greetings fellow loach-lovers, rare loaches? NEW TANK

[Directorate]

Hmm I've learnt quite a bit here.

That sounds good too, raising more "common" loaches to big sizes (esp. clowns), Why would the bigger ones be so rare? Is it like most clowns dont survive to fullsize? :/

That sounds great (I can picture it already): a school of kubotais, yoyos and/or clowns.

But will the yoyos rough up the clowns?

I'll look more into making their tank more "Loachable".

Btw Would Kubotais school with yoyos? I've heard of tiger barbs schooling with Clown Loaches before .

[Mad Duff]

One of the main reasons you don't see a lot of big clowns is because most owners don't know how to keep them correctly, most people buy one or two to go in a 2ft tank to eat snails, by the time these fish have grown to big for that tank their growth has been stunted and they will never reach their full potential

If you go with clowns ideally you want at least a group of 6 that are eventually going to need a tank of around 150 gallon (the bigger the better) to reach their full potential. Kubotais will live happily with Yoyo's and other botias like Rostrata, striata and dario, depending on space you could even add a species of schistura to the tank like Schistura balteata.

[Directorate]

One of the main reasons you don't see a lot of big clowns is because most owners don't know how to keep them correctly, most people buy one or two to go in a 2ft tank to eat snails, by the time these fish have grown to big for that tank their growth has been stunted and they will never reach their full potential

If you go with clowns ideally you want at least a group of 6 that are eventually going to need a tank of around 150 gallon (the bigger the better) to reach their full potential. Kubotais will live happily with Yoyo's and other botias like Rostrata, striata and dario, depending on space you could even add a species of schistura to the tank like Schistura balteata.

ok duffman. Yup some people just get fish to get some job done without considering their future needs :-/

At the moment I have a 500L tank (130 gallon), 2M long, 22 inch tall, 19 inches wide, (The tank has been measured accurately now)

I'll almost certainly be moving to a larger tank later on (say 7 years or so from now). Probably atleast 2 foot tall, 2 foot wide, and atleast 7 foot long.

So ya reckon it'd be perfectly fine to get a pack of clown loaches (atleast 6 young fish-roughly 3-4 inches long each) right now? (which I do know grow big-I just don't know how quickly). "Perfectly fine" as in without stunting their growth. Thats one thing I really hate: stunting.

Oh and I'm guessing the loaches will need strong filtration for faster flowing water to reach full size? Foot long clown loaches sound highly sought after and valued.

[Mad Duff]

I have my Clowns in a 7ftx 30"x 30" it is filtered by 2x 1500 ltr/hour externals and 2x 1500 ltr/hour internal power heads with filter canisters at one end of the tank and a 1600 ltr/hour power head with filter canister at the other end of the tank.

Your tank sounds fine for some Clowns, you will need to add more flow to the tank preferably with two external filters returning to the tank via spray bars and then use a couple of powerful internal powerheads or similar to create the extra flow and current. You would be best getting the extra filtration and flow etc sorted out before thinking about adding the Clowns.

[Marcos Mataratzis]

Ooooh! Thanks, Marcos. I like the 'real' biotope. Looks like a cutout of a streambed.
What kind of leaves are they?

I´m not really sure but seams to be Tamarindo tree leaves, a native acidifying leaves.

[Directorate]

well at the moment there are two top filters (black things, on both ends of the tank): I don't know much about the aquaria device jargon for now. Theres also a fat bio cannister filter under the tank.

What do you mean "fine for SOME loaches".

As well as a long green thing which sprays water out: could someone post an image of such a fairly fast flowing tank for loaches along with the filter devices? That'd be great.

thanks

[ckk125]

hi! I'm from Australia and I'm new to loaches (and this forum).

What I basically would like are some really cool, rare (or rarer) and unqiue loaches, ones that most aquarists would not have. So that basically excludes the extremely popular CLOWN LOACH.

Seen these guys before? Emma's clown is larger.

Price is not an issue.

I agree, price is not an issue because it is almost impossible to find clowns at LFS at 12 inches.

