Loaches Online Forum

hiya, im new here, i have just aquired 2 clown loaches with my tank, they are 3-4 years old, im wondering how old they are when they will reach their full size??

one is currently 5" and the other is smaller, about 3.5 to 4", my friend who i bought the tank from, says they havent grown in the last year or so now

they are in a juwel 240 rio, along with friends! ive been told 2 is too small a number to have, but they are healthy and have been in togetehr since little nippers. i also have 2 blonde loaches, and 2 plecos as well as 6 mollies,9 tetras, 3 platys, a danio,and 2 harlequins ( more harlequins arriving this weekend!)


pics aren't great, they are from my phone!

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Hi and welcome! I am quite sure that the experts will be along soon. I am no expert but clown loaches grow BIG and you will probably need to double the size of the tank eventually. If I remember rightly the 240 is a 4ft tank.I keep six clowns which like yours are still juvenile. they are wonderful fish and well worth reading up everything you can on them, you will find lots of really good advise on this forum. Apparently they can live up to twenty years but no doubt somebody will come along and corect me on that. Good luck, you are in for lots of fun keeping Clown Loaches.

ive only had them since the weekend, but i love them! they are great characters, and so friendly! my 2 cats were sat looking at the new set-up for my tropicals ( i have coldwater too) and the clowns were having a nosy back at them!!

Hi madogz77, and welcome to Loaches Online.

Have you had a read of our clown loach info on the main site? If not, here are a couple of articles to get you started:

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/cl ... cracanthus
http://www.loaches.com/articles/an-intr ... ping-botia

Did the tank come with any additional filtration other than the built-in Juwel filter? The Juwel filters are not very efficient and the loaches would benefit from additional filtration and water movement.

I would also look at changing that sharp-looking gravel for either aquatic sand or smooth fine gravel. That white gravel looks quite rough and it could cause damage to the loaches delicate sensory barbels.

If you have fallen in love with the loaches, be prepared to change things to meet their needs - this also means upgrading to a much larger tank in the next few years. You'll also need to add more clowns (at least another 3, after quarantining them) to bring the shoal up to at least 5 in total. They are incredibly social fish and although two may seem happy, they will not be able to behave all that naturally.

You may also want to trade in the mollies at some point, as they prefer much harder, alkaline water compared to that of the loaches.

Clown loaches are too often sold for tanks that are too small for them and they become stunted, never reaching their full potential (this will also have health implications for them). It is hard to estimate how long it would take them to reach full size, but I would guess 15-20 years if kept in good conditions from the start. They are known to live for over 40 years, so are a long-term commitment.

Good luck, I hope this helps.

Emma

40years Emma? Whoops, better rewrite my will!!

Auntsally wrote:40years Emma? Whoops, better rewrite my will!!

You crack me up, Sally.

Auntsally wrote:40years Emma? Whoops, better rewrite my will!!

Many years ago I was going to get some parrots. Same thing they were going to need care possibly past my life expectancy and I did not want to put them through that .

Our LFS has a huge clown! I sit and watch her for a few minutes every time we go there(weekly). She is about 36 years old and about a foot long. Poor girl is showing her age though, she is going blind and naps alot. But she is the first fish out at feeding time! She is ebjoying her retirement in a 350 gallon tank with a few other x-large clowns.

Tammy