Clown Loach & Dennison Barb Stocking

[Melman]

Hi Everyone

Due to a recent tank leak I have upgraded my tank from a 4 ft Juwel Vision (260 litre) to a 5 ft Cleair (360 litre). At present i have a few Tetra (Rummynose, X-Ray, Head & Tail Light) plus a Glass Catfish, Bristlenose Plec amongst a few others.

I also have 2 x 5" Dennison Barbs and 2 x 7" Clown Loach. I am keen to increase the number of both of these but dont want to go over the top, do you think increasing the Clown Loach to 4 and the Dennison Barbs to 5 is realistic or too much for the size of tank

Any help/thoughts would be appreciated

Thanks

 

[MBOU]

You could increase the numbers but chances are that the clown loaches will still outgrow the tank, 360L is really small for a 5ft tank so must be quite narrow still!

So I think maybe even if you stick to adding just one more clown loach? Means you have another for the shoal without over doing it?

The Densonii dont get as big as the clown loach, I think they will be ok and you have room to up the shoals of tetras a bit too and make them *really* happy!

 

[Melman]

Thanks for the reply,

The tank is quite narrow, its 1.5m wide x 600mm high (excluding cabinet) x 500mm deep. Thats the worry, i dont want to put the clowns in an unsuitable environment once they are fully grown so maybe 1 more is the way to go.

Will my current Clown Loach take to a new, probably considerably smaller tankmate?

I was thinking of having a large shoal of Tetras, i would imagine i could have a shoal of 20 - 30 in a tank of this size?

Thanks

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

While Redline Torpedo barbs and Clown Loaches both love a strong current, I personally would not combine the two for more than a short term things for say two months, the loach is a true tropical fish whereas the barb comes from a temperate region with official temp readings as low as 15C. I'm not too comfortable with my six Redline Torpedo Barbs having been in my 5x2x2 for two years at 22C (which can rise to ~26C on the rare really hot days we have in so called summer), as soon as my Rio240 has been emptied of ~36 Lionhead Cichlid youngsters, I'm planning to move the barbs in with my sub-tropical Ilyodon xantusi until such times as they sell at ~20C.

 

[tribalbrit]

I'd go for 6 clowns, forget the torpedo barbs and add a nice shoal of tetra's cardinals
or similar. New small clowns will mix ok with your larger ones.