hozzie

Hi

Does anyone have info on these loaches? They were a one-off sale at FS (which I no longer use after they began selling dyed fish and carried on selling fish with obvious anchor worms without even treating them) Only other fish shop on island has no idea.

Gorgeous, sociable, energetic and playful.


They were sold as catfish but have found very limited info on internet calling them loaches. Dont even know how big they grow lol

Thanks

Attached Images

	Garra cat.JPE (82.5 KB, 31 views)
	garra loach.JPE (115.0 KB, 30 views)
	Garra head.JPE (124.5 KB, 30 views)

Marisseas

Okay, I'm pretty sure the Garra loaches you're talking about are Garra flavatra (which will show up on internet searches with fairly good information). From what I've heard, they're found in slow-moving streams that form shallow pools in the Kamyita Chaung river. They live 5-8 years and only will reach the size of 3.5". I would make sure the tank has decent water flow like most loaches require and do weekly water changes for this fish. A small group does best in over 85 litres. They are supposedly very peaceful fish with any tank mates though a report of stressing out Discus and Angels has been put up on the internet. It is reccomended that you keep them in a "river tank" set up (The Loaches book has details on making one as does loaches.com). It can be picky about dirty water like most river fish and is prone to jumping, also enjoying swimming directly into powerheads, which is where you will find them if your tank needs a swifter current thoroughout. They prefer 72-80F. pH is around 6.9-7.0. Though often labeled an algae eater, it will need small invertebrates like bloodworms. Any other stream-dwelling species are welcomed into the tank. Do not keep only one of these guys. Try for a medium sized group. It's very uncommon, but they can be spawned.

I used the following resource and experience with loaches for this informaton: http://www.seriouslyfish.com/profile...lavatra&id=963



If you not longer wish to house them because of their needs, I would be willing to take them (loachaholic)

gremlin

It is probably a garra pingi pingi. I don't know a whole lot about them. They look a little bit like the chinese algae eater and simese algae eater and the flying fox. I was investigating these for my pond at one point since my one of my sisters had found some and was thinking about doing a pond. I gave her the list of websites but she decided not to do a pond. Anyway, here are some websites that I found on them...

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fish/pingilogsucker.php
http://www.azgardens.com/p-157-algae...hus-pingi.aspx
http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/1413/product.web
http://www.petsolutions.com/Garra-Pi...C40001626.aspx
http://www.skylineponds.com/articles/pond_fish.aspx

Hope this helps...

Butterfly

I agree with that Marisseas ID Good link also.
I don't see the variation in color of the pingi like the flavatra
carol

hozzie

Wow. Thank you.

It is definaitely a Garra flavatra - Panda Garra; so now I know

I keep them in pairs as I fell in love and took them all.... They do like the filter stream and sucker the glass next to eachother (much like synchronised swimmers). They are also not at all shy and nothing seems to upset them. So far my angels have been perfectly safe lol. Have had them for a year now and they have been very robust. The largest one will let you tickle her. They have lots of personality and are in my top 3 of my fav fish so am keeping them lol

The largest one has a distinct pink colour to his/her tail fin; otherwise they are yellow and dark green, just like the link Marrisseas (thank you).

It is soo good to find good info.

Thank you to you all, much appreciated.

Helene