What To Do With A Sucking Loach?

[rjsmith]

Ok, I fell in the newbie trap of buying a golden sucking loach when I started. My fault but I was a bit disappointed with my lfs (a large well known local shop) as they had tank fulls of them and did not give any of the warnings about them that I now read here and elsewhere.
The loach has now grown a bit and has started harassing the platys by trying to suck their slime.
I am getting a larger tank (190L) but wondered what advice people would give on what to do with it. Should I get rid somehow (how?)? Put it in the bigger tank?
If I'm really well filtered do I really need one? If I do need a scavenger, what should I get for a 190L tank?
Cheers for any advice.

 

[Fate2006]

I'd say bring it back to a LFS that will take it from you, and try oto cats instead, they're just as good if not better at cleaning algea...

 

[fishboy619]

same thing happened to me, i bought a golden sucking when i first began...big mistake. my fault i should have researched it, i always do now. i caugt it acting aggressivly towards my platies so bagged it up and returned to the petshop. most good petshops will take them back, good ones will either exchange it or give store credit.personally i would get rid of your too, not sure even if its in a bigger tank it wont harrass fish, i bought some corys in place of the loach and they are a great buy.pygmy corys i have, they do a great job, tho i must say, before the golden sucking loach lost control of its mind, it was a excellent cleaner, i would often see it sucking the gravel and glass sides.shame that the fish loses its piecefullness.
for you bigger tank, i would suggest a group of corys,with that tank size most, if not all species would fit in your tank.pandas or pygmy ive always had and both have done me proud.maybe, not sure about this, small versions of plecos or a group of otos would look nice.
note for future: im sure you already know this, but if you see a fish in a fish shop you havent had or know nothing about before, return home and do research, then go back and confidently buy it.

 

[Htw]

Same as me too! Harassed anything in the tank that had orange on it, yes really! Took me ages to work out why it chased some fish and not others. Put it into another tank with no orange fish, but it then kept trying to suck my poor little frog Eventually managed to catch the little blighter [got wise to the net] and gave it to my son to put in his tank. It died about a week later, probably stressed from being chased with the net. Now it knew what it felt like [no it didn't really, it's only a fish]
Get rid of it to your LFS before it harasses your fish to death, I say. [ that is if you can catch it!!]

 

[G.A]

I've had a sucking loach for almost ten years now and the only fish it ever harassed even slightly were (now long dead) Platys which it would occasionally chase around the tank. Apart from that it's not been aggressive at all. I think the becoming aggressive depends on the individual fish, but feeding them sinking pellets, providing a cave to hide in and avoiding flat bodied fish probably helps. (The fact that the only time your likely to see it eating is when it finds a dead tankmate probably hasn't helped its reputation either.)