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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FISH FAMILIES

Girinoheilovye and Ploskopered (Gyrinocheilidae, Homalopteridae)

The only species of the Girinoheilov family, Gyrinocheilus autonieri, is known to almost every aquarist as "Siamese algae." He enjoys great popularity, the reasons for which explains the very name of the fish: indeed, it does not allow the aquarium to overgrow seaweed. Preferring to live closer to the bottom, algae can keep on the rocks and roots with the help of a powerful mouth sucker. At home, in South-East Asia, these fish live mostly in fast flowing rivers. Here they also feed on the greenery on the rocks, without touching the tall plants. True, they also eat live food with pleasure. In nature, they reach 25 cm, but in an aquarium it is impossible. They love oxygen-enriched, transparent water, the temperature of which can be from 20 to 28 ° C. When you place them in the aquarium, along with large fish of the disk form, you have to be more careful: seaweed sometimes try to suck and to them. The consequence of this is the loss of scales and injuries. With age, algae can become very aggressive, because they are single.

Representatives of genera homaloptera ( Homaloptera ) and gastromises (Gastromyzon) are imported much less often; At least, the last of the named comes across only as an "appendage" to another cargo. The most beautiful of them is the patterned fin- chomaloptera ( N. orthogoniata) - a species that gives aquarists little joy. These fish come from cool and fast-flowing (and therefore rich in oxygen) high-mountainous waters, and therefore, in too warm and not containing much oxygen home aquariums, they can hardly stand more than a few weeks.