Anyone ever keep small clown loaches alive for a long time?

I've read they're from Indonesia, Sumatra and Borneo.

Mark
 
wesleydnunder said:
I've read they're from Indonesia, Sumatra and Borneo.
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Mark,

Thanks, that's what I thought. So, I, ah, wouldn't be stretching it TOO much if I put clown loaches in my Papua New Guinea biotope tank? Since PNG is part of Indonesia, even if a little away from Borneo and Sumatra. I've done some checking and as far as I can tell there have been no botia seen or recorded in Australia or PNG. Hrm, maybe they're hiding. Clowns are good at that :)

I already have said clowns, just looking for a good reason to put them with my boesemani or dubulayi instead of making a "mish mash" tank.

Roan
 
Do you know of any other bottom dwellers that fit the botias' niche from your target area?

Mark
 
wesleydnunder said:
Do you know of any other bottom dwellers that fit the botias' niche from your target area?

Mark
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Gudgeons and gobies are all I've found so far. I have Goo obo gudgeons, but I'd like a catfish/loach or algae eater type, something that likes groups.

There's a lot of fish to go through and I'm only ½ of the way there. First thing I did was look at all the "popular" bottom feeders that are readily available and didn't find any that came from this area. All the good ones seem to come from South America.

Now I'm going through the PNG lists to find something that will work. I've found a lot of catfishes, but from what I've seen thus far they all max 20"+. Even if I do find one and I have no idea if they will even work in a tank or are even available over here in aquaria.

Any ideas?
Roan
 
2 questions....

Any reason the clowns do so much better in a species only setup?

Do the dog bones soften up after a while? I might be interested in trying that!!
 
My Clown Loaches (2 of them) that I have at the moment are under 2 inches. When I first started fishkeeping I had an extremely hard time with nitrate and nitrite. Clown Loaches are very sensitive to the water conditions as you will probably know because of their scaleless body. Well...my Clown Loaches started getting the white spots. My 2 Clown Loaches were completely infested with the white spots. They were very weak and were always on their sides in the corner. Strangely for me, they did not die and and when the water condition was back to normal, the white spots were gone and they were happy as ever! I think that Clown Loaches are a very hardy fish and are quite easy to keep. Just remember to keep the water as good as it can get and at the right temperature. If you can make a little hiding spot for them. Plus if possible always try and have at least 2 in your tank. Good Luck with the loach keeping! :)
 
Clown loaches are not scaleless. They have tiny scales everywhere but on their head.

Clowns can be kept in a temperature range from 75F to 86F.

Clowns have been kept well with a wide variety of species. They've done well in Discus tanks and African cichlids tanks.

A clown loach only tank would not be a very active tank. Experienced loach keepers would recommend that clowns have some kind of dither fish with them because clowns don't feel comfortable if they don't see other fish swimming around. Good dithers would be barbs, rainbowfish, tetras, hatchets, ect.
 
RTR said:
Clowns do not grow slowly, they just stunt very easily. We used to have a member here who played with clowns a lot. I don't remember exactly, but I think he planned on 8-10" in the first year, a year and half to two for full grown. Perhaps another of the old member remembers more detail, but basically very large tanks with super water quality and I believe species-only.
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I've heard this story here before. I wondered why this loach keeper disappeared from the internet. My guess is that the clowns died from something obesity related. This person would be famous in the loach communtiy if he did successfully power feed the clown loaches to full size in under 2 years. I'll ask some loach experts about this over at loaches.com.
 
I got several replies at loaches.com
http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?t=72&sid=5475f5d9645108460b0841ef6ebe2a79

Here's one of them-

"I have had some of my Clowns for over 13 years, and they have always been kept in large aquariums, with frequent water changes and an excellent feeding regime. The largest of these 13-year-olds is a female who is currently about 9" long.
I do also have a couple of whoppers - a 10.5" Clown and an 11.5" Clown, which we rescued from a shop last year, but sadly they never thought to ask the previous owner how old these fish were or what conditions they had been kept in.
The Clowns in our 8ft display tank at work were introduced around 3 years ago at a 3" size. The tank is connected to our softwater system, which receives 2 large water changes per day with RO water. The fish in this tank do get fed very frequently with a huge array of different foods (in fact they probably get fed more often than most as it is easy to walk by this tank with food for other fish and drop a bit in for them too). Anyway, in this intense water change/feeding situation for this display tank, the Clowns have reached around 6-7" in about 3 years.
I know every situation is different, but I am very sceptical about them being able to reach full size in 2 years."

Emma
 
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