The term "Hillstream loach" refers to a wide array of fish. Right now you make it seem like " breeding hillstream loaches" doesn't require all that much. But what you are REALLY saying is: _Sewelia's_ don't require all that much. And there is a world of difference between Sewelia's and Gastromyzons. Sewelias are really easy to breed. Tons of videos out there. Go ahead and find me just 1 video of a baby Gastromyzon. As far as my research goes, only 1 person has ever been able to get fry, just once, ever, in the whole world. Edit: Do you have any references where you took all those statements from or did you make them up?
Flyingdutchy33 good info. The title of the video says “sewellia guide” and in the video I put I believe the one I’m working with is “sewellia lineolata”
The statements I refer to in the video are summarized points of things I’ve seen in videos, read on websites, have seen in forums and groups, and heard by word of mouth from other hobbyists. Judging by the response in the comments sections, I believe I’m not the only one with this experience. It’s very possible that some of these sources believed they were working with or talking about sewellia when in fact they were talking about Gastromyzon. It’s my opinion that since these fish are still relatively new to the hobby there is still confusion between the two and I agree clearer lines need to be drawn. I’ve seen some Borneo suckers at my LFS, perhaps I’ll try to be #2 lol
New to fish but I've been wondering about this. With such a small body of water we can't really create zones. I know with reptiles it's necessary to have a hotter basking area and a cooler area. I think the fluctuations would need to be within reason. Within reason would whatever happens in their native habitat.
It is unbelievable, I bought 2 Sewellia's a year ago. A week or two after buying them they already had 4 babies! A couple months later they had three babies again. And just yesterday I found another baby! They breed A LOT. There are litteraly 4 generations of Sewellia's in just over a year in my aquarium.
Great information! I love when people share their actual experience vs what the internet says. I agree that we can find good information as a starting point on the internet but real experience is king. You may have just convinced me to add some of these to my new breeding rack I am currently setting up.
I think most problems were happened at the store. They may starving, have poor diet and sick. When they come to our aquarium with nearly to say bye bye condition, they gone. Actually, if water clean and well oxygenated , it will be just fine. Don’t mind about temperatures.
I've just added some of these to my shrimp tank recently I've wanted them for years. I'm glad I found your video as its answered all my questions. Thank you 😊
I did the full manifold system, marbles and sand. Never got any in 8-9 months. Wish I had this info before I moved on. Will get back into them and give it a go again. Thank you
Great down-to-earth advice. Sometimes I personally think some aquarists make it to complicated. While I think it can be a good thing to try to replicate the natural habitat especially if the fish has not yet been bred in captivity but it is easy to be misinformed by popular misconceptions. I started the hobby at 5 years old and am now approaching 69 and I think I have always enjoyed the science of the hobby, The little scientist in me loves checking pH and water Hardness and experimenting and learning. The hobby has never gotten boring in all of these years. Sometimes though, we need to step back and not over complicate things.
They bred for me without doing anything crazy. My tank sits at 75F (I keep a cooler water community). The Tank has a powerhead with an attached sponge, as well as an aquaclear 50. It gets water changes with somewhat cooler water every couple weeks. Nothing extra, and one day they spawned twice!!
