Sylvia,
>>So are you suggesting someone is justified in buying a great dane pup while they are living in a flat with plans to *possibly* move into a house with a big garden in the future?
No, of course not, but only because dogs reach their full size in a year. Time scale with clowns is much longer. A proper analogy is perhaps buying a king-size bed for a 6-month old baby...
>>As for the argument that you may put in too many fish if you put clowns in a 90 gallon
You may be able to resist the temptation. I *may* be able too (not so sure about myself). Most people would not....(available space always get used). And and understocked tank is not such a great idea too... (Is a 90g with 4 1" clowns going to be stable?)
>> don't want anyone else who reads through this thread to assume its ok to buy a clown loach and put in >>a 20 gallon with 'plans to upgrade in future'.
I honestly fail to see the problem if the person does understand that upgrade will be required. (My clowns did fine in 29g until last September and given their size, I could have kept them there for another year or two.)
No harm is done by keeping small clowns in (a properly set up) 20g. IMHO, the only important thing is that the person is told that *eventually* a bigger place will be needed, but do you seriously think that any person who succeeded in keeping clowns alive for a couple of years would not come to this understanding anyway?
>> I was just saying that people should aim to provide their fish with the correct environment from the start
Of course, but the "correct environment" for a 2" clown is not the same as the correct environment for a 12" clown.
>>you're tank isn't so small that it would very seriously harm (ie: cause death to them) the loaches even if they were full grown
I like my fish and will try to keep them alive and happy....but I don't think that 55 or 65 will be good enuf for this.
You do make an excellent good point that in some cases upgrade is simply not going to be possible. Still, does not really change the situation: fortunately, in the worst case, it is not too difficult to find a good home for larger clowns (not like plecs).
>>So are you suggesting someone is justified in buying a great dane pup while they are living in a flat with plans to *possibly* move into a house with a big garden in the future?
No, of course not, but only because dogs reach their full size in a year. Time scale with clowns is much longer. A proper analogy is perhaps buying a king-size bed for a 6-month old baby...
>>As for the argument that you may put in too many fish if you put clowns in a 90 gallon
You may be able to resist the temptation. I *may* be able too (not so sure about myself). Most people would not....(available space always get used). And and understocked tank is not such a great idea too... (Is a 90g with 4 1" clowns going to be stable?)
>> don't want anyone else who reads through this thread to assume its ok to buy a clown loach and put in >>a 20 gallon with 'plans to upgrade in future'.
I honestly fail to see the problem if the person does understand that upgrade will be required. (My clowns did fine in 29g until last September and given their size, I could have kept them there for another year or two.)
No harm is done by keeping small clowns in (a properly set up) 20g. IMHO, the only important thing is that the person is told that *eventually* a bigger place will be needed, but do you seriously think that any person who succeeded in keeping clowns alive for a couple of years would not come to this understanding anyway?
>> I was just saying that people should aim to provide their fish with the correct environment from the start
Of course, but the "correct environment" for a 2" clown is not the same as the correct environment for a 12" clown.
>>you're tank isn't so small that it would very seriously harm (ie: cause death to them) the loaches even if they were full grown
I like my fish and will try to keep them alive and happy....but I don't think that 55 or 65 will be good enuf for this.
You do make an excellent good point that in some cases upgrade is simply not going to be possible. Still, does not really change the situation: fortunately, in the worst case, it is not too difficult to find a good home for larger clowns (not like plecs).
?
