Loach reccomendations.

If you plan on keeping those snails alive, loaches might not be your best choice. My personal favourite are Kuhli loaches, eel-like bottom feeders with very nice striped colouring. But you should know they're nocturnal and excellent at hidding during the day, you will probably not see too much of them unless you look at night (best with a flashlight with red light) they love searching for food around plant stems. Providing hideouts and shelter is a must, they are also best kept in groups of 5 or more.

Kind of depends on what your tankmates are going to be?

Peaceful you're kind of limited to kuhlis, horseface or sidthimunkis if you can find them.

Semi-aggressive, yo yo, histronicas, striatas, rostratas maybe.

Aggressive, Skunks, tigers and the like

I'm leaving out all the cooler water fast moving species, that would like much more current than your tank will probably provide.

As far as snail eaters, yo-yos, histronicas, sids, striatas, clowns, skunks and tigers have been the best snail eaters I've kept.

You might want to go over to loaches.com for more specific species listings, their forum is great too.

--Mia

Yo-yo's, only because they're one of my favorite fish ever. Since your tank isn't stocked yet you can get them in decent numbers - 4 or 6 would be good for your tank, i think (some people say not to keep them in odd numbers, since this leads to one becoming isolated - never seen it, so i can't comment). If you kept one of these loaches by itslelf you'd probably see it acting agressively towards other fish in the tank, but in schools they'll keep just about exclusively to themselves - chasing, playing etc. Personally I feel that if you keep ANY shoaling type fish by itself it'll behave abnormally, whether that be extra shy or extra aggressive depends on the species. Keep them in shoals and you won't have a problem.

nursie said:

Also would like suggestions for other clean up crew members.

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Loaches aren't a clean up crew. Just because they are bottom dwellers, they should not be confused with Ottos, Plecos, Algae Eaters, etc. They do not eat algae or other debris off the bottom of the tank.