Loaches Online Forum

Hi all, new to this forum. I've got a 55g show tank that my small clowns will grow out in. I'm looking for something small to medium sized that schools in tight groups in the mid to upper levels. Been looking at platys online but they don't seem to "school". Any recommendations?

My Harlequin rasbora are great schoolers(bigger school the better) and would do well with the clowns.

The rasbora are cool, but thier ph requirements are a bit low for me to maintain. (I do have an R/O but preparing and storing any more than 10 gallons at a time has become very tedious.) I'm leaning toward zebra danios (for the moment...lol). Are danios good schoolers in a 55?

I have a rocky tank with a lot of open water in the top 1/2 of the tank with hiding spots in the lower half. I have tons of current and subdued lighting.

I had ~20 giant danios in with 13 clowns. I removed them since their nervous behavior transfered over to my clowns. All the darting back and forth seemed to bother my clowns. The clowns were very skittish and were hiding all the time. This went on for at least 6 months and I finally got sick of their behavior myself. So I called a buddy up and we went fishing,,, in a 220g it was a process to catch danios in it.

After replacing the danios with Rainbow fish, there are at least 9-10 clowns out at all times. They school in mass at the front of the tank when people walk in the room. The change in behavior was nearly immediate and now a couple even sleep out in the open creating quite a scene since some of my friends do not know that it is normal. All they see are 3-4 clowns looking dead in various parts of the tank.

So yes danios are small and do school in the upper parts of the tank. They fit what you are looking for, but take in consideration their behavior.. not sure if the same thing will happen in your tank, just my own observations with them.

Good luck

rarefaction wrote:The rasbora are cool, but thier ph requirements are a bit low for me to maintain. (I do have an R/O but preparing and storing any more than 10 gallons at a time has become very tedious.) I'm leaning toward zebra danios (for the moment...lol). Are danios good schoolers in a 55?

My rasbora are on 7.6 pH

carol

Thanks for the replies!

O.K. so thats:
2 for rasbora
1 for rainbow fish
and 1 against danios.

I like that danios are active, but I don't want to stress out the 3 little clowns. There's also 4 kubotai moving in first, and most likely one of my bn plecos will stay in there a while too. So thats 8 bottom dwellers in an overfiltered Java fern and driftwood loaded 1×4 footprint. (ph 7.0-7.2) As you can see I need a little life in the upper two thirds.
How bout a medium sized school of neon tetras? Or swordtails? Do they tend to stay in tight groups? Too nervous? Too much current?

P.S. My boss lady says no more orange fish.

I vote for a school of rainbow fish as well, much prettier and don't let the juveniles color fool you when they get big they really stand out, more so the males. I got some pics up int eh freshwater area if your interested.

I vote for rainbow fish too!

I have a huge shoal in my loach tank and they look stunning.

If you're looking for smaller fish, have you considered Neon-Blue Rainbow fish? They have the same shoaling behaviour, stay small and are not Orange

How about the green neon tetra (Paracheirodon simulans} They are actually not green, they are blue. They are the fish you see in most planted tanks, like in Japan, competitions, etc.

Cool... I'm really liking the neon blue rainbows. Maybe some rasboras down the road as well. Now I've gotta find them. Hope they are common, I'd rather not pay for shipping on unseen fish...

Ditto again for Rainbows. Most species handle a wide range of temperatures and water hardness, including the warmer temps that Clown Loaches thrive in.
Rainbows are large enough not to get eaten as the Clowns grow.
There are many species to choose from.

Danios (many species) are indeed too active and can stress the other fish. Their constant darting makes the other fish think there are predators nearby, so they stay in hiding.

Rainbows are highly active, but not in that scared sort of darting way. Mostly they stay in the upper half of the tank.

Especially good:
Melanotaenia parkinsoni (high temperatures)
M. boesemani (wide range of conditions)
M. praecox (slightly smaller, if that is what you are looking for)

Get more females than males, especially if you get M. praecox.

Pay the extra money and get them from a very reputable person, a private breeder is probaly the best. Rainbows are one of the groups known to carry mycobacteria.

Sadly I don't know of any local breeders. Just the box stores and a very arrogant lfs. I don't like doing business with either, however one local petsmart has an excellent manager in the fish department. Everything is very clean and well maintained. I'd prefer to not spend my budget on shipping for stock I've never seen. (especially since those rainbows are gonna be a little more than I had planned to spend this month...life is so hard...lol)

Thanks everyone for your help, we went with the praecox.... and so far we love them. Unfortunately I had a mishap in getting them settled in. Our biggest little clown loach ("Moe") stowed away on a tank decoration as I moved it into the new 55g last night. I swear I shook it off and double checked for passengers but somehow he swam out when I plunked it in. I had intended to move the clowns last so the bio filter could ramp up smoothly first. I know clowns prefer well cycled tanks. In fact we got this new little school of fish to confirm the cycle was stable. (I used floss from my sump to instant cycle an AC70... the biomax has been in the sump for a few days now, I'll move it to the AC70 tomorrow. After freaking out a while I decided it would be worse to catch him again and return him to the old tank.

Here's the good news. The source water was the same, temp was within 3 degrees +/-1. Moe is out and swimming around this morning despite his no acclimatization infiltration. His dorsal fin looks a little rough but all in all, he looks ok. I just hope the stress of being alone in there doesn't kill him... nobody else moves in for 18 days...

I've had a school of 9-12 Buenos Aires Tetras with my 2, now 4 clowns.
I even had one baby tetra live to maturity with them. These B A tetras make a great school and swim the length of my 55 quite often.

I like Playing God too!!