Seeking hillstream loach requirements, tankmates, and river tank setup advice

[Magnum Man]

@kiko … as I said, not trying to be critical… I personally go against conventional wisdom, more than I tow the line, and I might be the most rebellious/ stupid/ frustrating member on this website… so I’m good with anything that works for you…

Do you want to talk about your breeding experience??? Size of tank, were you able to sex them, or did you start with a group, and they chose, etc.

 

[Beastije]

BTW... @Beastije I use a balanced mix of Seachem fertilizers in most of my tanks... for both aquatic plants, & house plants growing out of my tanks... no issues with the Hillstreams... I would suspect if aquarium safe fertilizers were used, & fish died, either something was way out of balance, or it was added at too strong of concentration???

I was talking about root tab fertilizers and when you uproot plants or mess up with substrate that has them as it releases too much too quick. There are also observations of hillstreams being killed by using no planaria and one other medication, so they are for sure sensitive

 

[kiko]

@kiko … as I said, not trying to be critical… I personally go against conventional wisdom, more than I tow the line, and I might be the most rebellious/ stupid/ frustrating member on this website… so I’m good with anything that works for you…

Do you want to talk about your breeding experience??? Size of tank, were you able to sex them, or did you start with a group, and they chose, etc.

I never actually tried breeding them, I just know they bred because I had quite a few darting around...same with the neons...only reason I know they bred in the same tank was because I saw some smaller guys in the group
quite a few zebra plecos..a couple cories..some neon tetras, otos, rasboras, pea puffers, endlers...got quite a mix in there xD

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but yeah easy to tell when you have a pair specially if they're stuck on the glass square/male vs non-square...I've had these guys for about 3/4 years now...same pair
never got more just the 2 and they do just fine so I don't intend on getting more of them
45gal with internal sump running at around 200gph...tds/ph controller which I use specially for water changes...right now I'm doing water changes down to 60tds and let it go up to 150 +-
zebra plecos breed at around 100-130 tds from what I've noticed and they are the ones I'm actually breeding as they literally support the whole hobby for me...
I've actually tried frozen worms after water changes...colder water changes as many websites/youtube videos show but none of that worked for me.
my plecos usually breed at around 120 tds if my sump is low...basically water dropping "raining" from one partition to the next.
As for food whenever I drop food for the plecos..specially bloodworms most of my fish will go for it including the hillstream loaches