Clown Loach & a 20g tank

[Camo]

My Dads 90g tank recently sprung a leak, so he told me if i went and bought my own tank, i could use all his equipment, and he'd give me his fish.

Ok, so it seems i might have rushed into buying my tank. I started off with doing a fair bit of research on clown loaches and thought everything was goin alright, then i went out and bought a nice looking 20g tank and stand. I set it up in my room, water, gravel, rock formations plants, filter etc. I was gonna leave it a few days before i transferred the fish, so i kept on doin a bit more research, and discovered that a 20g tank was way to small for my 3-4 inch loach or any loach for that matter.

I'm really kicking myself right now. So what i want to know is if it'd be ok to keep the clown loach in the 20g tank for ....maybe 2 weeks - 1 month until i can find a more suitable tank, 55-60g, depending on how long it is.

Also, what do you think my chances are of being able to return my tank to my LFS for store credit on a bigger tank? I paid 170 AU$ for the tank and stand, and am goin away in 3 weeks time for a week, so i'm not too cashed up atm.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Cheers,
Camo

[Beowulf]

First off don't forget to cycle the tank which you can speed up using some of the filter media and decor/substrate from your fathers tank. As for taking it back, I doubt the store would but you might want to look for a local aquatic club and you might be able to find a trade or sell it there.

A 55/65g tank will last your loaches a couple of more years at most but in time you want to be getting into the 100g+ tanks for sure.

[Camo]

An obvious idea just occured to me...clean up my dad's tank, empty it etc. and reseal it all, make a suitable stand for it, and with any luck, mum will let me have it in my room...(20, still living with my parents )

I also just purchased a nice big fake log for the clown loach to hide in

[shari2]

sounds like an excellent plan! And there's no shame in living with parents, either.

Make sure that your fake log has easy access and egress, no sharp edges and no tiny hiding holes that silly clowns can squeeze into and not get out of. There have been multiple stories of growing clowns getting stuck in tiny spots that you'd never think they could squeeze into!

[Camo]

*sigh* Mum isn't gonna let me put that big a tank in my room, and dad decided to keep the big loach in his tank as the leak stopped.

Will i get away with keeping 3or4 1" clowns in my 20 gallon? and when it appears they've stopped growing, upgrade and put them into a 90 gallon tank?

or should i just completely give up on clown loaches?

[Total Package]

They will be fine in a 20 gal for a while, but they will outgrow it within a fairly short time. Someone else with more experience can probably give you a time frame.

You'll need to transfer them before they stop growing, they can reach a foot in length. By ~4 inches, they've realistically outgrown a 20gal.

[Camo]

How long would it take them to out grow it? a month? a couple months? a year?

How many clowns should i put in there? and what are some other good fish i could put in there? catfish, gouramis etc. fish that look nice and have the same sort of clown characteristic about them?


thanks

[shari2]

Deciding on how many clowns to keep in a 20 gallon depends more on how soon you will be able to upgrade and the realistic estimate of the new tanks size.

If you won't be able to upgrade in say 6-9 months you don't want to get a bunch of clowns in your 20g now.

Think forward first, before you decide to overstock now and regret it later. If you're also considering adding other fish to have a community type setup in the 20 stick with the clowns you have now (no more) and get a small school of some lively mid or top dwellers, and maybe some otocinclus for algae control (once you get some algae).

When you get your 55g later, you can seed the new filter with the stuff in the 20, and use it as a qtank before adding new fish to the 55 when it's ready to go. By then you'll know a lot more about clowns and likely fishkeeping in general and will make the transition smoothly. Once your 55 is going, you can either keep the 20 running with a few small fish, or store it and set it up if you run into a problem and need to quarantine a fish for some reason.

It's called MTS (multiple tank syndrome)
Fish tanks should come with a warning label about it!

[Camo]

Took a sample of my water down to the LFS to get tested and they said everything is fine with it, except the PH being a bit low, but they said i'm fine to start stocking it. So with that said, i bought 2 clown loaches(to begin with, just incase something catastrophic goes wrong and fish start dieing) and also bought a tiny little bristlenose catfish.

