Bonus Botia ... I think we have a monster

[Sasquatch]

We went to the LFS today and picked up a few amano shrimp and some floating plants ... and we ended up with a little surprise.

Among the plants we found a little bonus, a small loach. From what we've been able to determine it's a skunk loach (Botia morleti). At the moment he's only about 1" long and skinny, but he's feeding well.

We did a little research and they seem to be a very active fish, somewhat aggressive. Hopefully he'll fit in with our other fish in the 10g ... until we can find him a bigger home.

Does anyone around here have experience with this species of fish? Did we really end up with a monster?

[Tolley]

To be honest if i were you i'd take that loach back.

Leaving the aggresion aside, they get 4" long and need to be in groups like tetras. You could probably bet on losing your shrimps aswell.

[Jacko]

They are extremely fun fish to watch and keep but deffinitely take yours back. I wouldn't keep less than 3 together in at least a 3 foot tank.

If you can upgrade anytime soon, I'd recomend a couple, they make clicking noises way more than any fish I've kept and are a load of fun, always moving around. But they tend to hide in decor during water changes, when moving a tank we had one stick up inside a fake log and we thought he was still in the tank, till we found him 5 hours later at the bottom of a dry bucket. He was still alive, hardy little fish. We lost ours due to a bad ich infection in the tank. :(

Oh, and they are the one of the best snail eating loaches out there. They deffinitely wouldn't say no to a shrimp cocktail, if you get what I mean. ;)

[toddnbecka]

Overall a smaller species, but what they lack in size they make up for in general nastiness as far as peaceful community members. Good to mix with mid-size cichlids, they do become more colorful when they mature.

[Sasquatch]

Thanks all. It pretty much confirms what I'd read on the internet.

We're going to keep him for the moment and see how it goes. As I mentionned, he's only about 1" long right now. About the only thing he's likely to be able to harass is our oto cat ... even our shirmp are 3-4 times bigger than he is! :22:

To be honest, we've already ruled out giving him back to the LFS where we bought him. The tanks are absolutely disease ridden over there ... it's sad really. The only reason we bought plants and shrimps there is because those tanks were healthier and it's about the only store where we can find them.

For the moment we'll get him healthy. But we know another LFS with a better setup and we've got a few friends and contacts locally that might be able to take him in. If he get out of hand too quickly, we'll find him a good home. Depending on how fast he grows though, we might be able to keep him until we move to someplace where we can get a bigger aquarium.

[mac]

Hi,
I have not kept these Loaches before. I would personally take this fish back. One because of it potential size, and wanting of a large group. The nexted thing is there aggression. and also you tank is to small, and you have Shrimps. So I would defiantly take it back. Hope this helps,
mac

[Dave66]

I've kept them before, and in groups of six or eight, they have no aggression problems. Kept in smaller numbers is unnatural for them, which is why they act aggressively; they are insecure.

Dave

[Sasquatch]

Thanks again for the great advice.

Unfortunately, it won't be necessary anymore. I found him dead this morning while doing the feedings. It wasn't a surprise really, he was extremely thin and had a pretty ragged tail. All told, he was a pretty messed up fish when we got him. We were hoping he would get better, but it just didn't happen.

Thanks again and if we get these loaches in the future, we'll keep it in mind.