Botia or not?

[handrew]

I ran across some of the red finned botias the other day at a store that I have had good luck with in the past. I liked them and thought they may make a good addition to my tank. I am wondering if the would be compatible or not with the fish I already have. I am only listing the species and not the number of each to save some time. In my tank, there are corys, weather loaches, kuhli loaches, large common pleco, small sailfin plecos, rainbow shark, cardinals, phantom tetras, BSTs, raspboras, serpae tetras, and white clouds. I also have ghost shrimp in the tank. I have a feeling that they will not do very well with my other fish so I have not gotten them so far. I have this feeling that there are two many bottom dwellers for them all to get along. I also feel like they may eradicate my shrimp population as well. I was just wondering what your thoughts may be with this matter. Thanks in advance.

[toddnbecka]

Unless you have an 8' tank it's already overstocked on the bottom level. Incidentally, weather loaches are cool-water fish (like goldfish), not really suited to warmer tanks.

[Kaz]

That is aLot of fish, how big is your tank?

How much of each fish do you have? This is very Important.

I've never heard of Red finned botia/loach but I'm going to guess you don't get it.

Weather loaches are cold water but they are very hardy and adaptable.

The bare minimum of each fish needed and the amount of each fish preffered is as follows:
Cories: 3 6
Weather loaches: 3 4
Kuhli loaches: 3 6
Pleco: 1(MAXIMUM)
Sailfin pleco: 1
Rainbow shark:1(MAXIMUM)DON'T KEEP WITH LARGE AMOUNTS OF OTHER FISH
Cardinals: 6 6<
Rasboras: 6 6<
White clouds: 6 6<
Serpae: 6 6<

[Northernguy]

We cannot give you an answer without the proper info first,it would be too irrisponsible on our part.
You have to tell us what size tank and how many occupants you have.
What filtration your tank has as well please?

[handrew]

Sorry, I was writing late the other night at work. I have a 60 gallon that is also fairly heavily planted. I have a Fluval 405 for my filtration using Biomax and prefilter in it. The dissolved O2 stays at around 4-5 ppm constantly and all of my fish are doing well. To give an idea of numbers, there are 4 serpae, 8 cardinals, 4 corys, 2 sailfin, 1 common pleco, 6 phantom, 2 white clouds, 4 danios, 2 hatchetfish, 4 BST, 3 weather loaches, 3-4 kuhli (can't always find them), and 2 raspboras. I think that I listed all that is in there. I am pretty sure that I am not going to get them right now.

[Kaz]

I would say that your current Aquarium is overstocked and you should not get another Loach.

Your fish numbers are OK but it still is quite a bit of fish.

Maybe return the weather Loaches or buy a 30 gal just for them. They grow to 10 inches!

Do you have plants?

[handrew]

I've got a 29 gallon at home but that is 200 miles away. Probably will not be getting that anytime soon. The weather loaches have been in the tank for probably a year now and still growing. The lfs around here will not take any fish back so that really is not an option. I went by the store today while at work and the botia are gone. I am not planning to get any new fish soon or at least until the "herd" is thinned a bit. I do have plants in the tank. I have 4 big clumps of hornwort, about 25-30 stems of cambomba, a lot of java fern growing on driftwood, and some four leaf clover starting to spread across the bottom. I really like the plants more than the fish and want to add more plants. I keep an eye on the eater quality and it holds very steady. I knew I was getting close to the maximum stocking level and have been keeping a close eye on the parameters.

[Kaz]

[QUOTE=handrew] I really like the plants more than the fish and want to add more plants.QUOTE]

Lol, I know what you mean, I really like the fish but My aquarium is going to be filled with so many plants I'll never get nitrates. I've got that going right now because of the tiny bioload the few fish I have are taking up, but soon I'll need More plants!

It doesn't help that my LFS has a sale of $0.99 per Amazon sword. I'm going to have 6-7 by the end of the month.

Try for the 29 gal Weather Loach tank, I hear you can even feed them by hand.