Corydoras Vs Clown Loaches

[birddancer]

Hi all,

I read on another forum that Corydoras and Clowns aren't the best match despite alot of good words on this (and countless other) forums that they are ok. I read that because they are both bottom feeders a better mix would be Clowns and sharks or even tetras who are predominantly middle strata?

The reason is that I had this great idea to move my Angel and 2 Bronze Corys into the 40 gallon and put my 2 clown loaches (plus a couple more clowns I am getting this w/e) into the 53 gallon - the only problem is that I CANT FOR THE LIFE OF ME catch the Corydoras to move them (not without prolonged drama). Do you think that in a 53 gallon tank with a floor size of approx 122cm x 36cm I will have too many bottom feeders? Will it cause trouble between the corys and clowns?

btw the clowns are only 2-3cm at the most (at the moment).

[Diana]

Ultimately you will run into trouble with most of the combos you are talking about. Clown Loaches get big enough to eat most of the smaller fish

Make a chart. Make it look like a tic-tac-toe grid.

Across the top write:
Warm water... Cool water

Down the side write
Gets big
Stays small

Put each fish species in its proper grid.

Clown Loaches: Get big, warm water.
Clories: Stay Small, cool water (most)
Angels: Get big, warm water
Sharks: Get big, warm or cool water, depends on species.
Tetras: Most stay small, and they are all over the board for temperature. Cards and Rummies are warm water fish. Neons are cool water fish.

Set up as amny tanks as you have grids filled in. The separate grids are fish that cannot be mixed.

Given that your Clowns are such youngsters I would keep them in a much smaller tank (perhaps a 20-29 gallon or 80+ liter) for about 6 months where the maintenance will be easier. You will be feeding these babies a LOT more food, and this will add so much waste to the tank that you will need to do a lot more cleaning. You can keep other juvenile fish with them, but adult fish would over eat and get sick from getting too fat.
When the Clown Loaches reach about 2" (5+ cm) they could be moved up to the larger tank. They will be better able to compete for food, and will not need so many feedings per day.

[LoachOrgy]

i raised my loaches with emerald cory's and albino cory's. they all grew to full size. the emeral cory's were about 2.5" each. they all lived peacefully together for the last few years. then all of the sudden a few months ago my loaches ate most of my cory's. unfortunately. once the clowns got to about 4 plus inches each. thats when it happened. i have no idea what it had to do with. age, sex, i don't know. but i lost all my cory's. some i did lose to disease so i only caught the clowns twice with cory's in their mouths. if your going to have cory's get larger size cory's. or have cory's with botia striata. they grow slowly and the cory's can be bought already bigger than the striatas. ive had my striatas more than a year. and they have not really grown much compared to my clowns.

[FishyLady]

I have emerald corys in with my clown loaches, the corys are getting quite big and I didn't think they would ever be in danger from my clowns, well not unless the clowns got to about 6" plus, you have got me worried now!!

Val

[Marcos Mataratzis]

Most of my 28 Clown Loaches are bigger than 4". Some are 6, 7 and 8". I do have Corys with them since start and never had any isue with them. I have albino Corys and Latus. Albino are aobut 2" and Latus are 3".

[FishyLady]

Phew!!! I was getting a bit worried there!! Perhaps the ones in the clowns mouths were already dead?

Val