New 50 gal tank.....

[puffergirl]

I have 4 clown loaches, 6 tiger barbs, one red tailed black shark. Any suggestions on what to add to my tank. I moved all these guys from my 20gal so they could have a bigger home. Once I get some algea growth in this tank I'm going to be looking into a nice Pleco, maybe an emperor but need to do the research first. Any suggetions on other fish to add would be great!

 

[Slannesh]

Don't clown loaches get to be like 8" long each as adults?

I seem to recall staying away from the min my tank for just that reason. ( I have a 33 Gal)

If that's the case i'd say that with adult fish your 50 is about full now

 

[madasafish]

CLs do grow to as much as a foot in the wild, though they seldom grow past 6" in tanks. Still, they get to be quite large, and since they must be kept in a group, they are really too much for any tank under 100 gallons... but I know they are slow growers. Other Botia species of loach are a good choice. The standard Yoyo loach is a solid buy and a relatively small fish. Angelicus botia are a great buy if you can find them (4").

I'm interested to know which pleco you're referring to, puffergirl. Are you talking about the Emperor L-204? The term "emperor" is thrown around to refer to several species, including a Zonancistrus species. Some other nice plecs to consider are:

L-260 "Queen Arabesque"
L-66 "King Tiger"
L-333 "Imperial King Tiger" (yet another reference to emperor)
L-264 Chaesostoma sp. "Sultan"
L-182 Ancistrus sp.
L-134 Peckoltia sp. "Leopard Frog"
L-082 Ancistrinae sp. "Opal Spot"

HTH

 

[puffergirl]

I was looking at the gold royal pleco L-027 but more investigation tells me he needs min 125 gal. I do like the queen arabesque L-260 very nice looking not sure how easy it will be to find.

Any suggestions for middle or top strata fishes, to join my tiger barbs?

 

[pkremer]

With the tiger barbs and the shark, you might want to stay with other semi-aggressive fish. I don't know if many tetras or livebearers would be a good choice.

Personally, I am very fond of gouramis, especially the blue (three spot) and the opaline gouramis. From what I have experienced with my blue gourami and seen at the LFS, they are not outrageously aggressive (although territorial), but they'll hold their own and won't allow others to pick on them. Gouramis will cruise your whole tank, but will stay in the mid to top level for the most part.

I would second the yo-yo loaches as well. Great little guys perfect for the semi-aggressive aquarium!

Paul

 

[TankGirl]

Serpae tetras are a nice complement to the red/orange theme you seem to have going. They are are a tough, schooling fish similar in behavior to the barbs, though not quite so rough.

 

[ferret]

Speaking of serpae.. Since you already have tiger barbs and clown loaches, this would be a good call. You probably already have noticed that clown loaches think they are tiger barbs half the time and will try to school with them.

Well guess what? They tend to think they're serpae tetras too! So between serpaes and the tiger barbs, you'd ensure your loaches are very visible and often out and about.

 

[Cherry Barb]

Serpaes would be a good choice. I kinda have the same color scheme going in my tank and when I introduced the serpae all my cherry barbs thought they had new family coming to visit They are very cool fish.

 

[puffergirl]

Just curious.... could I add 2 Rams to this tank?

 

[TankGirl]

When I think of rams I think of a planted, soft acidic tank, but it might work. Kribensis might be a better choice if you are looking for a small cichlid. The rams I have access to are relatively delicate.

 

[patryuji]

CLs do grow to as much as a foot in the wild, though they seldom grow past 6" in tanks. Still, they get to be quite large, and since they must be kept in a group, they are really too much for any tank under 100 gallons... but I know they are slow growers. Other Botia species of loach are a good choice. The standard Yoyo loach is a solid buy and a relatively small fish. Angelicus botia are a great buy if you can find them (4").

Clown loaches grow to be 18 to 24 inches in the wild. They will grow to be 12 inches in aquariums. I think 8" is a common size for them to reach if the tank conditions are not ideal.

Other than the angelicus and yo-yo loaches you could check out dario loaches as I think they are quite nice in appearance and unlike yo-yos they prefer to stay together more often (in a similar fashion as do young clown loaches).

 

[madasafish]

Fishbase.org disagrees with you, patryuji. As do all but one of the sites I googled under "Clown Loach Max Size".

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.cfm?genusname=Botia&speciesname=macracanthus

They state 30 cm as max size, which translates to 11.8".