Tiger Loach

Say has anyone here ever kept a tiger loach. I got one but then found out its quite agro and grows up to 8 inches! It apparently also eats smaller fish, so bye bye neons! Anyone know more????

 

Try get more - they much prefer being in a larger group, and you may find that the aggression will go down too if you increase numbers.

Also, bearing in mind their potential size and schooling requirements, they need a pretty big tank to keep them happy.

Good luck.

 

I bought some around 8 months ago, 4 to be precise, and ended up taking them back to the LFS along with an african wood catfish! They pretty much desimated neons between them assisted by a pair of black zebra botia! Pretty much all botia are agro, apart from a few exceptions like dwarf chains and zebras (not black zebras). Pakistani loaches can be either or! Usually they are fine, but have times of going totally crazy and nipping everything!Hope that's helps?CheersBig G!

 

Wow, great guys thanks for the info. A big help

 

I have to disagree with you Big G, most loaches are really passive fish. They're very active, but definitely not aggressive if they're kept in groups. Read up on www.Loaches.com and you'll see what I'm talking about.

 

Big G, you are talking rubbish. I've had Botia Striata and Botia Kubotai with Rummy's and Discus. Hardly agressive fish and they are excellent snail killers

What is an African Wood catfish?

 

Well thank you for suggesting I am talking thru my rear end. I think if u read my first post again, I isolated botia striata (zebra loach) as one of the few that are not agro. Maybe agro is the wrong term, maybe a better term or description would be a rotweiler. Like a rotweiler plays with a rabbit, as far as its concerned its just playing, but either way the rabbit ends up dead!I have kept all kinds of botia over the past year, and spent a lot of time on the loaches site. I can only speak from my own experience which has been quite enhanced over the past year!! I would consider loaches to be my speciality area. Please also note that I did not include ALL loaches in my comments, but only the BOTIA species of which at least half are Rotweiler like.Hope that clears up things a bit?Cheers!Big G!

 

@Trevs nice find man "tiger loach" can be kinda broad could you post a more definitive name or a pic for us?

I used to really want some of these but I'v since come to really hate loaches, I find them very destructive in a planted tank, almost impossible to catch and not very good community fish due to their hyperactivity and aggression... normal clown loaches are about the best Iv come across but they get huge.

@Whimpe I assume you are on hard drugs at the moment

Iv also been sold "african woodcats" before, a very novel looking fish but I cant find the name or even an image on google...

Big G, did they look almost like this?

 

It kinda looked like that, but it was only about 2" long and was prodominantly black except for a white ish stripe down it lateral line and a few white ish dots on it body.

I can't remember what its actual name was offhand, I'll have to dig into my books when I get a chance, but it was not much longer than a neon when I first got it, and all my neons kept dissapearing over night. I hardly ever saw the thing, usually just a quick flitter when blood worm was fed, but when I finally caught it, its stomach was almost as wide as its length! It almost looked like you could stick a pin in it and it would pop!

As for the black zebra botia (different to botia Striata or zebra loach), these guys just ate neons left right and centre! I introduced 15 new neons at one stage and within an hour, they were swimming around with half a neon hanging out their mouths! I guess it just depends what fish you keep them with? They have never eaten a Serpae Tetra, but have nipped their fins.

Other botia I've struggled with are the Skunks. These guys just chased everything, and they are so flippin dast, that nothing, and I mean NOTHING, could outrun it in a chase! Although they never ate any fish, they did terrorise them, and rip pieces of fin off.

I think it would be useful to see a pick of this Tiger Botia, as mine were labelled banded loaches, which turned out to be Green Tiger Botia. I had 4, and they hunted, or rather haunted in packs. they would chase other fish around, and heard them up like a group of sheep dogs, and then all dive in from all side, usually biting in the process, but never eating. I think this was mainly because they were still small at around 2" or so. Needless to say, I decided that they were not the best inmates for the community tank, so they went back to the LFS.

Cheers
Big G!

 

Hmm, and it isn't this?

My LFS is selling these for R120 each as a Hi Fin Tiger Loach, but they're more commonly known as Hi Fin Doll Loaches or Chinese Hi Fin Banded Sharks.

 

It's a cool water fish @Zeiphex .... Grows MASSIVE!!! Go check an adult pic under Salmon's sticky thread - Fish to avoid as a newbie... used to have an almost meter long one in one of my koi ponds....

 

I know it's a cool water fish and I also know it grows massive But I've seen them sold as Tiger Loaches, so was wondering if maybe we had a case of mistaken identity here. They're beautiful fish though!

 

Think the fish originally mentioned here was a loach of the Sinobotia Genus.... Can be true horrors when mixed in with small fish - realy demands a large tank of their own or with bigger,robust fish...

 

@BigG, very interesting about the black zebra loaches you mentioned. Did you get them identified? Ive seen Botia Rostrata sold as Black Zebras before, did they look like those?
http://www.loaches.com/species-index/botia-rostrata
The 1st pic is a bit misleading.

Sorry for the hi-jack