Myths and Clown Loaches

[chefkeith]

I thought a thread about myths and clown loaches would be in order since a few of these have come up recently.

Myth #1- Clown Loaches are clean-up fish. This is false. I wouldn’t go to a dog lover’s forum and ask which dog is best for scavenging through garbage and eating poo. Besides making a jerk of myself, I’d likely get reported to the humane society for making such an appalling gesture.
Clown Loaches are great fish to care for and appreciate high quality foods. I'll feed mine shrimp, cod, clams, mussels, snails, cucumbers, zucchini, ect, and also prepared staple foods.

Myth #2- Use the inch per gallon rule as a stocking guideline. This is not a good rule for clown loaches. A 10" clown loach in a 10 gallon tank won't work. 5- 2” clown loaches in 10 gallon tank won’t work either. Clowns need plenty of space to grow. A 4’ tank is the minimum for a group of small clowns and a 6’ foot tank for a group of large clowns is needed.

Myth #3- One clown can be happy by itself. This is completely false. Clowns need to be kept in groups. A group of 5 would be the recommended minimum, but the more the better. Clowns prefer to be with company of their own kind.

Myth #4- Clown Loaches are suitable for African Cichlid tanks. Clowns should be in soft acid water, not in hard water with a high pH.

Myth #5- Clowns will do fine in bare bottom tanks. It really irks me when I see huge cichlids and clowns together in a bare bottom tank where there are no caves for the clowns. I can understand not using gravel, but Clowns absolutely need plenty of shelter. Shelter would be plenty of pipes, Slate/Rock caves, Coconuts shells, Flower pots, or anything that they can safely swim in and out of.

Myth #6- Adding salt to the tank will keep Clown Loaches healthy. This is a bad practice. Salt should only be used short term when treating the fish for parasites or as a prophylactic treatment while in they are in quarantine. Also salt needs to be administered very carefully because adding or removing salt can cause osmotic shock. If you don’t know what osmotic shock is, then you absolutely should not use salt until that is learned.

Myth #7- Clown loaches grow slowly. This is a myth because with optimal conditions clowns can grow relatively fast. The problem is clown loaches are easily stunted for various reasons. Being kept in too small of a tank and poor water quality are top things to blame for stunting. Being the lowest loach in the pecking order can also be blamed for stunting. Young clown loaches need to be feed very often to avoid stunting, which is not an easy thing to do in a small tank or without a frequent water change schedule.


Please feel free to comment and add more myths.

[Blue]

Thanks, chefkeith! This should help as I was asked by an author of a local magazine to feature loaches in a few months' time and I still have writer's block in some parts. Of course, this forum would be the first to get acknowledgement/credit as this is where I have always done my research whenever I encounter more new loach species along the way.

And to be honest, I had been prowling over several forums for loach topics. I was not happy with some topics suggesting loaches for snails, algae, etc. Furthermore, it is really unfortunate clowns have to suffer the effects of being kept in small tanks. Chefkeith, your comment before that loaches are only an afterthought in most cases actually spurred me to go over loach topics and try where best I can help.

[Eyrie]

On #2, I read on another forum that Monsterfishkeepers.com are suggesting that it should be 1 cubic inch per gallon. Certainly makes a lot more sense, although common sense should always be applied (especially at either size extreme).

[daspricey]

Useful info!

On #2, I read on another forum that Monsterfishkeepers.com are suggesting that it should be 1 cubic inch per gallon. Certainly makes a lot more sense, although common sense should always be applied (especially at either size extreme).

Working stocking out by volume is not reliable. Someone might have 70G tank; but its a 6foot tall hexagon tank. Can you just imagine 70" worth of fish in there?

I find using the surface size better. This allows fish room, for gas exchange, amount of oxygen getting into the tank etc. This is done by multiplying the tank width by depth then dividing by 12 for inches. Applying common sense to that "formula" is the right way to go IMO.
I find monsterfishkeepers.com just see how many big fish can be crammed in a tank before they start dyeing. Just my opinion of course.

David

[chefkeith]

A square Inch per gallon? That's still not a good standard, but it is much better. For instance, a nice fat 6" clown loach would be 6" x 2" = 12 square inches of fish for 12 gallons of water. I couldn't justify putting a single fat 6" clown in a 12 gallon tank, but I could easily justify putting 10 fat 6" clowns in a 120 gallon tank.


MFK has it's good and bad. good that they have made continuous drip water change systems more popular. bad that they use the drip system so they can over stuff a tank with as many huge fish as possible.

Edit- looks like I got squared instead of cubed.

