Lessons learned on keeping "los loaches payasos"..

[Xirxes]

M-O-O-N that spells clown loaches (para estos que no hablan espanol)

Hello, anyone who dealt with me in the past knows that i had a rocky start with my clowns (to say the least), however, things seem to have evened out a bit here and things are going very well.

i have one 3.5" clown in my 30g, and one 2.5" clown in second week of Qtank.

I learned over the course of the last 8 months that quite a few things were hindering the survival of the clown loaches, and when corrected, allowed a incedent free system.

1) pH was 8.0 : now 7.0 and acclimation from LFS to my tank is drip over about 1.5 hrs.

2) Hardness was through the roof (~800 ): Now use only RO DI 6 stage filtered water (24) with seachem 7.0 regulator believe measured in PPM

3) temp was high at 82F : now at 78F

4) treated ich with chemicals, which all failed, some of which turned silicone/piping/ornaments blue : i battled ich twice with heat (86F)/salt (2 TBSP per gallon introduced over 3 days)/complete darkness for a week, and beat it both times, with no deaths.

5) added new fish directly to community tank: Used quarantine tank first for salt bath if Ich, or 2-3 weeks standard without ich.

Changing these 4 factors have really made it possible for me to keep these loaches alive and (indicated by clicking) happy.

HArdness is probably the worst of these, which most likely was the reason why my tank killed off any pleco's i had before the filtration as well.

I know that these are all things that i have read one timeor another when initially setting up my tank, but seemed like too much effort.

Well, word to the newbie, these fish are a hell of a pain to keep UNLESS you take care of these issues first. They have been nothing but joy ever since these 5 points were dealt with.

On that note, i have a quick question:

I have the two tanks set to almost exactly the same parameters, temp, pH, temp, hardness, rates/rites, ammonia, can i do a direct transfer from Q tank to community tank without worry?

"In order to become Old and Wise, we must first be Young and Stupid."

[TammyLiz]

I'm glad to hear your loaches are doing well so far. I've done the scoop and dump thing on tanks with the same water conditions/temperature with no ill effects. As long as it's actually the same, it shouldn't be an issue.

[mikev]

Very good points, Xirxes! It looks like you doing much better now.

I hope you don't mind a small revision to your point list:

Item 3, temp, is not essential for clowns: both 78F and 82F are within their temp range (75F-86F), this was not your problem.

But adding deworming during the quarantine to your list might be a very good idea if you want the joy not to be interrupted later...