"they just dont see the botia as a threat, its not going to fight them over territories...and they know that"
True, However, the botia will eat the eggs and fry, so for how long are they 'Not' a threat.
My largest tank houses 30 clown loaches, half of which are over 10 years old and are very large. Also in that tank is a breeding pair of F1 cryptoheros sp. 'Honduran Red-Fins'. The male being about 7years old. When they have fry the male HRF can keep the loaches to the other side of the tank.
When I had my young archocentrus centrarchus pair in the tank the eggs always got eaten for a few months, then the eggs hatched but the fry were always eaten except for a handful. The loaches always had fat bellies after the lot of fry went missing :shark:
