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Hillstream Loach
Sewellia lineolata
Family: Gastromyzontidae
📍 Fast streams, Southeast Asia
The Hillstream Loach (Reticulated Hillstream Loach) is a spectacularly patterned torrent fish with a flattened body and enlarged pectoral fins adapted for clinging to rocks in fast-flowing streams. In the aquarium it requires strong water movement, high oxygenation, and cool temperatures mimicking its native Vietnamese mountain streams. It grazes periphyton (algae and biofilm) from hard surfaces and benefits from supplemental feeding with blanched vegetables and spirulina wafers.
Keeping this species
- diet
- Herbivore – algae film, periphyton, spirulina wafers, blanched zucchini
- lifespan
- 8–10 years
- max size
- 6 cm (2.4 in)
- tank size
- 20 gallons minimum; long, wide tanks preferred
- temperament
- Peaceful; males territorial toward conspecifics
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Water it likes
- ph
- 6.5–7.5
- ammonia
- 0 ppm
- nitrate
- <10 ppm
- hardness
- 5–15 dGH
- temperature
- 68–75°F (20–24°C)
Natural Habitat Temperature
64°F — 79°F seasonal range · (Jan low, Jun high)