Butterfly Loach is another common name for many of these fish - also Hong Kong Plec, Borneo Sucker. The one most often referred to as a Butterfly Loach is (Beaufortia kweichowensis) They are native to China and their adult size is only 6.5 to 7.5cms. They have not been bred in captivity. The most likely reason for all your LFS having them is that they all use the same importer who has just had a shipment of these in.

As regards Neons at pH 7.5 - they may be surviving but they won't be thriving. It's impossible to say whether or not they "like" it

Captive breeding frequently makes fish LESS hardy (Guppies and Dwarf Gourami are the most obvious examples), due to the reduction in the gene pool and is not a good reason to keep them outside their preferred range of tolerance.

EDIT: It sounds from this:
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as though you've already bought them. It would be better really to do the research before you buy the fish, not afterwards.

Wow... then I'm amazed that people can catch that massive amount of fish and classify them. Mine are defnitely babies as they're very small.

I think they're struggling to live in that tank, my friend won't believe that each fish require a different water reading. That tank is truely a mess with neons, angels, molly, guppies, flying fox he told me he was going to buy some discuss fish.

I always thought that fish will be harder. Because I've heard captive bred fish are easier to keep.

Sorry about that... I looked the caresheet up and see they share the same water parameter and they accept blanced veggies so I thought it'd be good. But to be honest...lfs in my country is no better than a fish grave, so do most fish keepers here

One more thing, I can meet all of their requirement but strong water flow, will they be fine without strong flow?

I blanced a spinach and wrap it around a pebble to feed my hsls.

Good thing is it worked! 1 of my hsls accept the food. Bad thing is 3 of them always stay far from each other so the other didn't notice the spinach pebble or see their fellow eating the spinach.

Will the other learn in time that spinach is food?

There's no way to be sure unfortunately. Just provide plenty, fresh each day and in more than one location in the tank and hopefully they'll start to eat. Try some algae wafers too, and ask the shop what they were eating there.

Mine seem to enjoy daphnia (the frozen stuff) that I put in for the minnows - they get quite excited when I put it in

They also really enjoy half a grape - goes down very well ! (Violet gave me that tip ).

When I first got my adults they seemed reluctant for a while with the algae wafers - came round though. I have had them just over a year now, within 2 months of buying them they bred (that was a shock !) and produced 5 babes - 2 survived.

Hth

Ella

Thanks FL, I've increase the amount to 3 spots. I don't want to go for more cause I don't want to pollute the water.

Ella,
They feed on daphnia too? Now that surprise me, I thought they were vegeterian.

How do you keep grape of floating by the way (I don't know if they even float or not :P)

They're not strictly vegetarian. While they eat algae, what they're really after is the various micro-organisms that are living in it.

Hi Nathan,

the grape usually just sits on the bottom - I usually split one and put both halves in. Keep an eye on it, don't leave it in too long as it makes water go a bit manky ( mine were fine for a day or so ).

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If you remove it and replace with fresh every 24 hours you shouldn't experience pollution