Chinese Butterfly loaches with Axy's

C

clare

Guest
I have wanted to find cold water fish that I can
keep with my Axy's. I had tried Goldfish but my Axy's wanted to attack their fins ! On a recent visit to my local aquatic shop I came across Chinese Butterfly loaches being kept in a large tank with 6 adult Axy's. I have found out that they can be kept in cold water or tropical
tanks.

The following website has piccies of them :-

http://www.loaches.com/gastromyzon_sp.shtml

Clare
 
Hi Clare,
I wouldn't add loaches to any aquarium where there are animals that may try to consume them. Loaches have spines beneath each eye that can be erected upon demand and these can severely injure your axolotls.
Ed
 
I should have looked at the link before commenting on the loach. These are not a true loach species but have the common name of "Hillside Loach"
I couldn't find anything on toxicity or spines on these guys. However many fish that have this body plan have some kind of erectible spine for defense against predators (ex. plecostomus, dorsal spines in flounder, tail spine in stingrays and skates). So I would still recommend against placeing them with your axolotls.
Ed
 
In any case if you add other species of aqautic creatures with axys you will ether end up with a poisoned axy or an eaten fish. When I first got my axys no one told me that you cound'nt put them in with other fish and I had neons, shark fish male and female simease figthers in with them and nothing went wrong for about a month or 2. They got big and ate about 7 of my neons and were trying to eat my simease fighters.
The only case in which I would add other fish would be if the other fish was bigger, did'nt eat other fish and did'nt let of toxins into the water.

But if you wanted to be safe I would just get other axys, like if you had white get a different colour like black or yelow
 
Actually, most East Asian balitorine loaches (Balitoridae: Balitorinae) might make good additions to a newt tank. Also many spiny loaches (Cobitidae: Cobitinae) may prove possible. Both groups of fishes often starve to death in fish tanks because they continously feed on small critters (and slowly at that). Together with newts it should be not much of a problem to provide enough food for both. However, larger caudates may "mistake" them for an additional food source (the spine below the eye isn't a problem though); maybe hillstream loaches like Pseudogastromyzon or Beaufortia won't be recognised as potential food source by Axolotls but I wouldn't bet on it.

True loaches (Balitoridae: Nemacheilinae) are more vigorous eaters and may end up obese in a newt tank. Some species are territorial, too.

Of course, steer clear off botias (Cobitidae: Botiinae) - they are quite predatory and may dissect fairly large food items... Most of the available species prefer warmer water anyway.

Best wishes,
kai
 
I dont know if this might work but when my axy was about 3 inchs it tried eating every fish in my tank except for my simease fighting fish, could it be that the axys are scared of these fish? or was it just simply because it was too big to eat?
and with the larger they wont try to eat fish, I still think they will try to eat them because my axys try to eat my hand sometimes!
 
yeh i have heard before that ppl have siamese fighting fish in their tanks without the axolotls eating them (i think). It could just be that the siamese f/f are very quick.
 
and they also have ways of 'scaring' its prey as I found out in my friends tank
 
Hi KAi,
The botias are the ones I had in mind as a potential problem with the spine. Thanks for the additional info.
Ed
 
I am not planing on getting this but do you think cat fish with spikes sticking out of their head would be a problem?
 
Yup, Crossocheilus siamensis can swim very qickly and is also pretty alert. I'd expect them to get too fat in a newt tank though.

Some catfish have pretty effective defensive armor - I'd be careful with those. Also a few loricariids have been reported to suck on their tank "mates" skin which could become a problem.

IMHO it boils down to that you have to know what you're doing if you're keeping different organisms together. And it may be a not so good idea to play russian roulette if you don't have enough experience which each of them well in advance.
 
Nah, it goes by Siamese algae-eater or similar (pretty stupid) names.

BTW, I can't see why one would want to keep axolotls and Betta splendens (fighting fish) together - their temperature requirements hardly overlap!

Most catfish have strong spinous fin rays in the dorsal and pectoral fins which would pose the most problems for predators; ancistrine loricariids have additional spikes along the side of the head.

You can get info on species you don't recognize by their scientific name by simply using http://www.google.com, FWIW.
 
If i got snails in my tank with my axy's would they end up sucking onto my axololts. Or could my axolotls end up eating them and their shells?.
 
Well if your axys dont eat the snail by the time they go to sleep the snail might suck the axys skin off
 
Nah, that's crap.
Unless you put in Sissy, the killer snail, that is...
happy.gif
 
I added "feeder" fish (as the pet shop eloquently described them) to my axy's tank and he had a ball gobbling them down. However I found that too many in the tank and they start nibbling on his gills, which was not so good. But it was entertaining to see the axo eat something that wasn't from my hand.
 
The snail will try to suck on your axys skin! I am not lieing its happened to me before but lucky I was there to throw that *beep* (sensored by Matt) in the trash!

Oh and Catey what fish do you feed your axys?
 
Sure, a snail may happen to crawl over an axolotl - so what? Even if it managed to cause discomfort (which I've never ever seen with healthy caudates/fish), the axolotl should have no problem to immediately get rid of it in a reasonably planted/structured tank. Snails are not exactly unknown in the natural habitat...
happy.gif


BTW, what snail species was it?
 
Im not sure but it was orange and when it atacked my pure axy my axy was asleep!
 
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