Are Clown Loaches Worth It?

[martin_jones]

After being recommended clown loaches by a few people, I have got four of them in my tank.

However, I'm beginning to wonder whether it was worth it.

I initially got two of them as I had a snail problem, and they looked quite nice. However, now that they're in my tank, I hardly ever see them as they hide for most of the time in my mangrove root. I was told that two weren't enough and they'd become less timid if I got more of them - so I got another two but only ever seem to see one of them at a time.

I did have 5 amano shrimp too but I haven't seem them lately (unfortunately I didn't check compatibility) and the clowns assumably ate my mollie fry too.

What is it that makes these fish appealing?

Answers on a postcard... or they might have to go back to the LFS.

Martin

 

[cjohnston]

I have 4 clown loaches in my 100litre tank and I have to say without a doubt they are my favourtie fish. They have many antics, including laying on their sides and playing dead and sunbathing with all four fins in the air, I have know them to lie in the tank with another next to it with fin over its back as if giving a hug. They are without a doubt a fish with character. If they are relatively new, perhaps they need a while to settle, I know when I moved them to my larger tank, they did take a while to settle in. Are they relatively young? This could be the case. Unfortunately, 99.9% of all fish would eat mollie fry.

By the way, if you get rid of them, I promise the snails will be back, just because you can't see them, doesn't mean they are not there!!!!

After being recommended clown loaches by a few people, I have got four of them in my tank.

However, I'm beginning to wonder whether it was worth it.

I initially got two of them as I had a snail problem, and they looked quite nice. However, now that they're in my tank, I hardly ever see them as they hide for most of the time in my mangrove root. I was told that two weren't enough and they'd become less timid if I got more of them - so I got another two but only ever seem to see one of them at a time.

I did have 5 amano shrimp too but I haven't seem them lately (unfortunately I didn't check compatibility) and the clowns assumably ate my mollie fry too.

What is it that makes these fish appealing?

Answers on a postcard... or they might have to go back to the LFS.

Martin

 

[SamUK]

you either like them or you dont.


theres nothing special about them that makes them more appealing that any other fish or anything.


they do need a large tank tho. 90 gallons + is reccomended so im afraid cjohnston is gonna have to rehome them at some point.

 

[beechey]

put some cumber in there and they will soon be out

 

[Gankutsuou]

yesh. 100+ gallons is recomened, as well as 5+ clowns. Clowns are somewhat community, so the more, the merrier they shall be!

Had it not been for this, i'd have several of my own

 

[highfire]

I have 4 clown loaches in my 100litre tank and I have to say without a doubt they are my favourtie fish. They have many antics, including laying on their sides and playing dead and sunbathing with all four fins in the air,

I saw some clowns doing that in a LFS near me several months back. At the time I wasn't familiar with these particular fish, so imagine my embarassment when I told the shop owner that "several of the fish in that tank there are dead", and he explained to me that it was perfectly normal - then of course they started moving, and I wanted to get out of there fast!

 

[cjohnston]

There new antic is after breakfast, all four of them lay on top some driftwood together as if they are completely stuffed full.

Have you got clowns yourself now??

Mine also do a circle swim formation which is cool.

I have 4 clown loaches in my 100litre tank and I have to say without a doubt they are my favourtie fish. They have many antics, including laying on their sides and playing dead and sunbathing with all four fins in the air,

I saw some clowns doing that in a LFS near me several months back. At the time I wasn't familiar with these particular fish, so imagine my embarassment when I told the shop owner that "several of the fish in that tank there are dead", and he explained to me that it was perfectly normal - then of course they started moving, and I wanted to get out of there fast!

 

[SamUK]

There new antic is after breakfast, all four of them lay on top some driftwood together as if they are completely stuffed full.

Have you got clowns yourself now??

Mine also do a circle swim formation which is cool.

I have 4 clown loaches in my 100litre tank and I have to say without a doubt they are my favourtie fish. They have many antics, including laying on their sides and playing dead and sunbathing with all four fins in the air,

I saw some clowns doing that in a LFS near me several months back. At the time I wasn't familiar with these particular fish, so imagine my embarassment when I told the shop owner that "several of the fish in that tank there are dead", and he explained to me that it was perfectly normal - then of course they started moving, and I wanted to get out of there fast!

do you have a bigger tank for when they get bigger?

 

[cjohnston]

no, but I can buy one

There new antic is after breakfast, all four of them lay on top some driftwood together as if they are completely stuffed full.

Have you got clowns yourself now??

Mine also do a circle swim formation which is cool.

