I was looking at the compatible fish pictures and a loach looks like a pleco. I was just wondering what the difference is because they look the same to me.

plecs are sucker fish. they stay suctioned onto the glass and eat algae. loaches, on the other hand, look like eels. they are long and slim, and incredibly fast. they burrow in the substrate and nibble on what they find there.

You may have been looking at a Hillstream Loach,which is called a loach,but actually looks more like a Pleco.Those Hill stream Loaches can be found under a few different names.

Aren't Hillstream loaches the only type that live in cold (unheated) water?

Annette,they do tend to like the lower temps of the Goldie Spectrum,however,Ii know a few people that keep them in tropical tanks,and seem so do okay with them,so who knows>>>I've been so tempted to get a few,but so far,as luck would have it,I don't get to the Pet Shops very often,and when I do,they never have them!

I can't be certain that I've even seen one in real life!

i have horse head loaches and khuli loaches in unheated water......

off topic, but can khuli loaches breed? i think i have more then the 3 i bought originally.... uh oh!

What do you mean you think??? Do you or don't you? Yeah,they can-I think it's a good sign that you have them in a perfect setting.I don't think it's all that common.Now I want to know for sure-and I wanna see pics! What tank are they in,and who do they share it with?

well, when i was cleaning tonight, i tipped over the little hiding p;aces i have for them, and i saw alotta loaches! looked like more then 3 of em for sure! theyre so darn fast, i cant tell if im counting them same ones or different ones! Ihad 3 of them in a 20 gal with 2 little goldies.....now i wanna go like rip the tank apart to see how many there are!