Clown Loaches

[Michael]

I have a 300 gallon tank, heavily planted. How many Clown Loaches would be a good fit, for life. Other bottom dwellers include 7 Botia kubotai and 12 Corydoras aeneus. The tank is 8' long, 30" wide and 24" deep.

Thank you

 

[odessadude]

I always felt that the Clown Loach is one of the coolest fish available to the hobby. They are like having a little buddy in your tank and seem to have a higher intelligence level then most tropical fish.

I would love to see your tank. Can you post a picture?

In the meantime, take a look at this link. The Clown Fish can really get big under the right conditions.

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...refox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official_s&sa=G

 

[MSU Fan]

As I have read, 3 is the magic number. Clown loaches have some very interesting behaviors, and if you don't have 3, you don't see it. you can always have more...

 

[Michael]

Here is a link to a post on this site about the tank:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=65636&highlight=

I am very familiar with clown loaches, just wanted to know peoples thoughts on how many can live their lives out in a 300 gallon tank.

 

[coldmachineUK]

Wow, what a lucky guy to have room for a tank that size to play with! And with space for many clowns, I am very jealous!
You do realise I'm gonna bug you for regular pictures, don't you?

A group of 5-6 clowns in there sounds a good idea, like you've listed in your plans. 5 is probably best. I think with other inhabitants, and with a view to them living out a full life in your tank, that would be an ideal number. Any more and you might find they will 'over' dominate your tank slightly too. But! Y'know what you can do? You could add lots more loachfaces (as I like to call what IMHO are the best fishes of all!). Have you thought about other botias besides kubotai and macracanthus? There are many many wonderful species to choose from, such as modesta (similar 'max' size to macracanthus) and dario (6" on average, so a touch bigger than your kubotai).

I know your new tank isn't set up fully yet, but lots of extra caves and nooks and crannies for your loaches will go down really well with them! Kubotai, interestingly, much prefer bogwood in aquaria despite living in caves in the wild. Random fact for ya

Best of luck, and I am really interested to know how things go!

 

[Blazeherd2306]

I'd suggest 3 or 4. Even though it's a 300 gal, the footprint is not THAT big (my LFS has a 300 gal). I wouldn't keep more than 5 or 6.

I have two in my 55 gal and it is getting too small for them (they are at about 6" now). They grow fairly quick.