Clown Loach Stocking In My Tank

[Tokis-Phoenix]

5 or so weeks ago i went and bought 3 clown loaches for one of my 125gal tanks (the first one in my profile information) but only 1 of them made it through the quarentine period which just ended yesterday. Two of them passed away in the first week and a half while they were in the quarentine tank (i'm not sure what killed them, but i suspect it was internal parasites) so i continued to quarentine the remaining clown loach for 3 and a half weeks more while trying out various treatments on it.

Anyway, whatever killed the other two during the quarentining period the third one was fine and had no issues at all during the 5 weeks it was in quarentine- yesterday i finally moved it into the 125gal tank after doing a water change and it is doing great- although its the only clown loach i have (for now at least), it seems to be thoroughly enjoying the company of the corys in the tank after being so long in isolation.
I would like to get more clown loaches for the tank, my stocking is as follows;
125gal tank;
12guppys+,
15 platys,
8 albino corys,
3 panda corys,
1 RTBS (red tailed black shark),
4 oto's,
4 black khuli loaches,
1 7inch sailfin plec,
1 5inch para plec(L075),
1 3inch clown plec,
1 1inch clown pleco,
2 apple snails,
1 1-2inch clown loach.


The tank is relatively/quite planted with lots of driftwood/bogwood/mopani wood caves and things, the tank has a fine white silica sand substrate and excellent filtration and medium strength lighting, water quality is excellent (0 ammonia & nitrites, 20 nitrates) and has been stable for a year and a half now- if you had this tank set up, how many clown loaches do you think would be a good number?

As the weather continues to warm up, i will be moving the goldfish into my new pond perhaps in late spring depending on how things go- i will most likely move the RTBS and platys and clown plecos to the old goldfish tank, and then i will move the guppys from the 3rd tank into the one in this thread. Other than that, i don't have any major stocking plans- i would like a more relaxed community tank with this one in particular, maybe add some neon tetras and gouramis. Hmm...
But yeah, for now i'm concentrating on clown loaches, so how many would you add if you had this tank set up?
If anyone's looking to rehome their clown loaches and lives near wincanton in somerset, i would be willing to adopt them too .

 

[n3ont3tra]

I'd say about 4 to 6. Finally someone with a decent tank for them! Any pics?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I'd say about 4 to 6. Finally someone with a decent tank for them! Any pics?

Eh, its not looking its best right now- the decor/planting in the tank right now is not really to my taste (but it does the job at least- the other two tanks look much better though), but i can get some pics later on tonight if you want .


I was just wondering, would clown loaches ever eat small fry like very young livebearer fry?

 

[alexdallimore]

When I got my tank second hand it only had one CL. I got another 2 and it made a big difference. It turned the first one from shy and hiding to playing and swimming around with the new ones all the time.

As a suggestion to the loss of your CL's. CL's are not good in tanks that are immature. They (apparently) should only go into mature well established set ups. After reading this somewhere I decided not to quarentine mine as my Q tank would not be mature as I only set it up when needed. I don't know whether your Q tank could be the problem. Just an idea.

The other thing that I was advised from the LFS is to showly acclimatise them to prevent shocking them etc. To do this I put the plastic bag they come in from the fish tank into a bucket. Use a piece of airline tube and tie a knot in it. syphon water from the main tank into the bag so that it is just dripping in through the tube at about 1 drip per second. I did this for 1-2hours. When I then added the CL's I had no problems at all and haven't had since. This method gets them slowly used to the water they will be going in and can help prevent problem for a fish that is known to have issues when changing tank.

That is personnally whey i didn't Q tank mine although I did with all my other fish

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Ah don't worry about the quarentine tank alexdallimore, it has a mature filter in it thats been going for over 6months .

Anyways, a little update: a couple of days ago i went on a little fish shopping spree and went and got 4 more clown plecos, 10 neon tetras and 2 new clown loaches.

I know this sounds really bad though, but i didn't quarentine the clown loaches. I know they are prone to whitespot, but these are the healthiest clown loaches i have ever seen (fat/good body weight, active and vibrant colouring, no signs of desease or illness whatsoever, all were eating some catfish pelets in the lfs tank when got them so had good apetite etc). The tank they came from had about 20 clown loaches in it and all were in the same perfect condition (unlike when i bought my first clown loaches, where the general health of the fish in the tank was in question). Hmm, i have good hopes for these clown loaches, the guy said they had been in the tank for 2 weeks by the time i bought my 2 new ones from it and all fish had been just as healthy during this time, so they are practically quarentined anyway.
If they show the slightest sign of illness, i'll stick them in my quarentine/hospital tank immediately, but for now they seem like the happiest little loaches in the world. My lone clown loach is also socialising with new ones as well, which is good as one of the reasons why i put the new ones in so early is because i figured they be much happier together, which would inevitable help reduce the stress levels of lone clown loach (clown loaches are sociable fish which can feel stressed when kept on their own).

So yeah, now i have 3 clown loaches, all 1-2inches long each .
I may get more clown loaches in the future, but i think i will only get more if someone is trying to rehome them as for now i am very happy with my little trio, there's no need to have more unless someone has some clown loaches needing a home.

I will post pics of the tank at some point soon, but the tank is due for a clean so i figured i might as well post pics of it once its has had a little clean out .

 

[mikev]

More actually will make it better.

My gang became visibly much happier when it was increased from 4 to 6 about a year ago. Try to have at least five...no rush, but eventually.

 

[odannyboy]

regarding fry my clown loaches are fersome predator and very greedy!they eat anything! espcially if it wriggles! bear this in mind if you fancy breeding.it wont come to any thing with clownloaches around.
bear in mind aloso you have got a lot of bottom dwellers in there now.quite a few plecs become intolerate of other plecs as they mature and the sailfin wil just grow and grow.check out planet catfish .com for tonnes of info.

 

[emma12321]

Hi,

I'd remove the apple snails asap if you don't want them getting picked to death by the loaches. Even small loaches will kill big snails.
Emma

 

[vic]

I have a 125G with 5 clowns and 7 skunk loaches along with a number of other fish including angels, live bearers and corys. Clown like to be in groups of 5 and up and they like hiding spaces large enough for all to get in and do a loach pile. Try to situate the hiding space so you can see it so you can enjoy the show. They didn't get the clown name for nothing!
Vic