armadillo

Hi everyone. My boyfriend saw an algae eater he'd probably like for his guppy tank: the Gastromyzon (he didn't write down the species name... Just the genus, sorry). These are also known as Borneo catfish, Borneo suckers, or spotted hill stream loach, or butterfly loach. Not too sure how much these synonyms are the same species, but I guess he's not fussed as to the exact species, as long as it has that look (with the flaps on the side).

We can't seem to find any decent information on it. I would be interested to hear if some of you have experience with that fish.

Is it true they're cool water fish? (hence totally incompatible with our tropicals)

Stradius011

Here's a link: http://www.aquariumfish.net/catalog_..._butterfly.htm

armadillo

Thanks, Stradius! Do you know much about them yourself? I was looking at the link and the good news is it seems they don't HAVE to be in cool water, as I had first thought. But I wonder if they're algae eaters? The link doesn't mention it at all so I imagine not.

Butterfly

I have kept Hillstream Loaches for many years and they are darling although they don't eat algae, they eat the tiny microscopic critters called aufwachs that grow in the algae. they need cooler water(68-72F) than tropical fish and prefer lots of highly oxygenated and moving water. Here is some more information. http://www.loaches.com/articles/hill...-the-fast-lane
Here are some pictures of mine.

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	HS in bubbles.jpg (36.4 KB, 24 views)

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Butterfly

Seems I posted two of the same picture sorry.

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hillstream 4.jpg (87.7 KB, 24 views)

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armadillo

Woooo. They look really cool. The tank we were thinking of is a vertical hex, so not striking points on water aeration, although we'd get airstones of course.

For the temperature, how cool do they need it to be? is 26 muuuuch to warm?