I bought 8 reticulated hillstream loaches (RHL) 9 months ago and now I have about 50+ RHL in my 40 long. I’m not sure if these fish need anything special to bread. I did a lot of research before purchasing RHL to find out how some of the original breaders were successfully. Since they are hillstream loaches, I customized 2 powerheads hooked directly to 2 sponge large filters. The base of the substrate is about 1.5” of pool filter sand. Then in basically the middle area of the tank, in about half of the sand base I put a half inch to an inch or so of pea-gravel substrate. Then I placed 15 to 20 (depending on the size) 2 to 3 1/2” diameter rocks on top of the pea-gravel. They should be stacked 2 to 3 rocks on deep. Also it’s always good to put in some plants , almond leaves and Malaysian drift wood. I bought these fish to bread so there are no other fish in the tank. They love the freedom of being alone I believe. As for food, I feed my fish 4 or 5 basic foods. They will eat any of the foods I give them. I’ll give them frozen brine, both the baby and regular. I also feed them crushed flake food and crushed XL tropical granules. They love them both but crushed flakes are their favorite food of all. When I hatch baby brine shrimp they’re also very happy. I think that the live baby brine and a water change will help get your RHL’s excited to bread. One last thing, I believe doing water changes is not as good as it’s made out to be? If your tank isn’t overloaded with fish and you have a good filter/filters (all of my tanks have sponge) your tanks should only need to have the bottom syphoned cleaned every 4 to 6 weeks for a water change. This is only my opinion after having and breading fish for close to 50 years. Thanks, good day
Thank you for sharing your experience, awesome to hear how much success you have had! Since I’ve only bred them once I very much appreciate you giving your tips on repeating the process. I will try adding some baby brine shrimp and also do a water change to stimulate them. Having them breed once for me was great but really figuring it out and getting it to happen regularly is the goal. Thank you again
Wild Fish Tanks Honestly I believe it’s possible to do too many water changes. I found that disturbing them with water changes that are not necessary hinders their reproduction. I appreciate your kind words. Have a great day.
I love your notecards! My temps range from 67-85 over the year. I keep my heater set at 70. No power head, just the biggest Aquaclear hob on a 40b. Everything else like you said - especially the rocks. Round smooth rocks in the baseball to cantaloupe size range piled up under the hob return. White clouds, live plants, lots of light, and 90% water changes every 10-14 days. Mine have been breeding since October. Just found a little fry 3 mm long 2 days ago. I feed Aq Coop fry food and shrimp pellets mainly, and just started with krill flakes. I think high oxygen levels is the most important. But what do I know - I’m just another schmuck in a garage...
I didn’t know you were breeding them also, congrats!! Mine started breeding in October also, twinses!😂🤣. I think I’ll add some more aeration to the tank and see if that helps them get in the mood more regularly.....and hey, two schmucks are better than one
I have a dozen in my 120g display tank with other very small fish. I was doing some cleaning and trimming today and spotted a little wriggly thing - I think I have at least 13 in the tank now! I have been looking online to find pictures or information about very young ones so watched this video. Considering as of today, they are the first fish i have bred and it was by accident, my experience is similar to yours in that there are so many myths in keeping them and breeding them.
Merci pour ces explication, je vais les mettre en pratique. J'adore votre façon de présenter les choses et de démonter les fausses certitudes. Désolé pour le français.
So here's my story - I cycled my tank and bought four. I loved them, but when I did my first water change all four died. I was devastated. I got two more, did a water change and lost those two too. Both occurrences were the very next day after the water change. I want to get more, but I"m not going to until I figure out what went wrong. I'm using API tap water conditioner and I have a 20 gallon planted tank --- I just can't wait to hear from you!
I've had 6 Hillstreams for only about 6 months. No "highly oxygenated" water, no "fast moving currents", no sandy substrate (just gravel), no special breeding structures, not even trying to breed them. I have baby Hillstreams everywhere. It can't be that tough, or I'm just the luckiest novice ever.
Thanks for the video, gives me hope for the hillstream loach breeding project I started about a month ago. Diva's videos were also very helpful. Subscribed!
Thanks for sharing! I have three thanks for the recommendations! I brought one from TN on a road trip and survived the trip to our new home in AZ. I put it in a container with holes at the top and it is doing just fine ( 3days of driving )
I live in Florida too. My garage can reach the 90’s in the Summer. The only thing I could keep in the garage is probably Discus. Do you sell Fish? Now my garage can reach can high 70’s at night and the mid in the 80’s in the day. I enjoyed watching. Thank you for sharing.
I love them! Had some that die due to treating itch and raised the temp 86 for too long should have just left them alone and just did ich x. I'm going to try to breed after this video, very good advice thanks bro.
This was a great video thank you. You've gained a new sub! How many would you keep in a 25 gallon thats well seasoned and got a rock pile. 5 be ok do you think?
I had lots of doubts about them, internet actually confused me.... Great info to the point by point.... Hope Im gonna have hilstream babies soon !!! Thanks again !!!
