Loaches Online Forum

What temperature do you keep your clown loach? I been keeping them at 80-83F. I just increased to 86F and they seem very excited. Usually they come out in the morning for feeding. About noon time they all go inside the wood and i rarely see them then. Now my temperature at 86F and they went crazy. They are circling around the tank and moving up and down in big group all day until the room is dark. Are they stressed or happy at 86F?

I haven't seen the temperature associated change of behaviour exhibited by your fish but I keep mine at 80-82F.

80-82F here too, they are fine and active.

Some keep them at 86F and this seems safe... but it is not good for most other fish, so practically this is an option to consider in a species tank only.

Heres my routine: i turn on the light around 8 to 10 in the morning. All of them come out that time waiting for food. After about 12 most of them go inside the wood cave, only about 10-20 clown loaches wondering around the tank. When my temperature hit 86f all of them schooling together all day. Im happy to see them all day schooling together (they're not tired?). I hate to see them inside the cave all day and only come out for feeding. I thot they need more small fish to make them comfortable to come out thats why i bought 15 rummies nose tetra but they still not coming out. I been keeping them at 86f for 5 days now and they been schooling all day until the room is dark. Lets see what happen if i keep them at that temperature for a month, to see if they got bored and stop.

Part of the reason, perhaps the biggest one, is that Clowns (and most loaches) are nocturnal. It is normal to hide during the day, show up during the evening and -- a little -- during the early morning.

but you also have a very large group, so it would be reasonable to expect them to hide less and come out earlier (I saw this with my group, naturally much smaller than yours -- adding 4 more large animals shifter the activity time to perhaps 4pm from 7pm). So... maybe this is not about temperature.

If your 86f is because of the weather in your part of the world rather than a heater set to 86f, I'd just leave it this way. The fish should be fine, they will grow faster ... and age faster, but this is not such a big concern.

I've kept mine in a variety of temperatures for one or another reason, anything from 75 to 86. I've seen no difference in behaviour when in the lower range. At 86 all fish go hyper and get super hungry, not just clown loaches. I don't keep them at that temperature because it means less oxygen and it's risky enough long term unless the tank is understocked and very well water changed.
Recently I had to move my clown loaches to another tank. They went bananas hyper. It's more like they were stressed rather than anything so sometimes too much activity outside normal hours may not be such a good sign. They did settle in a few days and went back to normal.

Otherwise, whether 75 or 80, my clown loaches are active very early morning/night time until about lunch/afternoon when lights come on. They do come out at lights on often enough but not as much as other times. In this range of temperature I see no difference in health or behaviour and it has baffled me as they were just fine at 75 for quite a few months, as active as they are now at 82. I think they aren't as sensitive to temperature as some think.

Over here, the heaters are switched on together with the daylight lamps, around 13:00. Temp in the afternoon is 26°C/79°F. A little higher on hot days.
Daylights and heaters switch off at 21:00. In the morning, temp has slowly dropped down to 23,5°C/74°F.
I started doing this when i lost some fish and shrimps during a heat stroke, while we were away a few days. It alows cooling at night, but also, it seems to be pleasing the tanks inhabitants well. All fish are very active in the morning, including the clowns. And, just maybe/possibly/theoretically/in my mind, it slows disease too.