Loaches Online Forum

What are your experience with them? Someone I know has 3 he is looking to rehome and I was thinking of adding them to a 30g breeder that I have which currently has 4 pokadot/marble loaches, 1 male 2 female cokatoo apistos and 2 small SAE. From what I have read they can be aggressive, is it worth the risk to add them to this tank?

Definitely not. They're little horrors.

Martin.

Haha yeah they can be little terrors... I added a skunk loach to my tank after the great loach migration (AKA me transporting my loaches on the airplane cross-country when I went to college). I added him because my old 5-7 years old skunky lost his life-long buddy en route. At first, the new skunky chased the bejeezus out of the older skunky, which used to be a fat little terror himself. They finally got used to each other and now they are partners in crime. But the new skunky would sometimes contend with my big 6"-9" clowns when feeding time came around. Little guy didn't know his own size.

I love skunkies to bits, though. They are full of character... but not particularly friendly with community fish, and especially not with new additions of their own species on most occasions, I found.

i got 10+ of them in my 180
there definatly little punks
but with 10 of them there more intrestead in themselfs
and dont harrass my other fish
my yo-yos are way more annoying to my other fish

How do you think a single ( one ( 1 ) ) Skunk loach will behave in a tank?

Will it be a scardy cat and not bother anyone?

Or will it try to be King of the tank and take every one on?

I'm afraid to move my 4 Skunks into another tank. They're enough trouble in the one they're in. However if I were to only put one per tank . . .?

qumqats wrote:How do you think a single ( one ( 1 ) ) Skunk loach will behave in a tank?

Will it be a scardy cat and not bother anyone?

Or will it try to be King of the tank and take every one on?

I'm afraid to move my 4 Skunks into another tank. They're enough trouble in the one they're in. However if I were to only put one per tank . . .?

My experience with having just 1 is actually pretty good, but it is recommended to have them in groups of at least 5...

I lost all of my others due to ich, and the sole survivor has become best of friends with my red tailed shark. He doesn't harass the other fish, in fact has been seen on many occasions taking turns eating on a Hikari sinking disk with one of my clown plecos...

Of course, your mileage may vary!

morleti and eos are the Brutus and Cassius of the loach world

I had a single one in my tank for about 6 months until I sold him back to the lfs. Scared? Maybe, he would hide 90% of the time. But this doesnt mean they wont bully other fish, the remaining 10% of the time I did see him 1% was due to feeding time and 9% darting off at other fish in the tank, many times chasing them back and forth across my 75G. Seems like the only time he would give up on the chase is if the other fish managed to turn and hide and the skunk lost sight of them. I am not sure who is worse, skunks, or tiger loaches, but they were both menaces for sure in my tanks and had to go back. Had I been able to get a large group of them might have turned out different, but with the lower numbers or single they seemed to be quite viscous.

I will say though that I've had lots of other loaches, a red tail shark, and various catfish and barbs, but my skunks, fiesty buggers that they are, have never nipped the fins of my other fish or stressed them to death.

Not to say they can't, though. You could try moving them, but be prepared at the first sign of aggression to move them back. If they are as bad as you say, it might be best to leave them as they are or try one per tank (though they might get lonely...)

Keeping a lone specimen is not the answer! Skunks are naturally fiesty and move around in large shoals. To subject a shoaling species to a lack of it's own kind to suppress it's natural behaviour is not fair. If a more placid species is required, choose a friendlier species, and keep them in a natural larger group.

Beowulf, I would not add Skunks to your current set up. Aggression will be heightened in a smaller aquarium and some of those tankmates will really suffer.

Emma

Thanks all for your input. I have decided not to add them at this time. They sound like an interesting species and might consider them in the future for my current 65g when my clowns are moved from there into my future 210g.