Brother you are awesome! Thanks for the great tips. You are very right about everything you said. I have a colony of 8 hillstream loaches. Ive had them for 5 months now still havent bred, but im not rushing it. I'm happy seeing them all over the glass or in the sponge filter tube. Great lil critters n great video thanks man.
Started with 1...she was 2yrs old. Added 3 more....a few months later, had my first spawn. wasn't many, 5 or so. they spawned for me again Dec, I got about 20 out of that one. Small spawn a few weeks ago. Prob 6 or so. I've had them for years and they do well. They are egg scatterers, so if you have little piles of pebbles, smooth river rocks, the eggs will fall between them, and babies more likely to survive Tank conditions Tank Size: 29g planted tank with driftwood, larger thin flat slate stones at the bottom they love to dig under it and make themselves little caves. Also caribsea crystal river sand and river rocks. Temp: 77F to 79F PH: 7.6 Flow: pretty high. but doesn't seem to matter. I am running a tidal 55, have a bubble wall back of the tank, air stone corner Food: They eat anything and everything. It is a seasoned tank. they don't eat algae, but the feed on the biofilm on the algae. However, they eat flake food. I feed Xtreme tropical flakes, Xtreme spirulina flakes Bug bites: Micro pellets Hikari Freeze Dried Daphnia Hikari sinking tabs Sara O-nip tabs...I just drop one in, and they will pick at it as it dissolves
Thank you very much, brother, for the clarification and for sharing with us your wonderful experience and for your sincerity. Greetings to you, and I keep in touch and follow up on your videos
Really good video! Love the format. Thank you for the shout out. I did so much research on this fish and decided to go against the traditional norms with great success. The best site I found in my research was seriouslyfish.com. I think most of the information is just people parroting what they've heard.e.g. hear say. The one thing that was consistent, was creating the whole "river manifold" tank. Ain't nobody got time for that! LOL Hope you guys are safe and healthy down there in Florida!
“Ain’t nobody got time for that” 🤣😂🤣 . I’m doing well, I hope the same for you and yours up in the mid west. I appreciate you being so passionate and sharing all that you learned about them!
Laughed hard at that last card you threw down. Been working at a fish store for 6 months... turns out almost all the common information about fish online is wrong....
I'm with you on most of this! Mine just happened to start breeding, drift wood and big gravel in mine, mostly only feed them Tetra shrimpwafers. They love it. I do have a power head and no heater average temp is 75 inside and a bubble sponge filter.
Awesome video here, I have had a couple of them in a tank but no breeding. My theory is while they LOVE strong water flow from observations of mine, they probably seek low flow or no flow zones to breed, so very high flow may be kicking people in the nutsack if they intend to breed them. I ll prob try it out once I have a few extra floating plants to throw in the tank, and kill that flow. But yeah they really don't care about repashy for me, I tried soilent green and morning wood. They do go for fish flakes very actively but will by far prefer biofilm and algae. I think introducing live rotifers/moina in my tanks also helped A LOT to make the tank setups better for fish life and even shrimps. Amazing food source for anything but they need a great habitat to breed and survive without being hunted to extinction.
we have the same type (with the lines down the side) i've personally found them aggressive at feeding times, both between them but also against other loaches.
Not sure how much they go for across the pond, they are pretty spendy over here but worth it! Hoping that as they get more common and more people start breeding them the price will drop
Should be common sense that Hillstream Loach young are being produced and born when the water is warmer because a increased temperature means more food. (That's a pretty good guideline for wildlife in general.) I got a powered head and they are doing fine and breed well during the summer month. I have half of my tank with plants and the forefront is rocks and Pebbles only. In nature, a current will bring all sorts of food which will get stuck in between the Pebbles and rocks which the hillstream loaches will feed on as they cannot live on algae alone, they need a bit of animal protein (like in nature dead animal parts will get stuck in the Pebbles.) It gets very, very cold in the winter where I live and I keep a heater during those days to keep the temperature at around 68 Fahrenheit. I keep my group of hillstream loches with a group of amano shrimps and a large group of white cloud mountain minnows and they are great together (tip for this combination came from a friend who is a ichtyologist and who has been studying and keeping fish herself for over 40 years). The Internet is in general not a good resource of information because if someone posts that the grass is not green but blue than it will stay there forever.Only when there is a exercise beforehand can a person thieve the good info from the rubbish information. Best is to go to a library or resources in open universities and to research how a fish lives and eat in his wild environment and then do the best possible to recreate that environment.
