Dwarf Chain Loach

[steeler58]

Evidently there may have been a colony introduced to the Philippines during the 1970's but has never been verified.

[steeler58]

Lady knows her fish as Nat pointed out on my thread..........

[fishlove]

These are super neat fish! Very cool looking too

[mac]

They seem very common around nz. Just expensive.
So we must have a few larger scale breeders with them.

[RiversGirl]

I adopted a lonely one some years ago.
It tried to communicate with my C.habrosus. Rehomed it therefor to a decent group with someone else.
You should have seen its reaction woehahahaha. Rewarding !!

This is a neat story. That is a fortunate fish, to have been the recipient of your kindness.

[steeler58]

Another day for these guys ;-)

[chiefbrody]

I just got a group of 5 for my river tank. Swapped out my cories for them and so far its a better fit - more of a community rather than the cories just keeping to themselves. Mostly ciclids and 2 syno petricolas with some anubias and river stones. Everyone shoals together harmoniously. Except the petricolas they hide during the day at least but I'm definitely happy with the loaches

[steeler58]

Awesome little guys, congratulations

[WhistlingBadger]

Nothing like reviving an old (but interesting) thread. I have had DCLs for a year or two now. I find that, for new ones, nine is the magic number. Less than that and they are shy and secretive; more than that and they're out in the open and active pretty much all the time.

These are one of my favorite fish. They are sort of the class clowns of the tank; they'll take a poke at another fish once in a while just (it seems) out of boredom, but they never pursue. Their interspecies interactions are interesting, and it's very fun to watch them and try to figure out what they're up to. Mine occasionally display what looks suspiciously like spawning behavior, but I have never seen any eggs or fry. Given my stocking, though, that isn't surprising.

They are indeed endangered in the wild, mostly (like so many SE Asian fish) due to habitat degradation. Did anyone notice that TWS is now selling tank-raised DCLs? This is indeed very, very good news! Maybe the next stage will be reasonable prices for these little guys! ha ha ha

[RiversGirl]

Did anyone notice that TWS is now selling tank-raised DCLs? This is indeed very, very good news! Maybe the next stage will be reasonable prices for these little guys! ha ha ha

That's some nice news, right there - tank raised. They are quite pricy, yes.
I looked into these a few years back and at that time had read that their breeding setup/requirements were a closely guarded secret. I hope more information is shared to breed them -- seems to me to be the right thing to do for these awesome fish.