Loaches Online Forum

Howdy all. Been lurking awhile just never got around to posting - lots of great information here - thanks! I've had a 65 gallon with what I thought was 4 yoyo's - the LFS let me know they mixed a few up after I had already purchased him. I'll get a picture if he (I don't know it's sex) ever cooperates - but he's a bit smaller then the other yoyo's have grown and looks a bit like a ladder or maybe a zebra loach. Anyway, I had always loved Clown's but never had a tank large enough to have them, so when I recently got my 180 I migrated my tank over. I had actually thought I might not get Clown's after and get myself a few more Yoyo's and watch them play but Petsmart had 3 last night, and the wife surprised me. I'm pretty sure she brought me home Ich, so I'll have to go pick up some paraguard and start with a 1/2 strength dose (seems to be the preferred method).

My plants look horrible, as they are still growing in - I only had what came from my 65. The canopy needs more work ( I built it myself, haven't added latches to hold it closed yet) and the bottom of the stand is left open in the picture (woops). I'm going to need more hiding places! My original build only called for enough for 4 loaches, now I have extra loaches sharks and featherfins!



Current residents:
3 small Clown loaches
3 Yoyo's
1 unknown loach
6 neon tetra
8 otto
15ish mollies (they have some smaller ones running around)
?? MTS
2 rainbow sharks (rescue this week)
2 featherfin squeaker (rescue this week)
5 tetra (larger, not sure which - rescue this week)
1 guppy (rescue this week)

Tank is 180 gal, 6ftx2ft


Anyway, I decided now that I have 3 different kinds of Loaches I had better say hi. The wife tells me I have fish and guns on the brain

Featherfins are awesome, I have four of them in with my loaches. They have enormous appetites (keep an eye out to make sure that all of the other fish are getting enough to eat), but I've never seen them bother the loaches at all. In fact, they hardly even know that the loaches exist, except when one of my more exuberant botias decides to chase one of the catfish around the tank just for fun. It's quite a sight to see a little 3" histrionica chase an enormous 8" featherfin around. It's just playtime for the loaches, but the big catfish don't know that.

Make sure that you have plenty of cave space for the loaches, sharks, and especially the featherfins. Featherfins do best when they can't see each other (or other synodontids). You will want to add a lot more than you have now.

Also keep in mind that both clown loaches and featherfins get very LARGE. The featherfins will reach full length (7 to 8 inches) in only 6 months to a year! The clowns will take quite a bit longer. They will all eat a lot of food and produce a lot of waste. A 180 gallon tank is plenty big for these fish, as long as the filtration is nice and strong and you keep an eye on the water quality.

Hello, you will definitely enjoy watching the loaches grow up in that tank. I have a group of 28 Clowns in my 180g and they are a blast!!!
I will also be building my own stand and canopy for this tank as well as building a canopy for my 190g.
Do you have any detailed pics from your canopy build (I am always interested in other people's construction methods)?

Thanks! I am currently running 2x Rena Filstar XP4's (I pack them with ceramic bio media/rocks, and just a few filter pads and some filter floss) which should be plenty of filtration. When I built the tank I only had 4 loaches and no featherfins(and yes they do eat!) or sharks, so I've really got to get some more rock and build up the hiding spots as you said (I actually added the few redish rocks on the left because I had them from a previous tank - but I want to get more of the slate and build it to match the larger one on the right). I also prefer a much denser planting, but these were just the plants I had from my 65 so they need to grow in - a lot. I actually just added a 13W UV (with a 200 GPH powerhead) to help fight the ich, and I'm dosing with a lower dose of ParaGuard along with a 82d temp as it seems that's the latest loach safe anti Ich from the sticky here. I've always had very clear water, but I figured the UV won't hurt long term (well maybe my wallet for bulbs). Id' take the temp higher, but I'm worried about my poor mollies - if I lose too many of the molly babies my wife will be upset.

My featherfins are already faily large, I'd say 8" on the one and maybe 6-7" on the smaller. At least I think that's what they are, as I said they were a rescue along with the rainbows and the group of tetras. The previous owner didn't have a clue what they were, he actually told me he was giving me two pleco's.



I didn't take too many pictures of the canopy build, but I can show you the few I did take, this was when I first brought it home. I picked up the tank and this ugly stand for a steal on CL - I actually sold my old 65 setup complete for what I paid for this setup (click images for high res):

It turns out the glass is fairly scratched, but I didn't see it until I had actually filled it with water. It's my first big tank, so I'll live.

But, we are talking about 1500+ lbs of water of water on my second floor here (plus the rest, easily over a ton). It was an outside load bearing corner wall (tank perpendicular to floor joists) but it made me feel better, so:

A friend of mine was a builder for years. He laughed at me, but I reinforced the entire 8 feet under the tank - sandwiching the floor joists with additional 2x10's and adding another stud so they are 8" centers and a crossbrace between them. Better safe then sorry right?


