Loaches Online Forum

sounds to me like he hit you with the spines under his eyes. Botiine loaches (clowns, yoyos, darios, etc) have two retractable spines, one under each eye, some what shaped like a cats claw (i think). If you look close, you can see the "slot" where it goes under both eyes.

I would very strongly recommend a canister filter. HOB's just can't compete against a canister. I like my rena filstar xp3, its easy to clean, fairly compact, and powerful. It keeps the tank many times cleaner then the two large HOBs I had previously, and it provides a lot more current, which my clo...

lets see... flakes (mixture of a freshwater blend, spirnula flakes and a few "color" flakes), wardley shrimp pellets, hikari algae wafers (fights often ensue because of these), hikari carnivore wafers, hikari sinking wafers, herbivore sinking pellets, hikari bloodworms, hikari brine shirmp, hikari m...

The reason its said not to overdose prime is that it can possibly reduce oxygen levels because of its ammonia removing component, and its somewhat expensive. Also, the bottle specifies that you should use the full dosage if adding water directly to the tank. I suppose this gives it a better chance o...

They work great, just make sure not to fill them too full because the movement of a vehicle makes water go all over (sure theres a lid, but sometimes they have a little hole drilled in the handles that it will spill out of), that and water is frickin heavy. Figure 15 gallons is gonna weigh somewhere...

I have beaten ich several times (with zero losses) by slowly increasing the temp to 90 and keeping it there for 2-3 weeks. Temp. only, no meds, no salt, nothing. The high temp did not seem to affect the loaches one bit. As long as you have very good aeration, they do just fine.

Visitherm Stealth heaters I second this. I have two 200 watt ones and they keep my tank at steady 85 degrees. They have a plastic covering, so breakage is practically impossible. Of course, there is always a slim chance of overheating, but that applies to most heaters out there. I got mine from htt...

I've seen it once in striatas. Bought a group of four, one had it bad and died a few days afterward. No treatment info though, sorry.
Also seen it in clowns and kubotais in dealer tanks.

thanks for that video, gotta love the them big clowns!

Mine will eat whatever your give them. Flakes (any kind, any brand), shrimp pellets, carnivore wafers, sinking wafers, algae wafers, any frozen food (mysis shrimp, brine shirmp, blood worms, white/glass worms, krill, beefheart), cucumber, banana, snow peas, lettuce (iceberg, romaine, and green), and...

mikev wrote:This is exactly what I was asking. If there are a couple of people who would commit to 4-5, I think this can be done.

For the right price, I would be in.

Clowns would be the first choice, they get big, (8-12"), and are very friendly to other tankmates, but it takes a long time to grow them to that size (talking years here), and its near impossible to buy them that big.

Cleaner fish? The lil' piggys usually make MORE of a mess.

Loaches (botias in particular) are much happier and much more active in groups of a MINIMUM of 3; 5 or more is highly recommended if your tank can hold them. Sand is easier to clean because the waste/debris etc rest on the top and can easily be sucked out with a gravel vac, but you have to make sure...

Never beat ich with meds, tried several. Only way I've done it is with slowly raising temp to 88-90 F for 2 weeks (to make sure its good and dead). Loaches don't seem to mind a bit, other fish might, but they will be ok unless they are very sensitive about water temp. And like others have said, don'...