When adult, your Clown Loaches will require a very large aquarium, measuring at least 6' x 2' x 2'. They get to around 12" long, and are very powerful fish when adult. They not only increase in length, but also in girth, and they do require a lot of swimming space. You really want to be keeping at least 5 of them in a shoal, and preferably more, due to their very social nature.Red_Arokh wrote:My tank is a 55G.What size tank will they need when they outgrow my 55G. And don't tell me as big as I can afford. I need to know what size to shoot for in the future
Here is a photograph of a couple of my large Clowns (there is a standard 30cm ruler in with them for comparison):
Your Clowns will be fine with newbies, as long as they are slightly smaller than the ones that are currently in your tank. Adding Clowns of the same size or larger will upset the existing hierachy in the tank, and you will find that squabbles may break out while they establish who is going to be the Alpha fish.Red_Arokh wrote:I have had them for about 2 years so I don't know if they would accept newbies anymore
If you are going to stick with Tiger barbs as your dither fish, you will need to get a few more, so that you have at least 6-8 in the group. They will be more confident in a larger group, and this will also help to spread any aggression between them - no single fish would bear the brunt.
Other popular dither fish that people keep with Clowns include other high-temperature-tolerant members of the barb family (I keep a large shoal of Puntius filamentosus with mine), danios, rasboras, rainbow fish (members of the Melanotaenia family display gorgeous colours when mature), and tetras. I'd also agree with NancyD in that one large shoal of dithers will be more effective than 2 or 3 smaller shoals of different species.
Not a good idea. Dojo (weather) loaches prefer much cooler temperatures to that of Clown Loaches. You'd really want to set up a separate temperate aquarium for some of those.Red_Arokh wrote:Could I put a small dojo in with my clown loaches?
Unfortunately, quite a number of Rams (Microgeophagus ramirezi) available in the hobby these days can be fairly delicate due to mass breeding programmes. They require pretty soft water to do well, something which your Clowns will also benefit from. However, as your Clowns get bigger, they are likely to become too boisterous for the Rams, so I personally would advise against adding them. They would be fine in a softwater community tank, but I wouldn't house them with Clowns.Red_Arokh wrote:Also, what do you think about putting a ram cichlid in the tank with them?
There are the standard 'blue' Rams (Microgeophagus ramirezi) which were mentioned above, and these are also available in a 'gold' strain. The Bolivian Ram (Microgeophagus altispinosus) are not as colourful, but are much hardier. The aggressiveness sometimes observed will usually be between two males.Red_Arokh wrote:How many different kinds of rams are there? Are some more aggressive than others?
Hope this helps,
Emma
) until I was better able to care for clowns. Lost my first shoal to pet sitter overfeeding. Second shoal, 7 inch, we gave away when we moved, 2 moves in 2 months, too much, too sad 
. So, after 3 fishless years, I've only had my current ones a year. And after almost 25 years we found sids again early this year 
! So thanks to LOL & many new species available now my loach-lust has been reawakened. 
