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Hillstream Loaches breeding? Help would be awesome.


SanityChelle

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Hey, has anyone ever bred hillstream loaches before here? I just got a new male hillstream, and he's busy digging eggpits close in to rocks. I only realised he was a boy (and that my old hillstream was a girl) after noticing little tentacles around his mouth underneath.

They're slightly different species to each other, so I have no idea if anything will happen, I'm just super curious about it.

The female is a beaufortia kweichowensis (bottom in image), while the male is a bit smaller, and more like the myersi type in the upper left.

2112_hillstream_loach.jpg

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I had mine dig a pit under a rock when i had a sand bottom, they laid eggs but I didn't think to remove them or remove the other fish. My largest guppy had quite the meal :( It didnt happen again in that tank so I can't say if any specific conditions trigger them to spawn and now that ive switched to flourite I havn't seen any of the pit digging or spawning behaviour at all.

I prefer the flourite for aesthetics (poop disappears rather than sitting on top) and for plant growth, but im sure the Borneo suckers (they're also known as Hong Kong Plecs and the Hillstream Loaches) prefered the sand.

I'm 99% sure mine are the same species as well, so that may have played a part.

Sorry I can't be more help.

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Maybe he's just trying to be hopeful. I've only got small gravel and no sand, but he's dug three or four pits that I can see, and they've got a system of caves covered in plants that I can't see that they spend most of their time in.

I've also got minnows in there, who eat their own eggs, so if they choose to lay in the open, the minnows will probably clean them up. I don't think the minnows go in the densely planted cave bit much though.

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