Botia/Loach – Yellow Finned Sucker Loach

Description

Gastromyzon viriosus

The Yellow Finned Sucker Loach is a bottom dwelling fish, native to fast moving, shallow, clear water streams of Borneo. The Yellow Fin Sucker Loach is a peaceful fish and can be kept with other community minded fishes that enjoy the same habitat as Rasboras and Danios. Other stream dwellers that are not aggressive could also be on the list. If you’re interested in a super interesting, peaceful community fish, then look no further than a small group of Yellow Fin Sucker Loaches. They are beautiful, not overly hard to keep and have interesting interactions with each other. The Loach’s body shape allows it to point itself toward flow and yet stay attached to rocks in fast current while grazing on the surface algae that grow there. They are most often found in riffles, and both just above and below waterfalls.

Yellow Fin Sucker Loaches need very well-oxygenated water. The easiest way to keep oxygen levels high in an aquarium is to maintain high overturn and keep the temperature low. To this end, we suggest having a very large filter, one capable of turning over the entire volume of your display at least 15 times per hour. One could also use extra flow devices and / or diffuser stones to add more oxygen and flow to their tank. In regard to temperature, colder water holds oxygen (and indeed all gasses) better than warm water. As a result, our suggestion is to keep these fish in water between 65- and 75-degrees Fahrenheit. They can be kept in warmer water than this, even up to 80, but oxygenation effort will need to be intense. They are not overly picky about hardness of the water in the display, but water should be slightly acidic (6-7pH), and low in nutrients. Regular water changes will help keep nutrients low, but the surfaces of the tank (except for viewing surfaces obviously) should be allowed to grow algae, as this is the natural food for these Loaches.

Feeding the Yellow Fin Sucker Loach is pretty straightforward. Their primary food source in the wild is benthic (on the bottom) algae as well as the little critters consumed with it. One of your primary goals as a fish keeper in regard to feeding these Loaches is to maintain an environment that grows this alga readily. Tanks for this fish should be mature, with clear water and plenty of surfaces for this alga to grow. Some people go so far as to keep an “algae nursery” in which they keep rocks that grow algae on them to be put into the display aquarium as supplemental food. Our highest recommendation for commercial food is Nutramar’s Shots, which are perfect as they can get stuck to glass where the Loach can happily graze on it. They will usually also take meatier foods like the Spirulina but be careful of offering too much protein, which can give the Yellow Fin Sucker Loach digestive issues. Some hobbyists use sponge filters inside their display as they will naturally conglomerate and grow food for the Loaches.

Shipeed at about 1.25″