Clown Loaches & Tiger Barbs?

reziztor

reziztor

I'm the man in the box
Oct 20, 2005
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Korea
I have an 80 gallon tank that I really bought to enjoy a small school of Clown Loaches.

But I find incredibly conflicting information on Clown Loach tankmates. I have checked out many popular sites... I have read online that Clown Loaches will sometimes school with Tiger Barbs. Are these two kinds of fish OK together? They enjoy the same type of water conditions and I think they would look beautiful together. What do you think? I've never kept Tiger Barbs... They scare me because of all the horror stories of them killing tankmates... I have read online about them killing Clown Loaches... But I have also read about them getting along together.
 
If you get a large enough school of barbs (6-8 at least, for some reason I hear 7 is the magic number :cool: ) they should be ok with most other fish, as long as you avoid slow moving fish, or fish with long fins that might be tempting to pick on...Should be fine with the clowns, although, someday you might need a bigger tank for those guys. They grow pretty slowly, but can alos be fat fish and appreciate as much space as you can give them
 
Thank you for the information. I plan on getting a larger tank in a year or two. I have read about the school thing, but then also I read things like this:

"From: Don
Date:04/08/2003
You will read almost everywhere (mostly I think from people repeating what they have read somewhere) that Tiger Barbs when kept in groups of 6 or more will chase themselves and not bother their tankmates much. Baloney. I had a shoal of 18 Tiger Barbs that absolutely terrorized my rainbowfish, clown loaches and cory catfish in my 75 gallon aquarium. Being part of a large group did not settle down the Tiger Barbs in the least-and this large shoal when it worked together to attack other fish was much more dangerous and destructive than any individual Tiger Barb could have been. An entertaining fish when it isn't acting up-but if you get Tiger Barbs be prepared to move them into their own tank when the bad behavior begins"

from: http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile20.html
 
I haven't had a problem with my tigers and clown loaches. The only reason they are no longer in the same tank is it was easier to catch the clowns, than the 8 skunk loaches who ended up terrorizing them. The tigers pretty much left them alone.

They were is a 90 Gallon tank. I had 13 tigers and 8 clown loaches at the high point.

--Mia
 
I bet that guy was seriously overstocked too!! Tiger barbs get pretty big and fat, so if he had almost 20 in a 75g, along with other fish (which were also all schooling fish, so you have to wonder how many of each of those he had too) I bet that was more of the problem than anything. I would definately understock since they can be a bit nippy, better to give them their space than have it not work out b/c you want alot of fish :thm:
 
Male Tiger Barbs will fight each other often. Female Tiger Barbs are usually peaceful.

I've never seen my Tiger Barbs attack the clown loaches though, but they will chase around others, like my Tetras.

The best tankmates I have had for my Clown Loaches are Boesmani Rainbowfish.
 
My good local fish store has always housed various loaches with their tiger barbs. Store housing means a 15 gallon tank.
 
Yes the two will be compatable, they also look nice together if you want a striped tank ;)
 
chefkeith said:
The best tankmates I have had for my Clown Loaches are Boesmani Rainbowfish.
Click to expand...

Hi, whats the reasoning behind this? Also, how big is that Clown Loach tank you have in your pictures? 90 gallon?
 
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