximum size is listed as the same so I suppose I can hope it might grow. Not sure if my tank conditions are good enough for much growth however.

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Hi HummingBird, are they these?

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/sewellia-lineolata

They're my favorites and I've managed to get them to breed :D .

Or are they these?

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/sewellia-sp-spotted

I've just managed to get some of them last week for my second river tank :bounce: .

Beside being bigger and brighter than normal borneo suckers, Sewellias glide through the water as well as cling to the glass and stones like other hillstream loaches.

I'd say that fist sized river stones and some algae are the important features of the tank because the feed on micro-organisms that live in the algae (not the algae itself). They love to sit in some current. And they thrive when your filter disturbs the surface which creates more dissolved oxygen.

Mine love to sit in the flow from the garden hose :-? when I fill the tank after vacuuming the gravel/water changes. Even to the point of climbing above the level of the tank's water surface :o as the water from the hose hits the glass.

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That's what i was told when I bought mine from the first batch brought into NZ. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that several shops had them in stock last week :D . It gave me the chance to get some more females and some S. sp "spotted" :bounce: .

I think the wholesaler is supplying them to the LFS as 'Chinese Butterfly Loach'. Maybe HummingBird, Catbrat or one of the others who work at Jansens or Hollywood Fish Farm could let everyone know. I'm sure that those South of the Bombays would like to ask their LFS to get some in.

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