Chucked in the heater, let it warm up, introduced the fish over a period of half an hour, and let them free.

With my new light on the clown took off too hide beneath my rock cave thingy, and the bristlenose started trying to clean my fake log, and now he's dissappeared. hopefully everything pans out alright and in 6-9 months i should be moved and should hopefully have at least a 90g tank, if i don't i'll put em in dads big tank, or give em to LFS with adequate tanks.

Also, what are these Moonlights i've been hearing about? i asked the guy at the shop and he hadn't heard of him, but he did have a light tube that puts a purple light into the tank. I think it was called antinic? are these the same thing? or could i acheive the "moonlight" by using some blue neons similar to those you find in hotted up cars?

thanks heaps
camo

[shari2]

Make sure you feed your bristlenose some cucumber/zucchini/green stuff, since you likely have no algae yet. Even algae pellets would be good. The clowns will like it too, but they need some meaty foods, too.

No, actinic lights aren't moon lights. They are usually used on marine tanks. Freshwater tanks need a different light spectrum.

Moon lights are used to mimic the effect of (of course) moonlight at night. Fish that are nocturnal do a lot of stuff after lights out that it's fun to watch. With a moon light you get to see some of the action. Use the 'search' function at the top of the page and look for moon light. You should see several threads on it come up.

[Buzzy4p]

I have a 30g tank and 2 baby loaches. If i had to guess their about 2in long. How long will i beable to keep them in the 30g before upgradeing?

[Camo]

thanks shari, i don't know of anyone in town who actually sell moonlights, so i did some googling and found out that using a cold cathode car/computer light (which i have tons of...but none in blue) and a variable voltage transformer, i should be able to get a decent light going for it, and it shouldnt cost too much at all, so i'm gonna stop off after work tomorrow and grab one, and then get some frozen bloodworms or brine shrimp and give the loaches a feed, and a small bit of cucumber for the bristlenose.

How much frozen meat should i give the 2 clowns? dont wanna over feed em


cheers

[shari2]

To start with get bloodworms that come in cubes. Hikari makes good ones. I hold the cube in my fingers and let it defrost in the tank. Others defrost first then add to the tank.

I find that if the little ones know it's coming (feed in the same place every time) they will come right up to my hand and yank the worms out of the cube. It's enough when they lose interest or when you see little bulging bellies. If that's not a whole cube, store the rest in a container in the fridge for the evening feed. Little loaches will eat less at a time, but need to eat more often. 2 to 3 feedings a day when small is a good idea. Just make sure you don't feed so much that there are bloodworms laying around on the substrate in the tank for too long. It will foul the water.

the clowns will scavenge around the rest of the day looking for food, but if you suspect you've overdone it, do a gravel vac to remove the excess if it's still there an hour later.
You'll be able to guage how much is enough as you see them eating. It will only increase with time. Clowns can be piggy so don't give in to their begging.
Later on, feeding once a day is fine with a fast day once a week or so.

[Camo]

wow, just fed em a cube of blood worm, i put it in a bowl of tank water to let it defrost first but it kinda just fell apart really quickly, so i pinched a bit out and put em in there and the sword tail went straight for em, then the loaches found out about em and went at em.

I put the bloodworms back in the freezer for an hour, then popped another cube in, boy this caused a ruckus, the clowns were happily playing around in the tank with the lights on, then they noticed the blood worms sinking through the water, they both started going for em and eventually ended up under my fake log fighting for about 10-15 minutes over what i can only gather was the food...or dominance... in the end one of them gave up and darted back into my rock formation and fed on any worms that came his way....and just looking back at the tank now, they are both back to swimming around together like idiots chasing there reflections (a sign i need to buy more clown friends) and now they're both back under the rock formation together.

as i buy more of them, should i make more hidey holes for them? so they at least have one each to go to? or would it 3 be fine for 5-6 loaches?



Also, i made my own moonlight this arvo, i'm gonna test it in a bit when i turn the main light off