What are the best small"ish" loaches to keep?

[raecarrow]

I will be getting a tank just for my botiine loaches soon (probably between 20-45 gallons). I already have a Zebra and a YoYo and will be getting friends for these guys and I will also have Dwarf oto cats in with them. What would be the best specie(s) to put in with these guys that will add a good bit of activity and variety to the tank without having them outgrow the tank or torment my current little friends?

[palaeodave]

Get more of the same and do your very best to get as large a tank as possible. You're not going to get decent groups of more than a couple species of loach in a tank that size.

[raecarrow]

I am going to get more friends for the Zebra and YoYo. I just don't have room in my current tank. I made the mistake of buying these guys for the purposes of snail control, without doing further research. I just want to know which other group(s) of little guys would be good with these two types of botiine loaches.

[mickthefish]

try darios they're full grown at around 4 inches SL.

mick

[palaeodave]

I know, I saw that I'm just saying that to keep a decent sized group of both striata and yoyo (5 each?), you'd need a bigger tank than a 20 gallon (the lower limit you mentioned) to consider adding another species of loach. Mainly because of the yoyos actually.

[raecarrow]

If I had a 20 gallon I would probably put my three black khulis and my guppies in it. I want to get a nice longer tank for my botias. I want to make a smaller river tank.

[palaeodave]

Awesome. I really want to make a river tank. Just isn't possible for me right now so I'll look forward to your pictures instead!