Micronemacheilus cruciatus (Hovering Zebra Loach)

[Vale!]

These chaps (and/or chapesses) have been with me for more than a week now and have settled in nicely. They don't appear to do a lot of hovering - I guess the current in the tank isn't strong enough for that, but maybe they'll exhibit that behaviour in their future tank. Rather, they think they're Corys.

Yesterday I added six (the magic number : six!) Three-Lined Pencilfish to keep them company ; these fish are the ones that have actually adopted the 'hovering' role!  They are also fascinated by the sponge filter and spend hours staring at it, occasionally picking off a morsel of food when they see one. I may add some more Pencilfish if the system looks like it will cope with them.

I put a very generous helping of granular food in to ensure that I had enough time to take a video of the loaches snuffling around  …

[youtube]8MTLwrdn06M[/youtube]

[Annie]

Nice looking fish, they have a start, stop sort of movement, is that just while they were snuffling

[plankton]

How many loaches did you get in the end?

They are interesting, lovely fish.

[Stephen]

Nice stripey fish, I love their movement.