mixed loach groups & other questions

[dax29]

Is putting clown, zebra, and yo yo loaches together in a school of 3 the same as putting 3 of the same species together? Will a mixed school of loaches keep each species satified? I know the zebra and yo yo don't get as big as the clown but, doesn't the clown grow slow enough to stay a compatible tank-mate for a year or two?

[FishLover14]

They like each other company a good bit better, i would recomend going with 3 yo-yo laoches, and 3 zebra loaches, clown loaches get too big.

Dan

[poppab02]

No, it isn't quite the same, it's better than nothing but it's not quite the same. You would be much better going with simply three of one of those species. Plus if they are the same species in groups of three or more they show different behavior. Clowns do grow slowly as you said but from my experience yoyo's really do not hang around with them if they are put together.

[jibboo]

i have a bunch of loaches and they tend to not intermix.

I have 3 large (4") yo-yos which I've had for years. Then I couple months back, I added 3 small (1-2") botia rostrata and they really didn't interact much with the yo-yos ... even tho they look very similar. I then added what I thought were 2 botia angelicus and they are the same size and almost identical looking to the rostrata and they don't appear to interact too much either. BUT, the more I look at my loaches, I think the 2 new ones I got are actually, 1 botia historonica and one angelicus ... and these 2 do hang around together. This could be because they were in the same tank at the store or something like that I have no idea.

I have read other places that some ppls khuli loaches hang out with their dojo loaches tho.

Not sure if this helps or not ... but if you have the space I'd recommend getting 3 of each since loaches are some of the coolest fish you can own anyways!

[Menagerie]

I have three yo-yos and 10+ khulis in a 50 [acronym:b308020bbd="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:b308020bbd]. They defilitely stay with their own kind, but these guys have very different body types.