Angelicus loaches and angelfish

[sinibotia]

Hey everyone,

So my fiance and I have planned out the stocking for our 55 gallon community- we're going to move over all of the fish from our 29 gallon community and add some Murray River Rainbowfish and some Angelicus Loaches (botia kubotai). It's a heavy stock but my fiance and I are both good about tank maintenance. I plugged it into aqadvisor just to check.

There was one thing that popped up that surprised me though- "Warning: Angelicus Loach will likely to fin nip Angelfish." I've had kubotai loaches with a variety of fish before and they never fin nipped any fish at all; in my experience, although they are boisterous, they're the most peaceful botia loach. I've never had them with angelfish before though. Does anyone have experience with this specific combination, or with Angelicus being nippy?

 

[coralbandit]

I have READ they can bothe other fish when feeding.
That being said Angels are NOT a fish put off food easy.
I wouldn't worry as AQ is often very conservative and general.
Link I found I about the eating?
Burmese Border Loach, Polka-Dot Loach, Marble Loach, Angelicus Loach, Botia Angelicus Profile, with care, maintenance requirements and breeding information for your tropical fish
I think you probably know the fish better?
Good info is in last section of link in "attitude " section!

 

[sinibotia]

I have READ they can bothe other fish when feeding.
That being said Angels are NOT a fish put off food easy.
I wouldn't worry as AQ is often very conservative and general.
Link I found I about the eating?
Burmese Border Loach, Polka-Dot Loach, Marble Loach, Angelicus Loach, Botia Angelicus Profile, with care, maintenance requirements and breeding information for your tropical fish
I think you probably know the fish better?
Good info is in last section of link in "attitude " section!

Oh believe me, I'm not worried about our angelfish eating. He's an absolute pig. Frankly he could probably even stand to benefit from being scared off from food. Every time we feed that tank he eats his own cichlid pellets, some of the flakes meant for the platies, and then runs off with at least one sinking pellet meant for the cories and kuhlis.

What I am worried about is nipping. This particular angelfish already had a bad experience with a schistura obeini. We added him to the tank to give him some more room as he had been stuck in a 10 and he tore up the fins of every other fish; our angelfish still has a bent dorsal fin as it grew back a little funny.

Granted, schistura obeini is typically a much more aggressive fish and I should have known better. But I'm still a little worried about nipping because I've never kept any loach with anything as prone to nipping as an angelfish (well, except one time I kept a few Angelicus in a tank with a betta, and that went fine). I'm probably going to do it anyway and go on my experience, but I just want to know if anyone else has had it go badly since my experiences aren't necessarily definitive.

 

[coralbandit]

I 3 angels in my 180 with 11 clown loaches(all over 10 years old), and they never nip anyone.
Different species I know but just for example.

 

[sinibotia]

Clown loaches are in my experience the most peaceful loach- ironic considering their size but they're much mellower than the mid-sized loaches. I'm actually considering botia striata now, though, as it's the only botia I've never had besides birdi (but nobody's had birdi).

Tough choice... the fish I've never had, or one of my all-time favorites?