# clown loaches, american cichlid & dither fish



## KaiNor (Sep 14, 2013)

Hi,

i have a 65 Gallons tank. I want to keep 7+ clown loaches together with some American cichlids and a school of dither fish.

Can someone please help finding a good american cichlid species and dither fish to keep ? I love the complex behaviour of i.e apistogrammas / laetacara but im open to suggestions. So far my own pickings seems to fail.

I have 3 dorsigera, 5 guppys and 5 small ancistrus in the tank waiting for additional filter to be colonized before adding loaches.

i had 2 dorsigeras and they where happy together lying eggs for 1 month. 2 weeks ago the dorsigeras started showing agression to each others. Now the male is so aggresive he has even started attacking the guppies. The female is just beeing forced into opposite corner. Male is in full colors while the female lost colors.

i bought this cichlid bible to learn all there is to know, but its in german. i dont have time to learn german. I bought another male dorsigera beeing told that this would solve it all.. I now have

1 dominant male chasing dorsigeras and biting guppy tails. 
1 male dorsigera fighting back and chasing the female
1 female dorsigera beeing chased.
4 hurt guppys
1 very fast guppy all healthy.

Please help

edit: Tank is planted, sand substrate, lots of bogwood and a few stones.


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

okay, i would choose a different loach species. Clowns get 12 ft long + though u should be okay for a few year.Yoyo loachs are a good alternative. A nice angelfish school around 4-6 would be good, first get more females that should help ur lone female from getting bullied to death. once ur tank is done cycling i would get rid of the guppies u should be good.


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## Cichlidman14 (Jul 17, 2013)

Your dorsigera are known as red breasted cichlids. they attain a maximum size of about 3-4 inches.


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## KaiNor (Sep 14, 2013)

i forgot to mention that the loaches are going in a 250 gallon in 5 years. i have bought a new house with a proper basement. we are rebuilding the house. end of rebuild project will be the basement with a new room for my son and a tank in the hallway...

I have been running tanks in the past, but i dont know american cichlids..


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## KaiNor (Sep 14, 2013)

Hehe im awake now. coffe consumed. this is great news.. i can keep my dorsigeras.. my wife always wanted angelfish too..


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## KaiNor (Sep 14, 2013)

if i choose Pterophyllum leopoldi, how will they cope with the rather high water flow i have ? 
I run in 65 Gallon tank:
Eheim Pro 2222 500 Ltr/Hour (already run in)
Am-Top AT-3337 1000 Ltr/hour

Both are sucking water in from behind 3d background filled with filtermats and blowing out water infront of background

In addition i have a Boyu Wavemaker 2500 ltr /hour. This makes a wide beam of water making the AT-3337 seems like a monster compared to the boyu waterflow.

I want the water flow to keep the loaches happy. Loaches will be 2.5"


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## walzon1 (Jun 17, 2013)

I have never kept this species dorsigera but it seems is in the ACARA family and will be semi-aggressive, so if you like your guppies they need to go, they also cannot be with angelfish either or the Angels will get picked on. They also require lots of "line of site" breaks which basically mean you need to add a lot of rocks or driftwood so they can't easily see each other across the tank. Also the Clown Loaches will be hit or miss with South american cichlids, I have seen most people keep them together but it is not gauranteed they will play nice.

I think a good idea would be to send the dosigera back to where you got them, go with your Clown Loaches and a pair of Leopoldi. Don't use the wavemaker those are for Reef Saltwater setups and have no use in Freshwater, you should have plenty of flow with the 2 canisters you have. If your worried the Loaches need more oxygen than an eheim diffuser would be better than a wave maker but on most tanks they do fine with good surface agitation. The ehiem and am-top should be fine for the Angels just make sure they are going through a spray bar to and point them at the glass to disperse the flow so it's not directly on the fish.


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## ChuckinMA (Aug 24, 2013)

Both clown loaches and angelfish are very entertaining to watch. The newer "Koi" Angelfish are available in beautiful orange, yellow, silver color combinations. I have four large ones in a 75 gallon tank with a large Amazon Sword plant that serves as a periodic egg repository. The angelfish will go after very small fish such as neon or cardinal tetras, so select the dither fish carefully. My neons are large enough that they do not end up as dinner.


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## KaiNor (Sep 14, 2013)

Thanks alot for the input... semi aggressive seems correct for my acara fish. they have been peaceful for two days now. two have formed a pair again..

angelfish... my wife thinks they are nice.. to me they seem boring but i never had any before so i guess im gonna try some dwarf angelfish.. alot of fish seems boring at the LFS

I kinda understand i have to return the acara but im in refusal for now but it will be done.

I have kept clown loaches for several years doing everything wrong when i started 10 years ago.. when the clowns get many enough they lost all agression even letting apistogramma macmasteri fry alone..


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