Clown Loach In A 3 Ft 180 Litre

[andyg81]

morning,

would it be wise to put a few clown loach in my 180 litre 3 ft juwel ? I have a snail problem at the minute - cleaned my filter yesterday and found about 60 in there, along with a few few in my tank.

I dont really want to put assassin snails in as I dont like this idea but ive just read that clown loach need to be in a bigger tank than ive got

 

[blur411]

Your tank is too small for Clown Loaches, they get very large and wouldn't be happy. Maybe try YoYo loaches? I have a 55 gallon US and I have 5, and they also take care of my snails.

 

[andyg81]

thanks

 

[Tizer]

Zebra loaches will be fine, yoyo's get too big too imo and are a little bit boisterous.

 

[andyg81]

right ok thank you, i'll have a read up on them as I think ill have to create a few more hiding places in my tank

 

[AdamHawk]

Though clown loaches do (can) grow big, and people say no to anything smaller than 4ft....I kept my clowns in my 180ltr for about 3 years before they even got bigger than a pen lid!

 

[MBOU]

Yeah but the trouble is, its when they are small that they are most damaged. It only took them 3 years to get bigger than a pen lid **BECAUSE** they were only in a 3ft tank.

After rescuing a clownloach living on its own in 190L corner tank... it was 26cm long but about 10cm deep (high) in the body, it looked so deformed! I quarantined it in 350L and even after 6 months its length was 28cm and depth was 8cm...

When moved to the 8ft tank, after a year and some intense feeding, it ended up at 32cm and 7cm deep in the body.

To me, that isnt the fish just growing because its in more space, thats the fish's spine stretching out after being stunted so badly... bloomin gorgeous fish. Lost the pair i had that size and all my smaller ones when my ex cleaned bother filters out at the same time.... under the tap.... caused massive ammonia spike...

Why buy a fish thats only going to suffer eventually? There are hundreds of species out there that are more suitable!

 

[fluttermoth]

OP; what other fish are in the tank? Also, why is it you don't like the idea of assassin snails? They really are the best solution.

 

[andyg81]

other fish are

1 x siamese fighter, 2 x corydoras, 2 x cherry barbs, 2 x harlequin tetra, 2 x lemon tetra, 4 x guppys, 5 x black widow tetra, 3 x rummy nose tetra, 1 x bristlenose pleco, 2 x electric blue ram, 1 x plattys, 3 x neon tetra


adding 7 more neons over the weekend and getting rid of some of the "oddments" to make room for a few more rams.

dont like the idea of snails purely because I dont like them would rather have fish

 

[MBOU]

How about a trio or so of Dwarf Chain Loach? Or a group of 6-10 Yunnanilus cruciatus (Laos Multibar Loach) or 6-10 Tuberoschistura arakanensis (Rosy Loach). Awesome characters, small enough to have nice groups as well.

 

[stu40]

cut down on the feeding? that'll slow down your snail population.Any dying plants in there?

 

[andyg81]

only feeding 3 times a week at the minute and there was some dead plants about 3 weeks ago but these were swapped out pretty quickly and thats where i think the snails have come from - the new plants I added. There was only 1 or 2 previously and I took them out as I saw them but during filter maintenance I found loads and then while doing a really good clean of my tank at the same time I found faily large ones in there as well. They seem to be trumpet snails, definatley prefer to add fish rather than snails so i'll see what maidenhead have got in and then decide.

 

[andyg81]

Is there any other fish that eats snails my wife doesn't like the look of the loaches lol

 

[Cupster]

I have had 2 clowns in my 180 for the last 2 years and they are about 3 three inches and certainly not malformed although I do agree that the tank is too small now as they are very very fast swimming fish and easily get from one side to the other in less than a second. I have just got a 4 foot tank now so should be much better for them