The stand was uncovered, painted horribly, and there was no canopy. It came with some lighting, but it was a few different 2 and 4 ft old hoods that looked horrible. First thing was to get some lighting in place:

Nothing special, just a DIY CFL setup. I actually retrofitted the T8 hood on my old 65 to include 4 CFL's but I decided to mount them vertically here as research shows you get more light from them like that. Since I already had to make my own canopy, I decided a taller one would give me room for vertical lighting and look more expensive too.

This is where I should have taken more pictures. The initial canopy is made of 1x2" pine - because it's light and I wanted to be able to have a single piece for my canopy, but still get it off for aquascaping and what not. I just picked up a bunch of the metal corner braces (you can see them in the picture if you click the high res). I took the measurement of my tank and added 1/2" for some play. I started by making the top section of the tank and then added the supports on the side and finally the front.


Here you can see I put 5 mil project plywood on the frame. Again, because it's light at 5mil thickness but also because it has a nice grain to it so that once painted it looks ok. The outside is painted Rustoleum black (because that's what the stand was already painted - and it's a good outdoor paint so I'm not worried as much about moisture.


I wanted easy access, so the front is on a hinge (and it's an easy place to store daily ferts/food). The inside is painted with Killz primer (because I had a bunch leftover, and because it's supposed to do really well with moisture):

Beautiful assistant, not for sale
I want to pickup some magnetic cabinet hardware to hold the panel closed tighter and maybe some trim to dress it up. I don't want to draw attention to it, but it has to look good enough to please the misses

I took another piece of the 5mil project board, and made a front for the stand. The knobs are decorative/hold the panel on - they can be removed and the entire panel opens up to allow access to filters and such. I didn't want doors as you can see my desk blocks access to part of it already, so I have some contortion acts to get back in there.

It needs some more painting around the rest of the stand - sanding (the previous owner tried to put a finished edge on a piece of plywood and it just splintered)



Something I've been wanting to ask people. I was always taught roughly 1" of fish per gallon - I understand that varies based on fish and such, but when you say you have 28 clowns in a 180, just based on them hitting a measly 8" that's 224" already - which with heavy filtration I see as being totally possible - I was just wondering your thoughts?

Very nice woodwork, and a healthy looking featherfin. Mine are all way too fat. If yours are already in the 7-8" range, it's unlikely that they will grow any longer. But they may get broader. Like I said before, they have prodigious appetites and can balloon up pretty easily.

The fish-inch rule doesn't always translate well when dealing with large fish in large tanks. It's a good place to start, but it's more important to judge fish population capacity by keeping an eye on the water quality. As long as the nitrates stay low and the waste products don't build up to an unacceptable level, you're good. Certainly, 28 clowns in a 180 seems like a lot, but if the water quality is kept good then they will be fine.

Thanks for the pictures. You did a good job. Where do you live?

Very nice indeed. I'm using the same kind of lighting on my planted tanks.

Awhile ago, I switched from from 55w cfl fixtures to these much cheaper Bayco Portable Work Lights that use the screw-in cfl's, and they seem to work really well. FYI, when using 23w cfls they seem to get overheated and burn out if they are too close to the glass tops. The 14w cfl bulbs stay cooler and last much longer though. Sometimes Walmart sells 4 packs of the 14w of the 5000k daylight cfl's for just 88 cents.

Thanks all. I live just North of Atlanta, Georgia. Incidentally, if someone is local and would like to trade for one of my Featherfins I'm open to ideas - you may of course want to wait for my current Ich bout to clear up (or QT him).

I'm actually using the Bayco lights as well, just from Home Depot - only I got the 5.5" - and those won't quite hold the 23w bulbs (they stick out the bottom slightly and won't allow the shade to rest on the glass). I thought about going back and swapping them, but as I don't have a PAR meter I decided I would see how things go with the (6) 14 watt's for now. I do like the 6500k bulbs from Lowes - Home depot doesn't carry them. They are $9/for 2 - and to be honest, I've been reading that the color of the bulb doesn't matter with the CFL's for the amount of PAR actually getting to the plants, so I should probably start using the much cheaper 5000k bulbs...


Thought I'd share today's project - moonlights!

(sorry, my phone refused to focus better in the dark)
Nothing fancy, just mounted 16' of LED rope lights to a scrap piece of wood and put it in the canopy.

Thanks for posting your pics, as I said I am always interested in seeing others construction methods.
The group of 28 clown in my 180g do fine with plenty of filtration and proper water changes. They range from a few "small" ones at 5-6" with the majority in the 7-8" range and a few at 10"+ now.
Someday I hope to be able to afford a 500g tank for them to stay permanently but, as long as I keep up my filtration and water change regimen I feel confidant they will be fine in the 180g indefinitely.
Keep us posted with the progress on your tank.

Picked up a piece of Mopani wood. If it works the way I want, it will stand in the back of the tank nearly 22" tall. I'm really excited. Soaking it in the tub with some dechlorinator.