Loaches Online Forum

Hallo friends

I emptied my reef tank in accordance to re-design it and while doing so my wife kind of noticed how nice it was without the skimmer sound in the living room so I got to decide what to do with this tank of mine (I didn't want to go skimmerless).

This is my main display tank so would like to decorate it with rocks and plants, nothing too fancy more like an underwater zen stone garden with fine sand

I never kept Loaches (privately) and lately I am kind of researching alot about them
I am thinking Botia kubotai or Dwarf Chain Botia or both if they are compatible with one another.

I am thinking a few Garra flavatra as their bottom companion and some sort of Barb as a shoaling specie like the Five Banded or Occelated Barb.

For an algae eater I am still kind of unsure (Chinese Algae Eater, to agressive maybe)

What ever I decide this community will be build around the Loaches

Thanks for all the inputs!

I fixed the Back to Nature slim line backgrounds, me like;


Kind regards, Dusko

How big is the tank? If it is medium sized, Bristlenoses make an excellent, non-aggressive (but will hold their own against loaches) algae eater. I love them.

No Chinese algae eaters. They don't eat algae, and they are mean.

Not sure why I don't get reply notification

Thanks for replying

It is a 180 litres tank.

Juvenile Chinese Algae Eater is very effective against the dark brown-redish slimy algae (on gravel, glass, plants) which resembles the Brown Diatom algae.
Whith this (unknown) algae type I tryed everything, Ancistrus, Otos (very effective against the dinos), SAE, Plecos, Garra sp. but none of them did a thing.
The only one actually eating this stuff very fast is the Chinese AE and to an exstent Black Molly (but not much).

I agree CAE and Bushinose do not eat the same sort of algae.

Thank you.

I had a CHINESE ALGAE EATER. I'm pretty sure my 4 inch Clowns Killed it.

I don't think they liked him hiding with them. One day I seen him bent crooked. I think they stabbed him in the side. Week later I never saw him again.

I got 6 bristlenose plecos from a friend who accidentally bred them.

They're about an inch long now, at least 2 left.

I like them.

I'm sorry. WHen I looked again I saw you had the size in the title.


If it isn't a BN, then I don't know. I know the CAE will eat algae as a youngun. I move my algae around to make sure it is eaten.

If you possibly can, it's worth taking out the internal filter and getting an external. My 180 looked much bigger and nicer when I did that.