I thank you SO MUCH...for saying this. You hear so many things on the Internet. You cant do this. Can't do that. They won't breed like this. You have to do that. Like you said...REAL experience is the best. I have done many things as a amateur hobbyist that people said you can't do...successfully.
I managed to get 2 from my LFS and 2 more from my not so favorite lfs and ended up with 2 pair. Love these little oddballs. Gonna rescape with some more rock. I've been keeping fish for about a year and a half and now have 12 tanks from 5 up to 75 gallons and have breed Appistograma and peacock gudgeons not on purpose. Great video. You got a new sub. Thanks
Hey congratulations....that's very cool. I have 3 in 1 tank but have no idea if they are male or female.... never really planned to breed them, I just find them to be beautiful. Again, congratulations, that's always an amazing experience to find the unexpected in a tank!
Thanks for the video! I have a 55 established planted tank that I have been waiting patiently to mature and get biofilm and algae for Hillstream loaches. The snails and other fish seem to get to the food I drop in before they do. I will try the veggie idea. Did you blanch the cucumber? Have you tried other veggies for them? Like zucchini? And now I know I need to build up my rock pile more. Thanks again!
Great video thanks for all the info, quick question tho I have a 65 gallon paludarium populated with 7 vampire crabs, and blue dream shrimp do you think hillstream loaches would be able to live in the same tank as the crabs?
Would you think Pearl Danios would be a good tank mate? My understanding is the Pearls like a good flow also. This is going to be in a 55 with 2 Aqua Clear 50 HOB filters. So plenty of room for 5 or 6 HSL and about the same Danios 5 or 6 plenty of good rocks, stumps and branches, roots and plants to play around in. Also on a side not I tried HSL back in the late 80s and couldn't keep them alive long. I think back then they were more wild caught and really did need the cooler temperatures. Now being more domesticated they have adapted to warmer water.
That's Soo crazy mine bred in the freeze we had last month! I don't keep heater in theirs n it's always 72-73 but in the cold it was 68-69!! That's when they laid eggs!! Babies r tiny rn but def Hilly's my tank is species only!
Nothing beats experience from success. Congratulations on your hill hillstream loach fry. Mother nature says adapt or die and these fish are a perfect example. Thanks for the informative video and the presentation was great.
Thanks, you and Cory from Aquarium Co-Op are giving me courage to try this fish out :) It looks so cool. Any idea if it eats hair algae at all, I have a fairly large not-marimo ball of it :D
I bought 8 Sewellia and put them in my 125g Roseline (Denison Barb) tank at 77*F . Added some round rocks from the yard after cleaning them up. Have only feed the Roseline's meat with the occasionally pellets thrown in. 1 month later spotted a few baby's so they must have breed the day I put them in my tank. 2 months now and I have at least 12. I am pretty sure that I have a lot more as the rock pile in the corner always has a lot in them. I am upgrading my tank tomorrow so I will know how many as now I have to try to catch them all....lol
I've bred these after keeping them for nearly half a year. Tank is at 25° ph7. Fluval roma 125 with fluval 307 with spray bar. Stocked with some tetra, corydoras and an orange spot pleco. Absolutely love this fisj and was one of the first I fell in love with
I feed my veggies twice a week along with frozen food and cory tablets and Dried foods on a daily and they feed on all of it. I have a mix of the dried foods ground to a dust which I feed specifically for the juvenile gold rings
Yesterday I bought a pair of hillstream loaches for my planted tank they were hanging around all good. But today am not find them anywhere in the aquarium. So can you please help my where it can be?
From my experience, if they have good flow (power head) cooler temps....you will breed them easier and faster....it's more they real for their environment....only a little water changes....i don't even have a filter
Im old school always have underground so always have power heads but just got them for a 29 gallon i set up just for them i think there a neat fish i also have a hang on back with them there is 5 in tank so hope i get one pair out of them thanks for your info on them
