View Full Version : clown loach
how fast do they grow? and would they go with oscars?
ChilDawg
05-08-2003, 9:24 PM
Not very fast, so you would have to purchase them at a larger size than they are generally offered, or your Oscar might have a little sushi.
AC's profiles do not recommend any Cichlid of Oscar size as tankmates for the Clowns, but there are several other, smaller Cichlids which could make for a behaviorally interesting tank!
yeah right now i have a 9 inch oscar who is 3 years old, im guessing fully grown, in a 75 gallon. kinda boring all by himself. i bought convicts, with turned out to be severums (lfs boo boo), so im not sure what to do. if i could find a good home for my oscar i would, but im very attached to him, kinda like a dog. i wish i could afford a bigger tank, i hate for hime to be alone, but im a college student, and i move every year, not easy to find a place that i know would be stable for a 125 gallon. not sure what to do :(
ChilDawg
05-08-2003, 10:01 PM
**** Stratton recommends giving your Oscar a toy or two with which to play for a week, then rotate it for a new one (five or six toys would keep it occupied). Don't worry about it being solitary...anything that you might add will either be small enough to be eaten, or will be pretty aggressive toward the Oscar.
crash
05-08-2003, 10:03 PM
I can't offer much support about the Clowns with the Oscar, my guess is Childawg is right, he'll have him for dinner. Not to mention small clown loaches just small ones are expensive fish(well i consider them expensive.. but im kind of cheap lol), would be spending a good chunk on larger ones.
I'm getting 5 clowns for my 55 that I got, I can't talk out of experience because I have none, but I can't tell you what I have learned from reading a lot about the,.
They are slow growing, in fact because of there rate of growth, most never reach sexuality maturity in aquaria, which is why they have rarely spawned in captivity. They can live 10-20 years, possibly longer, pending on where you read.
I thought it was also intriguing how the just lay on there sides at the bottom of an aquarium to rest, usual frightens experienced keepers into thinking there loaches are dead.
Maybe you know some of this, but I think there awesome and I can't wait to get them. To Bad I still have to buy substrate, decor, filter, heater and few other things, and not to forgot about the cycling process.. doh. Anyways hopefully you can work something out, I think they'd be a good addition to any aquarium.. well as long as they don't get mistaken for dinner :D
would it be wrong to get rid of my oscar?
oh yeah, what kind of toys?
and thanx for your input crash, if i can find a cheaper bigger one maybe i will think about it. i also have a few other tanks, which they might go in.
one more quick question.
would a bumble bee cat ever be big enough to go in with the oscar?
ChilDawg
05-08-2003, 10:14 PM
If you are attached to it, and can maintain the Oscar, then I wouldn't get rid of it.
Plus, if you are a college student, you don't need to be packing all sorts of individual fish--I have a hard enough time packing seven (then six) assorted small cats and the (sadly deceased) betta.
Older Oscars handle moves a lot better than juvies (from what I have read), so moving your Oscar would likely be okay...I say spend time with the Oscar!
ChilDawg
05-08-2003, 10:18 PM
Some people use ping-pong balls, new tank decorations, little harmless (and unswallowable toys) like that.
Which bumblebee cat? The "Bumblebee Pimelodid" (Microglanis iheringi) only gets to be 3", so no, but the other "Bumblebee Pimelodid" (Pseudopimelodus raninus raninus) gets to be about 8". I think that those may be too big to swallow, but I'm not sure if you could get larger P. r. raninus without considerable expense...they are listed as Semi-Rare, and the smaller ones are the Common ones, so I'd shy away from that line of thinking due to the cost.
not sure which i have... i know i payed 8 bucks and one guy at the lfs store siad he would only get about 3 inches, the other guy said he would get to about 8. ill have to do more research on this hehe.
ChilDawg
05-08-2003, 10:25 PM
www.planetcatfish.com has the cat-elog, which may very well have pix of each of those two fish...hmm...wonder why they don't know how large it will get between 3" or 8"?
thanx for the site. never knew there were that many catfish. btw the zebra is kickass. mine hides alot, and hard to take a pic of :)
one more question chil, can you think of anything that will go with my oscar? i know that people say that a 75 is only enough for 1 oscar, but he is kinda weird and only 9 inches, and at 3 years old, hes probably not gonna grow much more. could i take the chance and raise another oscar for him to play with, or perhaps a jd? or anything else you can think of? he lived with another oscar for about 6 to 7 months who was half his size and they got along fine. i think i have the most peacefull oscar in the world :)
ChilDawg
05-08-2003, 10:43 PM
I wouldn't risk it, especially if you like the Oscar. Those other suggestions might work, but they might be picked on, or they might pick on the Oscar...and that wouldn't be what you want. I'd go toward the toys if I were a big fan of my fish.
ok thanx man :) as of this point im not sure what i am going to do. if i can find him a nice big home, then i will let him go, if not ill keep him, and try to get some smaller cichlids to go in with him. :)
tnlguinn
05-11-2003, 12:14 PM
i had two clown loaches in the tank with my oscars. they were about 5" long. my LFS got them in while were there, and he sold them to me for $11 each, the other two that he put in his tanks to sell he marked for $35. so you can get a deal on them if you know your LFS owner well. the oscars didn't even pay attn to the loaches, and they hid in two stumps that i got from petsmart. they were fine till my flathead got big enough to eat them. they just came up missing one day and the cat was fat. as for toys, my lfs sells plastic shells and such that are colored see through, and my ascars love to scoot them around the tank.