? about clown loaches

Lupin said:
I disagree with this. My loaches had no sooner decimated all my plants with soft foliage including the Amazon swords. They will likely damage any plants if it fits their taste.
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The only thing that I've seen them eat is decaying leaves. They never touch any of the plants. I have anacharis, cabomba, java moss, indian fern, temple, radicans, water sprite, wisteria, and dwarf sag and they don't touch any of them. How big were yours when they were "decimating" the plants? What was their diet? Mine love hikari sinking wafers. They chomp on them clicking the whole time. They like shrimp pellets, soft food (the frozen food substitute), and will snack on flakes and the color food, sometimes fd tubifex too.
 
Lupin said:
Skunk loaches(Yasuhikotakia morleti-formerly Botia horae) are not suitable community fish. They may be small but they are extremely aggressive for a small size and are best kept with Yasuhikotakia lecontei, Yasuhikotakia modesta, Yasuhikotakia longidorsalis, Yasuhikotakia eos and Yasuhikotakia caudipunctata
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Nothing should be kept with eos. They are extremely aggressive. Modestas will get way too large to be kept with morleti. As much as I love modestas, they can become a bit obstinate. They generally don't bother other fish, but they always tussle with each other. I don't think morleti could handle their pugnacious behaviour.

I think most aggression comes from keeping loaches in tanks that are too small or with other loaches.

When I said dwarf, I wasn't referring to skunk loaches. http://www.loaches.com/species-index/yasuhikotakia-sidthimunki is what I was referring to.

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/botia-striata might be a better idea than yoyos since they don't get quite as big.
 
Nolapete said:
When I said dwarf, I wasn't referring to skunk loaches. http://www.loaches.com/species-index/yasuhikotakia-sidthimunki is what I was referring to.
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Pete, if you read back my post again, I was responding to Carp37's post. I am aware that it was the sids whom he was referring to when he posted about dwarf loaches. The name, Hora's loach, however, is an old name for the skunk loaches. I used that name before in reference to the skunks until the name was updated.
 
Nolapete said:
How big were yours when they were "decimating" the plants?
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The loaches were only 3-4 inches size when they tried it. The plants victimized by loaches are Cryptocoryne crispatula at 60 cm, Nymphaea lotus and Amazon swords-all with soft foliage. The Cryptocoryne becketii and wendtii are still okay. As for their diet, they were fed bloodworms, shrimp, artificial foods, tubifex worms, mosquito larva and lettuce. In this case, they seem not satisfied and eventually turned into my plants. The only ones that were not destroyed aside from the two crypts mentioned previously were the anubias, Javan fern, dwarf sags and vallisnerias.
 
the yoyo will come out way more if you add a couple more yoyo's...they hate being alone....dojo don't eat plants..they aren't as colorful but they act really crazy..they are an elongated loach..they prefer cooler water, but when i had mine he seemed to be perfectly happy at comunity temp..28 degrees...not sure of farenheit temp as i am canadian...i think it is close to 80.. he was the most active of the loaches i've had, except my yoyos...they are always chasing each other
 
i have 3 red finned botias in my peacock and hap tank. they are very beautiful, active, great cleaners and the cichlids don't mess with them. i have a skunk botia in my ram tank and it is shy, comes out at night, but is not aggressive and does not disturb the plants
 
Lupin said:
The loaches were only 3-4 inches size when they tried it. The plants victimized by loaches are Cryptocoryne crispatula at 60 cm, Nymphaea lotus and Amazon swords-all with soft foliage. The Cryptocoryne becketii and wendtii are still okay. As for their diet, they were fed bloodworms, shrimp, artificial foods, tubifex worms, mosquito larva and lettuce. In this case, they seem not satisfied and eventually turned into my plants. The only ones that were not destroyed aside from the two crypts mentioned previously were the anubias, Javan fern, dwarf sags and vallisnerias.
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Mine love the hikari sinking wafers. Maybe that's why they don't turn to the plants. The wafers probably have all the plant stuffs they want.
 
I think with loaches YMMV. I would definately agree that when older there is more of a chance of them being able to uproot plants and such. Mine are mostly 3-5" and so far have not had any problem with them except for the occasional hole punch here or there which hasnt affected the plants really any. I'm soon setting up a 'dream tank' and the plans are clowns and heavily planted... I know I'm living on the edge so time will tell.

But yeah obviously for the OP a 37 gallon tank is only barely exceptable for raising the fish up to a couple inches in length. They stunt very easily (so they say) and can potentially reach sizes over a foot long in good coniditions (recommended minimum tank is 6 foot long and 180gallons).

For a small community tank I'd go for Dwarfs or Zebras if you could get either of them.
 
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