[Diana]

A cubic inch of fish is length x width x height of the fish, but easier to get accurate if measured by displacement.
A torpedo shaped fish that is 2" long might only be 1/2" tall and 1/2" or less wide. This fish is 1/2 cubic inch.
A fish of similar shape, but twice as long will also be twice as tall and twice as wide. 4" x 1" x 1" = 4 cubic inches of fish. This is 8 times the mass of the first fish, and suggests that a fish that is twice as long as another requires eight times the tank volume as the smaller.

This guideline makes a lot more sense for the larger fish than the 1" length per 1 gallon of water, which is only a suggestion for fish under 3".
To continually insist that the 1" per gallon guideline is useless because it does not work for larger fish is silly. It is a guideline that works pretty well for smaller fish (under 3"). To apply it to larger fish is where the trouble comes in.
@ 1" per gallon a 10 gallon tank might hold:
A mated pair of Rams and 3 Harlequin Rasboras
3 Neolamprologus multifaciatus females and a male, (and keep some of the babies, they are a colony breeder)
4 female Platies and a male.
10 female guppies, Neon Tetras, or Pencil fish, or Darter Tetras
15 Endler females, or Ember Tetras, or Galaxy Rasboras, or an all-male Guppy selection
1 Betta or Dwarf Gourami, and 6 Cherry Barbs

You do not even talk about adding Pearl or Moonlight Gouramis, or Angels, or most Loaches to such a tank because they grow bigger than the guideline holds true for, so are not considered.

[chefkeith]

A thing about the inch per gallon rule is that some people don’t know that there is a rule about the rule being only for fish less than 3”. I am joking.

[Eyrie]

Working stocking out by volume is not reliable. Someone might have 70G tank; but its a 6foot tall hexagon tank. Can you just imagine 70" worth of fish in there?

Like I said, always apply common sense That comment would also apply to surface area

I find using the surface size better. This allows fish room, for gas exchange, amount of oxygen getting into the tank etc. This is done by multiplying the tank width by depth then dividing by 12 for inches.

In my 12G I have ten green neon tetras, eleven ember tetras, a killifish and plan to add six Corydoras habrosus. Their TL will be far in excess of what that rule would indicate, but their small size makes it safe to do so. This is why I think the suggested calculation (as illustrated by Diana) is better, albeit not perfect.

I couldn't justify putting a single fat 6" clown in a 12 gallon tank

My smallest clown is about that size, and I certainly wouldn't even try putting it in the 12G. For one thing, you can't do any calculation based on a single shoaling fish but only on the shoal as a whole.

[newshound]

thanks keith
this goes for more than just clowns though.

[Diana]

Also, any of these stocking guidelines are really only talking about the chemical needs of the fish: CO2 removal, O2 supply, diluting NO3 until a water change and similar issues. Any such guide is not addressing at all any of the social issues.
A shoal of any of the friendlier species of Loach can be stocked more densely than any of the Grr fish. and asking about the social issues with respect to other species is important, too.
Activity level of a fish (or a school) will also suggest tank dimensions. Dainos and other fish that constantly zip around will need a larger tank than a similarly sized, but calmer fish. "Larger" might only mean getting the 20 gallon Long instead of a 20 gallon standard tank. A 20 long is 30" long, a 20 gallon standard tank is 24". Not a big difference, but I have seen fish in a 36" tank REALLY enjoy being moved to a 4' long tank; same gallons.

[Stonecoloured]

Thank you chefkeith, these are all points pet shops tend to fail to tell new clown loach owners. Is there anyway we can have this as a sticky? Or add it into an existing sticky?

[mvigor]

I tried to figure out how many cubic inches my clown loaches were, but I couldn't put them together again. Any advice?

[Emma Turner]

A shoal of any of the friendlier species of Loach can be stocked more densely than any of the Grr fish.

I'm afraid I don't tend to agree with that one. If Grrrr tanks are stocked too lightly, there is more chance of 'victims' being singled out. I prefer densely stocking these aggressive loaches myself (obviously in large tanks with plenty of powerful filtration & water changes ).

Emma

[Munkee]

A shoal of any of the friendlier species of Loach can be stocked more densely than any of the Grr fish.

I'm afraid I don't tend to agree with that one. If Grrrr tanks are stocked too lightly, there is more chance of 'victims' being singled out. I prefer densely stocking these aggressive loaches myself (obviously in large tanks with plenty of powerful filtration & water changes ).

Emma

At the risk of sounding very daft here, what is a "Grr Tank/Grr Fish"?

[Emma Turner]

At the risk of sounding very daft here, what is a "Grr Tank/Grr Fish"?

You're not daft, Munkee. It's us who are daft sometimes. 'Grrr' is a name we coined for describing tanks containing fish 'with attitude'/aggression.

Emma