Loaches Online Forum

Sad day.... due to complications and user error, all of my clowns have died. The ich infestation was getting worse each day so I uppped the dose of Rid Ich according to the directions on the bottle. Normally a full dose would be performed every 24 hrs, but for stubborn cases they suggest every 12 hrs. The second 12 hr dose finished all five remaining clowns in less than an hour.

If that wasn't bad enough, I noticed that one of my Giant Danios was missing. I'm pretty sure it jumped, but I have been unable to find the body. I'm sure it jumped because I saw another one jump out. I probably wouldn't have noticed it if it hadn't hit me in the chest when it jumped though. I guess I need to finish skinning my canopy soon.

Sorry to read about your clowns. Hope the other fish are okay.

Sorry to hear it.

I am so sorry!!!!

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

bookpage wrote:Sorry to read about your clowns. Hope the other fish are okay.

The only other fish I have are the danios and they are in the 125 display. The clowns were in quarantine. It's probably going to be a while before I try clowns again. I'll probably wait and add the loaches last now. Then again, I may not go that route. I don't know. Right now I don't want to think about loaches very much, but I know I'll be back to wanting them in a few days. I just need a break from the QT process and need to get my QT tank cleaned and ready for a new batch of fish. I need to finish the canopy too.... So much to do, so little time to do it.

I added a shool of 9 blood fin tetras to the tank last weekend. I've been working on the canopy and I'm almost ready to start painting. Once I've got a canopy on the tank it will be time for round two with loaches. I'm definitely NOT going to buy very small clown again, but I'm willing to try a few larger clowns, kubs, yo-yos or darios (if I can find darios around here). I post some canopy pics once I've got it looking presentable.

Believe it or not, it has taken this long to get the canopy finished, painted and installed. The timing was pretty good too because I was able to find a group of five good sized, fat botia striata at a LFS yesterday. I've rarely seen them in my area, so I bought every last one of them and five of the largest clowns they had in stock. The clowns weren't all that big, but the five I picked were the more robust specimens. I don't have any really good pics, but here are a few that I took this afternoon:





For $9.99 each, I thought these guys were quite the steal!


Here are a couple of FTS:

It has been a while so it's time for an update and pics of my loaches. I don't normally buy loaches from PetSmart, but all of the stores in my area had a 50% off sale for the first half of July and I couldn't pass up the tank full of healthy clowns. I made the kid working there catch certain individuals (the six largest and fattest) for me and it has turned out well. All have acclimated well to the tank and are shoaling with the clowns I already had. After the clowns were all set I went to a different store that had Kubotai in stock and made them catch the six largest and fattest individuals in the tank (again @ 50% off). Well, enough tell. Now for the show:

First up, the obligatory FTS:

It's not much to look at now, but I plan to add bogwood and live plants in the not too distant future. Once the wood is in, the rocks will go. Also, the lighting is not normally that bright. I usually just run actinic bulbs and leave the daylights off, but I needed a bit more illumination for the pics.

The clowns


Random loaches

Looking good....

It has been ages since I last posted an update, so I'm past due. All of my striata died over time, one after another. It was very strange. I lost a couple of clowns shortly thereafter, but I haven't had any unexpected deaths lately. I currently have five clowns and four kubs in with the same tetras and giant danios. I have added some rainbowfish recently as well. also, I ran into what I believe are sewalia lineolata at one of my favorite LFS. I've never seen them in my area, so I got three. I've been wanting to try hillstreams for quite some time and my last attempt was met with failure when both (not sure what kind they were, but they weren't lineolata) jumped out of the quarantine tank overnight on the same night. These three, however have acclimated well. I managed to get a few pics today for ID verification purposes (and I like to share my joy of new fish!).

The following pics may be of two different fish. I'm not really sure as the pics of the fish on the glass were taken a bit after the others and I wasn't watching the tank between photo ops.

Hi Rychek,
you are right they are S. lineolata.
At all three pictures you can see a male.
I hope you have enough stones in the tank and enough flow?

I do have stones in the tank, but I need to increase the flow a bit. I have a larger return pump I can put on the tank, but I have to get some plumbing adapters to make it all work. Thanks for confirming the ID.

So I haven't posted in quite some time. This is due to rage quitting the hobby after leaking about 40 gallons (a sump full) into my living room carpet due to a leaking canister filter. I had to tear down the tank and move it to prevent mold problems, so I sold the tank and re-homed the fishes. This all happened in the Spring of 2012.

Fast forward to the fall of 2014 and I found myself setting up my old 20 high for my daughter (7 yrs) as an introduction to fish keeping. I can't have a freshwater tank without Loaches, so I added a few kuhlis. Fast forward again to two days ago and the 20 high was upgraded to a 30 long and my kuhlis need more friends. I'm off to the store to get more Loaches. I'll start a new thread with pics once I get home and have a chance to take a few.

Loaches are addictive little creatures i bet you're glad to be back into it. Reading through this thread the tank looked wonderful. I'm sure i even saw a Histrionica in there somewhere? The Striatas were beautiful too.

Update us to let us know what you decide on, and post some more pictures. Good luck!

I am indeed glad to be back in the hobby! My first fish was a dojo loach, so I get a lot of nostalgia from all loaches. I didn't have any Histrionicas in the tank (that I'm aware of). I think you are referring to the juvenile Kubotai. I had a few of them in that tank.

I started a new thread for my new tank. It can be found using the link below.

http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=25272