20 Long With High Flow

[MuddyWaters]

This evening I bought an Aquarium Co-Op 30" light- got it at the LFS since Aquarium CoOp's website only had the 12". All the rest were out of stock. I thought maybe they had quit making them. Went to the LFS and lo-and-behold they had them. I had never shopped for a light there, so I didn't know what they had.

Also got an Eheim heater. Two of the folks at my LFS are also board members on the local club and they have MTS, which is solid, in my book. Anyway one suggested Fluval, the other suggested Eheim. Eheim was cheaper and was better suited for the tanks (the range of temp was good enough with a smaller heater to allow for that).

So, I have gravel, filter, heater, tank, lid and light. Need to paint the back of the tank black and then I'm ready to get rolling.

 

[fishorama]

I started hillstream loaches with 3 adult gastromyzon ctenocephalus. But my favorites are sewellia lineolata, F1s from a different forum member from wilds (same seller as the gastros). The gastros died out after a few years but my sewellia breed a fry or 3 every year now with no effort on my part () I have them in a 55g tank with rasboras sarawakensis (probably not a good choice for a 20 long) & a couple of species of blue stiphodon gobies. The gobies are very different & cool! I got them as adults & 2 of 2 species are still alive after10+ years. Females are hard to come by, they all look similar but of course the fish can tell, lol. They can turn their heads sideways to look at me & give me the "feed me" stare. I rarely see them these days so it's a treat when I do. I don't heat that tank, they're fine with low 70Fs.

I have plants in their tank, you could try smaller anubias & bucephalandra. Neither is planted in the substrate but attached to wood or rocks w/sewing thread or superglue gel.

You could get by with 2 Aqua Clear HOB filters, 20, 30 or 50s.

On the spouse thing, my husband is an enabler, lol. More fish please! But he also helps with water changing & algae scraping.

 

[Magnum Man]

one of the hard, but cool things about Hillstream's is, many have not been as well identified, with many only started but not with complete scientific names, many with the 2nd part of their name, just with sp.

I just looked up gastromyzon ctenocephalus, for example, and in half of the pictures, they are spotted, and half striped, so even though they carry a full name, work is likely need there, as both types are probably not the same species genetically...

paper has a way of making a liar out of us... I've been doing up spread sheets for my tanks, recording the fish I have... the Hillstream tank being one of the hardest to complete... I've always said I have close to 25 different species, but I only come up with like 13 species, by cross checking off my recorded order lists, and that includes some cousins, that aren't actually Hillstream's, like flying foxes, and panda garra's, which get along nicely with the Hillstream's... I've always tried to buy 3 of each, it so far have not had any breeding occur... on my spread sheet, I try to include a link to where I purchased them, which most often has a picture which helps me personally with identification

 

[GaryE]

My wife is extraordinarily tolerant of my fishkeeping. But there were times early on when I noted:
a) that I was often bored in my alone free time;
b) a trip to the local pub/bar might be something to try;
c) beer costs have skyrocketed;
d) when I play with the fish, I'm just not bored.

When your partner isn't convinced they like what you're doing, consider what else you could be doing. Fishkeeping, if it is a vice, is a pretty mild one.