Loaches Online Forum

I've been reading on the forum about recommended tank sizes and I'm a little frightened. I've read that you need "at least" a 100 gallon tank for two loaches. Has this gotten out of hand? I want my loaches to be happy and healthy, but I really can't afford to buy a separate house to keep them in.

I currently have two YoYos at about 3 inches and other small fish in a 20g with an oversized penguin 200 filter and they seem healthy and satisfied.

Is good filtration equally important?

Do I really need a tank the size of a small country to keep my loaches healthy?

i think the 100 gallons is more for clown loaches.
yoyos max is 4-5 inches or something like that... You might do fine but they prefer to live in a larger group from what i've read. So that's why you need a bigger tank.

They live in river/stream environment with fast flowing and high oxygenated clean waters.

I have 3 golden zebra loach in a 29gallon.. They're doing ok but I think they'd like it more in a bigger tank & more loaches.

hi tosto and welcome to lol.

I think you're right and we tend to overestimate tank sizes rather than underestimate. It seems wiser if you take the long view.
No, you don't 'need' a one hundred gallon tank to house 2 loaches. And yoyos don't get as large as clowns can, so you're right. However, eventually, you will notice that your yoyos will begin to look like they need more space too. A 55 will do nicely for small group of adult yoyos in my opinion.

Not everyone can have a large tank, but does that mean you can't keep loaches? No. However, if you're talking clowns, and are hoping to keep them happy and healthy for years you will likely do one of two things:
1. start out with a 100g+ size tank and not need to upgrade
2. start out small and upgrade as they grow...or not.

Depends on the fishkeeper. Some can and have kept fish that live for many years. Others have a hard time keeping fish alive for a year. There's a million causes for fish deaths and they are not all related to poor fishkeeping practice.

When you are keeping fish in smaller tanks, yes, filtration is very important, and can make a major difference in successfully keeping them healthy, along with water changes.

To be very honest, I currently have 4 clowns ranging from 7"+ to 1.5" in a 55g. The littler guys are perfectly happy, but my largest clown can shoot from one side to the other of the 4' tank in less than a second. I know he needs more room, but I don't have the option to provide a larger tank right now.

So--I'm running 2 Penn Plax 1000 canister filters on the tank, and there are only two other fish in with the clowns-- 1 lonely surviving leopard danio and one juvenile blind angelfish. For now, it's the best I can do, so it's what they are stuck with. Not the best scenario, but...we all have to do the best we can with what's available.

In the long run, however, it is better to start out knowing what the future tank size and needs of the species you plan to keep are than to find out after the fact that you can't meet those needs.

Loaches are river fish so they like a lot of movement of water in the tank.
Loaches require excellent water conditions, 0 ammonia and nitrite

These two requirements mean you need to over filter the tank with more turns of the tank than normal and LOTS of filter surface for the bio filter. You can’t have too much filtration.

Clown loaches get VERY large, upwards of a 1 foot long. Fortunately it takes a number of years for this to happen.

However, many people consider the adult size of a fish when they're stocking a tank. So the size of tanks people are talking about may not make as much sense when you have a 1" Clown loach, but wait until its 6 to 12 inches!

Another factor is that most loaches are schooling fish. You shouldn't buy just one. Three to Six would be considered a minimum. So your requirements for a tank have just multiplied.

It’s quite common people new to aquariums and loaches in particular to start out with a small tank, and quickly progress to larger and larger tanks. Not only because their interest increases, but also because the size of their fish increases.

You are fine for the loaches you have, they get to a decent size but nothing like the clowns which are who the 100g+ tanks are for.

Wow, thank you for the input. I might get to work building a stand for a 55-75g pretty soon.

I have had yoyos larger than 5 inches. They can get bigger.