No offence mate, like what Mad Duff said, it is not all about the money.

For my case, it is the fun of raising this clown from being on the verge of death to what he is right now.(skinny problem, internal parasites, abdominal muscle spasms)

[Marcos Mataratzis]

could someone post an image of such a fairly fast flowing tank for loaches along with the filter devices? That'd be great.

Try this:

A river runs through it

And

River tank manifold design

[shari2]

And here's another one:
http://www.loaches.com/articles/water-m ... h-aquarium

To give you an idea of the size of a full-grown clown I was going to post a link to the video Emma has of her large clown Marge during feeding time, but the link on the main site seems to be broken or missing...?

[Directorate]

ok so how essential is fast water flow for clown loaches and kubotais: Like allows it to reach fullsize and potential (and possibly breed)? If so I'll seriously considering buying up some of these powerheads to accomodate these fish.

Some non-loach fish may not like the strong currant. eep. Thats something for me to consider as well.

ty for the links: But it looks like putting in powerheads would require the tank to be completely empty, what with the pipes and all. And my tank already has substrate, plants and some bogwood in it (as well as some fish). eep. It'd certainly good if I could accomodate loaches well. Any advice here? .

[Mad Duff]

well at the moment there are two top filters (black things, on both ends of the tank): I don't know much about the aquaria device jargon for now. Theres also a fat bio cannister filter under the tank.

What do you mean "fine for SOME loaches".

As well as a long green thing which sprays water out: could someone post an image of such a fairly fast flowing tank for loaches along with the filter devices? That'd be great.

thanks

So it sound like you have two internal power filters and an external filter, it would really help if you knew what each ones rating was, ie: litres/hour or the names of the filters. The long thin thing is a spray bar

I meant your tank does sound suitable for Clowns size wise at least.

ok so how essential is fast water flow for clown loaches and kubotais: Like allows it to reach fullsize and potential (and possibly breed)? If so I'll seriously considering buying up some of these powerheads to accomodate these fish.

Some non-loach fish may not like the strong currant. eep. Thats something for me to consider as well.

ty for the links: But it looks like putting in powerheads would require the tank to be completely empty, what with the pipes and all. And my tank already has substrate, plants and some bogwood in it (as well as some fish). eep. It'd certainly good if I could accomodate loaches well. Any advice here? .

Flow is really essential for Clowns and all Loaches as this helps as it helps recreate their natural habitat and help get oxygen into the water etc.

In consideration of tankmates Barbs, Rasboras and Danios make ideal tankmates and all of these like plenty of flow.

What you have seen in the links is the river tank manifold you can add power heads and power filters without using the manifold.

This is my 7ft Loach tank: http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?p=100225#100225

[Directorate]

thanks duff man

Oh and nice tank. Lots of smaller guys in there.

I have medium anubias and small swordplants in my tank atm, along with something called African Redwood? I'm not sure what its called but its from Africa and its a kind of a deep rich red color in the tank.

I'll check out the L per hr on the 2 powerheads.

[Botia Robert]

Hi Directorate, Welcome to LOL, What part of this wide brown land are you from?

You will see a lot of awesome things here. You need to go to your LFS and see if you can aquire your desires. No point setting up for species you cant get in Australia which is many.

Also use the resources here. Read all the articles on LOL. Search the Forum articles for relevant topics. Log in regularly and read as many threads as possible. Dont be too hasty to set up. LOL showed me I knew nothing, but now I am on the path to enloachenment!

Also the collective nown for Clown Loaches being a fish is a school not a "Pack"!" Also "duffman" is actually suposed to be MAD DUFF.

[Mad Duff]

Also "duffman" is actually suposed to be MAD DUFF.

Its ok dont worry about it, I have been called a lot worse

[Directorate]

hey duff man, so I checked and each power head is 1600L/hr, reckon thats adequate (In addition to the spray bar)? If so I'll might get a school of young clown loaches. And do the strength of these powerheads get manually adjusted? Or is it constant, thx