perfect loach for me? experience/advice please

[kimmers318]

I am considering purchasing some loaches for a 29 gal tank....current inhabitants are a 3" bristlenose pleco, 1 male krib (lost ma and chose to keep pa as a bachelor), 5 glolite tetras and a lone tiger barb (rescue guy), and snails galore!
I have tried clown loaches in the past and have no luck keeping them, plus never saw them eat snails anyway. I currently have 4 kuhli loaches (that I love) in a 20 gal long who don't touch the snails there either. Snails are not unwelcome in my household because of my dwarf puffer tank, but since I have gotten SO good at breeding snails I figure some loaches would be a wonderful addition to my 29. I get plenty of snails from my 20 gal and fry tank to keep the puffers well fed so I am not worried about knocking out my snail population in the 29, but figure it sure would be a happy place for another loach or 2, or 3. As good as I am at breeding snails I should not have any problems regularly feeding excess snails back into the 29 if loaches knock out the population.
My 2 most important issues would be snail munching and compatibility. So far, from looking around it seems like botia kubotai and striata (if my memory serves me correctly) are good candidates. There are SO many types of loaches it is hard to sift thru them and then remember everything!
So who has what experience with which loaches that might fit my desires to have another type of loach in my life? The third consideration I have would be how likely it would be to find said loach, I of course don't want to go on a disappointing hunt for a loach I would never find. Unfortunately, ordering online right now is out of the question for me.....I have an ill father who regularly ends up at the ER or hospitalized, so I never know from one day to the next if I can be home or not. My neighbor works different shifts constantly so I can't rely on her to be home either.....I would hate to see my babies get her, only to sit outside my door for hours until someone came home.
Any suggestions will be appreciated.

[Araxen]

If you can find them Polka Dot Loaches would work well. They have just as much of an addicting attitude as Clowns imo. They love snails also!

[kimmers318]

Thanks for the tip...anything that is as addicting as clowns I would love. I have tried without success to keep clowns in my 64 with the hopes of growing them out for the 90 gal. I love my kuhli's and am slowly venturing into wanting more loaches....they are great fish!

[helen nightingale]

Kimmers polka dot loach is often used as an alternative name for botia kubotai. kubotai is the scientific name, and polka dot loach is a common name. some people may call them lace loaches too i think. anyway, they are nice fish. but so are striata.

make sure sure you get a group (ideally 5) of them, as they are sociable fish. they will need hiding places too. striata are definately a relatively shy loach, but very sweet and gentle natured.

do you know why you didnt have much success with clowns? and do you know your water conditions? loaches will do best in clean water as they can be quite sensitive, and prefer soft and neutral to slightly acidic water normally

i hope you can find yourself some lovely loaches soon

[kimmers318]

Not exactly sure why I haven't been able to keep clowns....tried everything except levamisole, which isn't readily available. When I first started having problems with my initial purchase of "wasting away" (still eating, swimming but getting skinny, then 1 at a time would just disappear and die) it was suggested at various forums to try softening the water....which began a long process of slowly initializing RO mixed with tap until I brought it down to soft levels with a gh of 75 and kh of 120, ph around 7.2-7.4. That was a big improvement over our tap which is ph 7.8 gh/kh off the charts. The problem continued.....everytime I would add a clown to bring my numbers back up to 3....one would start wasting away on me. They would last 2-3 months before this would happen. Since I couldn't get ahold of levamisole when I came here trying to save my last clown I tried prazipro....and still lost him. I even took a 20 gal long, converted it to sand to try to save the last loach even though my gravel wasn't horrible. I finally gave up after losing the last one and started looking at other loaches that I may have more success at. My kuhli's are thriving.....I thought I only had 3 of the 4 left until I decided to move them to the 20gal sand bottom and found all 4. If I decide to try clowns again at a later date I will start with levamisole and hope for the best, but it has been hard to fall in love with those guys and lose them over and over again after seeing them so active and playful for months.
I do my regular water changes and haven't seen any nitrates over 20ppm, with 0 ammonia and nitrites, so I figure clowns are just not for me.

Sorry to go on for so long! Another ? to throw out pertaining to the striata's....are there any loaches that look similar and might confuse me on a purchase? I ask because while at a private shop quite a ways a way there was a tank of what I originally thought was striata, but it wasn't labeled. Without having my guidebook/printouts with me, I didn't have any handy pics to look at, and the employee working there wasn't sure. Admittedly, he is an african lover, and isn't as knowledgeable on other species....we spent alot of time talking to him when hubby was setting up his african tank (not to mention making purchases there ) I didn't buy any because I am not loach smart enough to be able to identify one way or the other without my research available to guide me, but I am considering taking another ride up there with my pics and info to see if they are actually striata. If there is something similar that might make ID confusing I will want to make sure I have all information handy so I know for sure what I am looking at.

[helen nightingale]

Kimmers i think that striata are fairly distinctive. normally they have brwon and yellow/gold vertical lines all along the body, and these lines are quite thin. other botias that have stripes tend to have wider stripes that are further apart, and diferent colours to striata. some striata have some wider bands of yellow and very thin bands of yellow alternating, others have fairly similar size bands. they are mainly a few mm wide. if you look on my post "my first very bad pics" you will see a very fuzzy looking striata with very unusual markings, but still there is no doubt which species he is. its some of the other botia that can be much harder to tell apart.

it sounds like you have been doing your very best to keep clowns, it does sound very strange i hope you do as well with your new species of loaches as you do with your khulis. you sound like you have made much more of an effort for your fish than quite a lot of people do. let us know how you get on, wont you?