Post
by Loachloach » Thu Nov 22, 2018 3:07 pm
Hi Fran,
In terms of getting more company for your current 2 baby loaches,in order to make the shy one more outgoing, I think it may or may not work. I bought single baby loaches twice, quarantining them on their own and they were both super outgoing and bold. I hand fed them. The latest singlet purchase became great friends with the denison barbs and SAES and was pretty much part of their pack all day long until I added two more baby loaches. My other loaches were quite older at the time, also much bigger than him so it took time for him to join. Now he's grown and is part of the bigger pack but it took time. Which tells me that even with loaches, the size difference initially matters and baby loaches prefer to stick to either smaller other fish or smaller other loaches. So if you are getting two more, get them now while they are all around the same size. Eventually, in a couple of years all 6 will stick together.
In the long term also, if room allows, the more loaches, the merrier. I had a group of 6 initially for quite a few years, then 7, now 13 and I can tell that 13 loaches is better than 6, and 6 is better than 4 but having said that, when I had the 6 only, they were still doing their thing and were very healthy.