Common Pleco Or Clown Loaches

[Mako Man111]

Clown loaches are expensive.. and touchy.. I'm not sure a convict would tolerate clown loaches.. A pleco is really only useful if you've got an algae problem.

Well it's pretty funny now that my severum is out of the tank, my oscar is the new king and bosses my convict around, though not nearly to the extent that my severum did to my oscar. He doesn't really bite him, he just kinda runs at him lol.

I think a common plec would be best suited. They are hardy, tough, and are basically armoured. Plus I'm not sure my bichir would like 5 clown loaches swimming around on the bottem all day.

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

Clown loaches around me are sort of expensive but no way as expensive as some of you are sayin you pay for yours.
a 1.5inch would cost around £3.50
2/3inch would cost around £4.85
5 inch does cost £20 tho!
price goes up rather much.
i need more coz i only have 2! they both do do that clickin noise tho.

clown loaches all the way
pleco's are good but the other species are better. like a royal "pleco" are nice but are sort of expensive if you're new to looking into fish buying.

 

[yvez9]

I have a 90 gallon tank with an Oscar, Senegal Bichir, Common Pleco and 3 clown loaches

Originally, i got 3 loaches, then 2 died. I got 3 more and one died but we've been carrying our 3 survivors now for almost a year. I was afraid the Oscar would eat the loaches but he doesn't even notice them. The bichir is quite tame.

I'd say the pleco and oscar used to fight alot at night, we've had a few splashes on the floor in the morning!

BTW, the pleco keeps the glass spotless of any algea. he also cleans up the bottom of any food at night but damn, an oscar and a pleco together poop so much.......

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

I think plecos are awesome fish and if they did not get so big, or if I had more room, I would love to get a common and watch it get huge! They really are messy though and add a bunch of bioload to your tank, which so does your oscar. You might want to consider this since it could hurt your water quality.

A pleco is also not the best for keeping algea at bay. They also will eat detrius and food that hits the bottom of the tank, but this causes even worse mess and soon you will notice amazingly long strings of pleco waste all over your tank. A bristle nose will stay smaller (mine is about 6 inches and nearly full grown, I hope), but I need to feed it algea wafers often since it is in a tank of cichlids who clean the glass themselves mostly.

Clown loaches are very nice and until recently, I had four myself. I dont know where they are considered expensive, I can get a 3 inch clown loach for about 4 dollars (US). They do much better in groups though, and I would suggest keeping a minimum of three, but five being better (or more, of course). They are scaleless, but NOT more suseptable to Ich, only harder to treat for it since they cannot withstand many of the meds on the market today. This will not be an issue however if you are doing things the right way anyways.

Clown loaches can be (I would almost say more often are..) shy and will hide at first. This is why a larger group will help them gain confidence and feel safe enough to be out and about. I fear though that your convict and/or oscar could bully them enough from the get go that they might just stay reclusive in your tank. Keep them with a lot of places to go for saftey though, if you decide to get some.

Clown loaches also get very big (up to a foot or more, I think), but grow very slow and this is why most people can justify buying them and putting them into smaller or medium tanks. To give you an idea on their size, I read once that clown loaches are often the subject of dinner tables in some parts of the world and are considered fine dinning.

It is a hard choice though and I sympathize with you. So many options, so little space....... If only I had a mansion and unlimited amounts of cash!