Multi-Tank Syndrome - Confessions Of An MTS Sufferer By Littlefish

The sewellia lineolata are the fish that I fell for after getting my first fish (v. platies & zebra danios from P&H) and starting to look at what other fish could be kept in a home aquarium. It took me a while to get them, as I kept being distracted by other things, but those were the fish that drove the entire set up of the river tank. The markings, colours, and adorable (if slightly sad looking) little faces are lovely, though they are also entertaining characters, and their feisty tussles over a favourite rock are amazing.
Yes, I'm still totally smitten with them.

Currently my river tank is an Aqua Oak 150D, so approx 145cm by 55cm footprint. I've previously had a river manifold in the tank (powered by an external pump), but it now just has one Fluval FX6 and 2 FX4 filters. I may go back to the river manifold plus external filters in the future. I don't have a heater, and the tank generally runs around 22C. This is also one of the tanks where I use a mix of RO/tap water to reduce the hardness slightly (to around 14).

I bought a couple of panda garra, but most of my gang were from someone who was keeping them in a discuss tank and wanted to get rid of them. Discuss tank to temperate river tank is quite a difference in both temperature and water flow.

The specific hillstream loaches I wanted were eventually tracked down to Kesgrave Tropicals, which is only an hour drive from me. The owner was great about giving background information, how long they'd been in the shop, and feeding them while I was there to show that they were settled & eating - all things I'd read about being good signs with these fish. I've always had them in a river style temperate tank and the water flow has always been fairly strong. During the summer I had issues with temperature increase, and I do have a spare chiller unit which I'll probably set up on the river tank as part of the next move.

The mix of fish & shrimp in this tank makes for a very active and entertaining set up (she says as she's watching 2 panda garras having a nap in the leaves of the large anubias gracilis).

Oh dear... I suspect I'm about to get bitten by the hillstream loach bug...

I'm planning a pair in a 45 litre tank with no heater. I'm not sure how far the temperature might drop but I can see it getting down to 17 or 18 degrees which some sites say is ok for them others say it isn't... i could add a nano 10w heater for cold winter nights though to mitigate this if needed... I'm also unsure of the tank size. It would an a shallow river tank though - footprint 70 by 25 cm. I really have no idea if this is ok for 2.... other than it feels ok... much much more research required as the answers aren't exactly clear nor easy to find with this species.

A biotope tank with hidden river manifold system, for them and a small shoal of white cloud mountain minnows is well into detailed planning.  I just wish they were more reliable and detailed info on these fish!!