Hillstream Loach Fish Care and Information
hillstreamloach

This is the hillstream loach. The hillstream loach comes to us from the fast-moving waters of China and that's exactly how this fish got its shape. Instead of swimming against the current which creates a torpedo like body shape. The hillstream loach has developed a flat body that can cling on to its surroundings.

hillstreamloachtank

Now the waters where this fish comes from are very clean and highly oxygenated, so if you do keep whole stream loach, you're gonna want to use high filtration with a high outflow into the tank, to reproduce the hillstream loach natural environment. The hillstream is not picky at all when it comes to the aquarium decorations so feel free to use artificial or natural decorations. One thing that is sort of important about the tank setup is the lighting.

hillstreamloachfeeding

The hillstream loach primarily feeds on algae, so leave your lights on a little bit longer to produce some extra algae that your loach can feed on. And when you do start growing some extra algae, don't clean it up right away. I recommend only cleaning the front glass and the sides of the aquarium and leaving the back glass of your aquarium covered with some algae. This way your hillstream loach can have a constant source of food and you might even actually see some of your other fish nipping at the wall of algae.

hillstreamloachmate

The hillstream loach can be relatively peaceful and kept with other fish, however they can be territorial at times if they're kept in small aquarium. If you want to keep multiple hillstream loaches, you can do so, but i would recommend keeping one hillstream loach for every 5 to 10 gallons.

hillstreamloacheatalgae

Feeding the hillstream loach is also pretty simple, they'll feed primarily on algae, also scour the bottom of the tank for food. So it's best to use sinking foods. Again they'll accept all sorts of foods including dry foods, live foods and frozen foods. For frozen food i typically use worms like black worms and blood wroms and for the most part dry foods that sink to the bottom should work just fine.

Again they should be kept in fast well oxygenated water with a neutral pH of around seven and a water temperature in between 65 and 75 degrees fahrenheit.