Loaches Online Forum

I have a question for the forum. I have a small school of 6 Clown loaches that were wild caught in Borneo. They are thriving and all about 6-7 inches long. I maintain my tank temperature at 80 Fahrenheit. I am looking for some smaller, peaceful tank makes to house with them. Many small tetras are suitable, however most do not prefer the warm temperature. Cardinals would be an option, however they are difficult to find in my area. Can anyone give me a suggestion for good tank mates to house with my clowns? I have been told that small schooling fish will make the Clowns even more outgoing, although my small school is very active day and night. Thank you.

Cardinals and Harlequins may be too small with Clown Loaches. Not just that Clown Loaches may eat them (I don't really know for sure) but I felt that the tiny fish were stressed by the possibility and didn't thrive.

I keep Congo Tetras now but I had Boeseman's Rainbows for over 10 years. I'd say the Congo Tetras are easier on each other than the Rainbows (i.e. less vigorous chasing of females and much less aggression between males) were but both are great dither fish.

Boesemani's are more active/aggressive than average rainbow species. I have m.affinis (+a few of other species -- no breeding in this tank!) with clowns and no excess aggression ever.

100% dont get skunk loaches, left marks on all my clowns these two I got were satanic little buggers, left marks all over my clowns.

Pakistani loaches and Zebras are all ok with them though, kuli's,, rainbows can be a bit hit and miss especially bosemani's , any clowns smaller than them they will have a chase.
Plecos always make good tank mates with clowns, ive about 10 different species of pleco in my tank with them and they get on just fine, just not common plecos' get to big and lazy!
Congos is a good call, black widow tetra, rummynose tetra, megalechis thoracata (port hoplo catfish), any cory cats also go down well.

My biggest concern about tank mates for my clown loaches is the temperature that they prefer. I keep my tank at 80 degrees F and it is too warm, at least I thought, for most tetras and cory cats. I could only find one cory cat - sterbai - that can handle the warmer temps. All of the tetras that have been suggested seem to do best at 72 - 78 F. Does anyone know of any other cory cats that can take the warmer temps? Thank you all for your help.

Most corydoras will take 80F -- I keep about 15 species (lazy to count) and my fishroom is at 80F during the summer months --- never a problem. Some corydoras would even take 90F! Heck, right now my fishroom is at 72F and most of the corys would not breed -- too cold for that!

But I would not keep corys with clown loaches -- clowns get much larger than typical corys, mixing fish of very different size (2" ave for corys vs 6-7 for your clowns) is just not a good idea, see what redshark1 said above. And corys can be stressed all right.

Consider Brochis Splendens instead (yes, they love 80F), or perhaps even Hoplos -- they get to 8" depending on the species and again should be fine with 80F.

Get more clown loach. I have about 80 clown loaches in 240 gallons. They look amazing when feeding time.

A bunch of my corys have been living with my clown loaches for the last few years, never a problem. I don't know when the clowns get big but right now at sizes between 3-7 inches they live perfectly well with the corys. And they don't touch the small fry the platies have been popping constantly. There are certain species of corys that actually prefer high temps, corydoras duplicareus, adolfoi, sterbai, etc..

But to make the clowns more confident it's better to have some bold fish middle/top tank instead of more bottom dwellers.

Warm water fish, larger than 2"

Melanotaenia parkinsonii
Sturisoma nigrirostrum
Anostomus anostomus (a loner- fine with other species, but keep several or keep one. Just a few will argue too much)
Trichopodus pectoralis- not one of the prettiest, but more mellow than most, and tolerant of boisterous tank mates. I had 1M + 2F in my 125 for a while.