Sidthimunki and Clowns - a bad combination?

[Boromark]

I am thinking of adding a group of Sids (or maybe Striatas) to a tank which already has seven 3" Clowns.

There is enough room and filtration for more fish, but I'm not sure if Sids are the best loach to add.

Would the Sids find it hard to get food during the Clowns' 'feeding frenzy'? Would they be intimidated by the larger loaches?

I already have Sterba Corys and these just get out of the way of the Clowns and keep feeding, they are persistent little fellas and they look plump enough, and the Clowns do not try to chase them away. But would Clowns chase other smaller loaches away from food?

Are there any other considerations for good companions for Clowns?

Thanks for any help - hope this isn't further back in the forum topics, there's a lot to get through there and I've only just started!

[Diana]

Hmmm... sort of like mixing teacup Poodles with Great Danes.
Might be OK if the Sids are adults, but the Clowns will grow and Grow and GROW, and Sids are very hard to catch to remove from the tank.

I prefer to suggest that fish of similar sizes be tried as tank mates.

[Mad Duff]

I wouldn't expect any problems apart from the size difference, I have had sid's in with a group of 6" Syncrossus hymenophysa (long before my LOL days ) and the sid's were more than capable of holding their own at feeding time in fact at any time.

You don't say what size tank you have but there are alternatives if you want something bigger than the sid's you could always consider Kubotai's or Histrionica's, similar colour wise to the sid's and are more robust and will be happy along with clowns.

[wasserscheu]

It always depends on the temper of the actual fish, I guess. I had very young Y. Nigrolineata (which some of them may be Sid´s anyway) with 3"-4" clowns and it was fine. Except the Y. were so young, I had too feed a lot and the clowns got too fat.

To solve the issue, just create some small tunnels that the clowns can not enter. Feed in a wide spread cloud so food goes into the feeding places for small fish.

I separeted the clowns from the small (below 1") Y.´s as th clowns were too busy during feeding. But later on, I added about 1,5"-2" Striatas and 2 more 1" clowns into the clown tank and I was fine, due to the very structured tank. Where the clowns simply can not see all the places, where the small fish are eating - German saying : "what you can´t see - does not make you hot"
By that time the clowns were partially about 5" already. The clowns can´t be everywhere at the same time - but they do have NO mercy when getting food - that is a fact.
My Raphael cat knows that as well and very carefully is whatching his long and many barbles when the loaches are busy feeding around him. I am very surprised, that his whiskers don´t get picked... at least not when I´m watching... she/he never was missing one so far...

The Striatas are faster at the food that gives them some benefit, but of course that may vary on the fish...

[Boromark]

Thanks very much guys, some great ideas here, having smaller tunnels hadn't occurred to me and I appreciate the thoughts on the possible companions for my Clowns.

I have a 4 foot tank, but am considering going for a bigger set-up for the Clowns. I could always put smaller loaches in the existing tank then.