I have 4 clown loaches in my 100litre tank and I have to say without a doubt they are my favourtie fish. They have many antics, including laying on their sides and playing dead and sunbathing with all four fins in the air,

I saw some clowns doing that in a LFS near me several months back. At the time I wasn't familiar with these particular fish, so imagine my embarassment when I told the shop owner that "several of the fish in that tank there are dead", and he explained to me that it was perfectly normal - then of course they started moving, and I wanted to get out of there fast!

do you have a bigger tank for when they get bigger?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I didnt see from your post what other fish you had in the tank. Dithers swiming above help to get clowns to come out more. Seeing the other small fish tells the clowns no danger is nearby. If you have no other fish in the tank with them, consider adding some small danios or rasboras to act as dithers.

I have had clowns for years and love them. Get a decent sized tank and an assorment of different size clowns and throw in some dithers and you will never be bored.

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

First, I highly doubt that your clown loaches ate any shrimp or mollie fry! I have had four clown loaches in a 55 gallon tank that I picked up because I needed some 'action' in the bottom of my tank. This tank has held a TON of molly and platty fry for the past six months or more. This tank also holds over a dozen ghost shrimp and while they are hard to find, I have not lost a single one of them.

Most likely, your molllies ate their own fry and I could not imagine where the shrimp went. I also purchased two apple snails for another tank with the hopes of 'breeding' food for the clown loaches. The breeding quickly got out of control and like you, I put the loaches in the tank to rid it of the snail babies. They were in there for almost a month and when I took them out, the snails quickly came back. I even took this tank down for two months and the snails were still in there when I put water back in to cycle it again. Loaches are AWESOME snail removers, however, the snails need to be large enough to lose the ability to hide in the substrate.

Clown loaches are also 'micro eaters', meaning that they a lot of small meals throughout the day. You could try to entice them out by turing off your filter during feedings and drop the food in the tank away from their usual hiding spots. If I remember right, I think my clown loaches hid for awhile before coming out, but once they did, I always saw them. They also need to be in groups of at least three, and more is better. Different sized loaches can also help as the larger ones may be more 'bold' and help younger or smaller loaches gain confidence.

Of course, "to each their own", but I think over time you would be able to see the brighter side of clown loaches.

 

[Zagggon]

I had two clowns once. One got ick (they are VERY susceptable to it cuzz no scales!) and the other hid in the castle for a year until I finally got sick of never seeing him and gave him to lfs.

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

Loaches need to be in groups of at least three and yes, ICH is a problem for them since they do not have scales like most fish and this makes ICH hard to treat.

Please dont get me wrong, I am not trying to be pushy or act like everyone should think like me (although the world would be a lot easier to live in if everyone shared my opinions!), I just wanted to give some of my insight. I am glad that you did the best thing then and gave your fish to the LFS instead of simply killing it. I have a friend who got 'bored' with his silver dollars and was about to 'get rid of them' inappropriately. Luckily I was able to talk him out of it. They are beautiful fish and now are being displated in a huge tank at a LFS who uses adult sized fish to show customers how large a tank some fish will need over time.

 

[Jules H-T]

I love my 5 clowns! Two are about 6" and 18 months old, three are about 4/5" and about 10 months. The older two are significantly taller and wider though.

They are fantastic fish- bags and bags of personality.

They can be trained to hand feed (bloodworm- but be careful, quite a lot of people are allergic to bloodworm, and prawn). It takes a while (months of hand feeding a BGKF, for me), but now the BGKF (who is over a foot long) hardly gets a look in. You ever been nibbled by a clown loach? Surprisingly tough little nip they've got.

They will eat shrimp, mine will see one off in no time at all. Perhaps I've given them the taste by feeding prawn. They did do a bamboo shrimp when he malted though, before I fed prawn, and I saw them do it. They didn't go for my Krib fry though, the Yoyos took care of them. Perhaps they just hadn't got big enough to be worth worrying about.

I love their personality. I'll go up to the tank and one of them will be lying down in the middle of a hole through a rock, looking dead. Then his eyes will dart about, clearly looking at me. These aren't the dull immobile eyes of a gourami or barb, there is a spark there, real intelligence.

I'd possibly go so far as to say problem solving intelligence. You ever seen a pack of them try and get into an adult apple snail?! Stick some food to the side of the tank about 1 cm above the water line- mine will try and jump up for it if they see it- and once one has noticed there is something there, they all want a go trying to get it! I must see if I can apply myself to thinking of some proper tests to see what they are capable of.

They can swim really bloody fast and are very agile. Seeing a set of hungry ones at feeding time, clicking with excitement, splashing water all over the canopy, zooming about beating red line torpedo barbs to food, is an incredible sight.

I love clown loaches. They need space, they need groups of 5 or more, they need plenty of places to hide all over the tank, and they need time to feel comfortable. Dithers also help as Tommy says.