Question on clown loaches

[Saverio]

All you clown loach keepers and anyone else with some insight on this, I am considering getting 4 or so for my 125g planted discus aquarium. I know some people keep clowns with their discus with no problems. I am having an MTS population boom, and am wondering if clown loaches will eat them. Any other viable alternatives that can handle discus water temps?

Thanks for any input.

~Jose

 

[drobertson]

I to was having snail problems awhile back and thought about getting a fish that would eat them but the problem with that is that they will not eat the shell. I finally decided to use a trap to help with my problem. Just put a nice piece of lettuce or cucumber and let it set over night.
here is a link to the one I use.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=14699&N=2004+113766


And be careful not to overfeed.

 

[Sidi]

I have clown loaches in with discus at 83 with no problems (planted tank, so oxygen is saturated...plants are pearling). I haven't used them to clean up snails, but everything I've heard seems like they'll decimate your snail population.

 

[Saverio]

Would the accumulation of empty shells cause a problem with my water quality?

They're good looking fish anyway, with the added benefit of snail control. My other concern though, as they get older and bigger, is the safety of my cardinal tetra population. Mine are big and fat, well over 1". Are clowns known to make a snack of small fish?

~Jose

 

[triazole]

not a good idea. clowns are fast and greedy eaters, and would outcompete the discus for food as they grow.
sizewise, they're ok. no, they won't attack other fish unless they are dead.
and it probably won't serve the main purpose.

 

[severum mama]

I'm going to have to agree with triazole on this one. My discus are slow eaters, and like most, they are easily stressed by too much activity. In fact, I lost a few of my original discus for this reason, and had to rehome the offending keyhole cichlids to my 29 gal. IMO they will not only be outcompeted for food by the loaches, but also stressed by them, being such active fish. Although your tank is much larger than mine, I still think it would be risky.

I would try the trap that drobertson linked, or do what I do and just pull as many out manually as you can. My tank also has quite a few snails, but I pull them out manually, myself.

 

[Zagz]

I had clowns in my 75 gal with my discus but removed them to my 125 cichlid tank as I noticed the clowns were not only stressing my discus but definately eating the food faster than the discus. I have put in some smaller burmese border loaches but they don't keep up with the snail population. At least they don't stress the discus and they don't eat so much that the discus don't get their share.

Manual removal of the snails is the only real way to guarantee snail removal.

 

[ktmdennis]

I PUT 4 CLOWN LOACHES IN MY 30 GAL TANK TO CLEAN UP A BAD SNAIL PROBLEM, HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE THEM TO CLEAN THE SNAILS UP?
I HAVE TONS OF TINY SNAILS AT NIGHT ON THE GLASS AND DRIFT WOOD, THE LARGER SNAILS ARE A RED OR ORANGE COLOR KIND OF PRETY LOOKING AND THEN I HAVE THESE ONES IN THE SUBSTRATE THAT ARE LONG AND LOOK LIKE A HORN BUT DONT SEAM TO HURT ANYTHING, THEY FREAKED ME OUT AT FIRST BECAUSE I WOULD SEE THE GRAVEL MOVING ,WILL THE LOACHES CLEAN THE SNAILS UP? I NOTICE MY ANGEL FISH EATING THE SMALL SNAILS TO AND I THINK THE SWORD TAILS ARE TO
I LIKE TO HAVE SOME SNAILS BUT NOT THIS MANY, ALSO IS THERE A GOOD SITE TO IDENTIFY THE SNAILS I HAVE?
THANKS

 

[triazole]

4 clown loaches in a 30g - not a good idea (size does matter).
larger snails - ramshorns probably - will be cleaned up by clowns.
smaller horn-looking ones - malaysian trumpets - clowns would have a hard time with them (hard shells). manually remove as much as you can, and cut back on feeding.

 

[black hills tj]

instead of buying a trap, you could cut the top 1/3 off a 2 liter soda bottle, reattach it inside out(so it funnels into the bottle instead), and place a piece of lettuce inside.

 

[theotheragentm]

I always end up with fish in home made traps, fish that I don't even think could fit into the inlets.

 

[ktmdennis]

do you think it would be ok to keep the clowns in there till next year when i plan on getting a bigger tank the clowns are babys at only an inch long

 

[triazole]

ktmdennis
personally i have no problems with that. but there are many on the forum who'd advice you not to. in a way, it's going to stunt their growth by limiting space.

 

[ktmdennis]

the bottle trap works great had a bunch in there this morning, when i first put it in i had a sword tail go in but no fish since then
thanks for the advice all

 

[digiwater]

the clow loaches eat snails or any other kind of loach would eat the snails..so good choice!

 

[cabezon]

one yoyo loach will eat all the snails in two days.

 

[patryuji]

do you think it would be ok to keep the clowns in there till next year when i plan on getting a bigger tank the clowns are babys at only an inch long

They grow slowly. Probably only have about 9 months before they feel crowded though.