# clown loach info please help



## jack lover (Aug 12, 2008)

how many clown loaches should i put in my 75g jd tank.please can u guys give me some clown loach info


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## WakinAZ (Mar 16, 2006)

:fish: ...Google... :fish: :fish:


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## remarkosmoc (Oct 19, 2005)

Do you want a tank with just clown loaches in it? If not, what other inhabitants do you have or plan on having in this tank?


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## djoneser (Mar 20, 2008)

Clown Loach information - http://www.loaches.com/species-index/cl ... cracanthus

Clowns can grow very large, up to a foot long at full growth, as well as living for 50 years+.

You need to be able to commit to a larger tank if you want to keep clowns with other cichlids. Most are sold very small (2"- 3") and they do grow slowly, maybe an inch a year or so. Just keep in mind their adult size when you decide stocking numbers.


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## MidNightCowBoy (May 7, 2007)

I'd suggest smaller loaches but be careful about what you buy and research them as loaches can be very active and even disruptive to other fish in your tank.


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## Orca33 (Jul 20, 2008)

If you go with loaches, the most important thing to consider is grouping and size of tank. In a 75 I would go with about 6 juv's around 2 to 3 inches a peice. Clown loaches are very slow growing, taking upwards of ten years before they meet sexual maturity. I have had my group now for well over 6 years and my large male is just now at around 7 inches. So keeping them in a 75 gallon should not be to much of a problem as long as you keep up with water changes and provide some place for them to hide. Another thing to consider is food, a lot of books will tell you to feed them lots of insect larve and thats good, but I have had some serious growth and color vibrance from feeding my loaches cyclopeeze and alot of the foods you would feed saltwater fish (I currenty own 2 coral reef tanks as well so I have a huge varitey of diffrent kinds of food.) When it comes to tank mates clown loaches do well with just about any cichlid as long as size is taken into account, clown loaches have sharp spines near there mouths that make it really hard to swollow a loach plus keeping them in groups helps cause they all go everywhere together. I have worked on tanks for 10 plus years and have seen loaches with some of the meanest cichlids around and they do juts fine.

My current set up in a 160 is 6 loaches ranging from 4 inches all the way up to 7. 
Living with them for over a year now with not one conflict would be
Green terror 6 inches
Chocolate cichlid 6 inches
6 fire mouth
6 mbuna for color bright orange
7 inch OB peacock
5 inch borlyi
5 inch pinstripe royal pleco
5 inch candy stripe pleco
6 inch frontosa
pair of breeding jewels
and three yo yo loaches.

To be honest the only down side I have seen is the clown loaches are really good preditors when it comes to baby snatching, most of my breeding pairs in my tank just cannot keep the clown loaches at bay for to long. My loaches use to live with Discus in real warm water and they were to much for the discus. Once acclimated and use to the tank they will become one of your centerpeice fish that come out all the time and beg for food just like all the cichlids do.
hope some of this info helped Good luck!

Charlie


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## jimmyknuckles (May 8, 2007)

A few things I found interesting about Clown Loaches when I started buying them (I have 5 now in my 180). One is that they grow slower than anything I have ever seen. I feed very well, and they are not overcrowded, but they have barely grown at all in the few years I've had them (we're talking millimeters).

Another interesting thing is that I've been unable to find any specific references to Clown Loaches breeding in captivity. According to many websites they are impossible to breed, but it begs the question about how these fish can be as prolific as they are in the aquarium trade (and how places like Petsmart can acquire so many) if they cannot be bred in aquariums.

Clown loaches are very sensitive and will often get very pale if your water quality is not excellent. Furthermore, you must be very careful if you need to provide medication to other fish in your tank as Clown Loaches are invertebrates and certain meds can kill them very easily while the rest of your fish remain healthy.

As long as you have good water, and buy enough for them to be social (ie, 4+), they should be very entertaining fish!


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## djoneser (Mar 20, 2008)

Most Clown loaches are force bred with hormones in Asia. They are a food source there.


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