Loaches Online Forum

Dear forum members, I have a puzzle regarding dither fish for Clown loaches. I have 10 small Clown Loaches and 7 Candystripes in a tank of 424litre (60"x24"x18"), what fish would like a similar highish temp and be worth considering? Any experience or ideas?

Hi there,

How big are your clowns and candystripes (do you know the scientific name? I am unfmiliar with this common name. Is is B. striata)?

How high do you keep your temps?

I have turqoise rainbows with mine right now, and they are a beautiful addition to the tank. I have Giant Danios and they seem to be working out okay too. They might appreciate lower temps. I have high flow and filtration in the tank.

hi
yes they are Botia Striata, the temp is high at the moment (88f) because they have just arrived and I was worried about Ich. I aim to reduce the temp over the next two weeks to 83f. The average size of the whole bunch is approx 2.5 inchs. What would be a sensible No. of the various fish you mentioned? I have the problem of a whitish surface film, not sure what the remedy is for that. Again any ideas?

Is your tank cycled? I am just curious with the arrival of new fish. I have never started fish at 88 to guard against ick. Sounds a bit extreme, but I am a relative newbie (5 years keeping fish). I try to reduce the stress of my loaches when I first add them and drip acclimate and turn the lights off, and keep them in quaratine for a month and that usually prevents any illness. I know many people treat with Lavemisole to rid the fish of internal parasites during quaratine. I have done this with my latest group of loaches because the Kubs were very thin.

I wouldn't add any new fish for a month or more so that your bacteria can grow and thrive to be able to conquer that huge bioload.

hello again, and thanks for the reply
The Striata had been in the tank along with some Crorydorus (6) and two very old Brochis who died recently. I added the ten clowns 2wks ago and they look healthy, hungry and active, at the same time I gave the cats to my son. Each filter is for 450-650 litre aquaria so its being "over filtered" over twice, I supose. I clean the filters alternately every 3wks so each one gets cleaned every 6wks. I water change 15% roughly every 5days. The filmy surface water has been present throughout all of this time. All seems very strange to me.

I was just trying to figure out if you're more of a newbie than I am, and you certainly know what you are doing.

Where are you? That may help with medication or maybe someone has seen the film before. Can you post pictures of the film? I do not know what it is. Do you have any sucker catfish that might work on the surfaces and clear the film? I have gobs of sucker catfish and my surfaces are clean as a whistle. Bristlenoses are my favorite.

You should see the clowns and zebras hanging out when they get to know each other. Hopefully someone will pop in who knows more than I do. How long has the film been in the tank. Does it bother the fish?

Do not go by what the manufacturer says the filter is good for.
Read the rating that says how much water the filter will move. Liters per hour, gallons per hour...

Loaches in general are high oxygen fish. The water will have the maximum oxygen with plenty of water movement.
I run most of my tanks with filters and power heads that will move the volume of the tank 10 times per hour.
A 100 gallon tank gets water movement of 1000 gallons per hour, minimum.
Your 400+l tank would get filters and power heads that add up to over 4000lph.

I keep my Clown Loaches in a 125 gallon tank and the filters and power heads add up to about 2000 gph.
Hillstream Loaches and other fish that come from faster moving water are in tanks with about 20x.

Scum at the top of the water suggests not enough water movement.

Fish that work well with Clown Loaches, thrive in warm tanks and swim relatively high in the tank:
Look into Rainbow Fish. There are many species, see what is available to you, and if they can live in that warm a tank. Other possibilities include Gouramis, larger Tetras such as Congo Tetras, and larger Barbs such as Clown Barbs.

I have Bichers (Polypterus senegalensis)
Filament Barbs (Barbus filimentosa)
Snakeskin Gouramis (Trichogaster pectoralis)
and a few other fish in the tank with the Clown Loaches.
The Barbs are hard on plants, so only Java Fern lives in there, but there is a lot of it.

What are some larger barbs that you would recommend in larger setups?

Hello again,thanks for the reply

The filters have a flow rate of 1100 litres each. (290 gal US) they consume 26watts each, I imagine they have a volume of at least 10 litres each as they are larger than a 10 litre bucket (2.6 gal US) I'm still wondering about this. I live near London the water is neutral to hard 7.5 - 8 my son reckons.