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

I never lose any. Heres the secret recipe:

1) Have a school of more than 3

2) Have a cave on each side and the middle of the tank

3) Feed them food that drops to the bottom (Mine looooOoOOove Full Spectrum Community Food)

4) Keep the water paramaters consistent

5) They hate dissolved organics in the water, keep the water clean and always keep real plants to help filter the water.


I love them. When Ich comes, raise the temperature and add a little salt. I've kept them for years. I even kept 8 in a bucket once during winter for weeks without food, heater or water changes (I'm a bad man). They popped out fine with no problems and are going strong.
 
What I've heard about clown loaches is that while they get really, really big, they're also very, very slow growers. Maybe only growing an inch in a year. I've never tried keeping them, but I'm toying with the idea right now. I have 29 gallon aquarium that is currently housing a single angelfish and I've got a 55 that they could move into when they outgrow the 29.
 
The thing about the small clown loaches even at the fish store I see them get really skinny and they are ready to die. I watch them when the fish store has them. I think they are getting bad stock as what a reply was about.
 
I have 13 clown loaches and most of them was around an inch when I got them. I origionally had 4, but one day I went to petco and they had some of the smallest clown loaches that I had ever seen. I bought all 9 of them for practically nothing because they were covered with ich. I put them in my q tank and treated them with heat and salt. I feed them some medicated food for internal parasites and all of the are alive and happily swimming around in my tank. I have had them for 1 1/2 years.

Dorothy

Here is an older picture of some of my first clowns. I will try to take some pictures of the whole gang and upload later.

f3244ed0.jpg
 
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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.
 
I went by the fish store today, and I saw some 3 inch ones and they were very skinny and not healthy looking. And I also saw some that were 1 inch that looked okay but I passed thinking that they will die soon after.
 
"skinny disease" as the problem you referred to is often successfully resolved utilizing a combination treatment of maracyn and maracyn II. Obviously the issue is a bacterial one in those instances.

The other successful treatment is levamisole hydrochloride.

The folks at loaches on-line have helped many people hrough the issue. They even have a new format to their board for the New Year. http://forums.loaches.com/index.php

Water quality--as is the case in almost all disease situations (and general fishkeeping) is critical.

freshwater fish love freshwater. I have utilized just freshwater to get some of my clowns through the "skinny disease" stage. I have also used both of the other routes mentioned above.

The reason most clown loaches do not reach 12'+in the hobby is that most clown loaches die long before then. usually the result of tank conditions.
 
We have a herd of 17 clown loaches in our tank, with the biggest ones around 7 or 8", and everyone is fat and healthy. They really like earthworm flakes, split peas and lentils...and milk bones! They will all dogpile on the milkbones to see who can trap it and eat it the fastest!
 
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