Hey all,
Farrin's wife here. Just wanted to give a bit of an update as to our wonderful loach colony.
Once seeing how the first two were interacting with the tank, we decided to go back last night and pick up a few more buddies for our two wonderful loaches. I'm not sure if there is a rule to keeping loach groups at an odd number (with so many different sources, it's hard to remember) but we picked up the last four that were in the tank with our guys when we first went to buy them. I know it's silly, but while we only went in for 3 more, I couldn't leave the last one by himself to be all alone
Anywho, a funny story happened when we had the associate come to get them out of the tank for us.
We told her we wanted four, and she looked at us like we were nuts, and proceeded to tell us that if we bought four, not only would they grow much faster than we expected, but they'd start attacking each other. She said they'd latch on and leave holes in the others, and for that reason alone, she would NEVER recommend having more than two in any tank, regardless of the size. She also said if we felt we needed more after a bit of time, we could come back, as they were constantly going on sale. Odd, since clown loaches around here seldom go on sale.
Needless to say, we were floored, since we knew that clown loaches tended to be peaceful community fish, and had never heard anything of the like. We finally decided to settle for the two, as she suggested, but decided to come back here to see if anyone else had ever heard anything like this before, or had ever had similar experiences.
He went off to check out new decoration ideas for the tank, and I stayed with the associate to get the fish. She fished around in the tank for a few, lifting some of the rocks and such, and looked at me with this bewildered expression and said "Well after all that, we don't seem to have any right now!"
<--- My expression
I'm standing there, looking at four loaches, and wondering what in the hell this girl is talking about, when it hits me. The whole time we were talking, she though we had been talking about wanting four plecostomus', which had a tag right below the loach tank. I very kindly explained everything to her, which sent us both in to a fit of giggles, and boy was she red faced.
The joking continued until right before we checked out, when I was standing there looking at some leopard gecko's and she walked by, pointed to the tank and said "Those are cheetahs! They're not really good around small dogs, so I'd be careful" and burst into giggles as she walked away.
To bring my story to a close, we now have 6 beautiful loaches and I couldn't be happier. I've always loved the way clown loaches looked, and I love their cute little "tentacles." I keep telling Farrin that they remind me of "Fishthulu" (a play on Cathulu). The new four aren't interacting with the tiger barbs as much as we had hoped, but the original two still think they are tiger barbs and they make me laugh every time I see them.
I couldn't be happier!
It may have something to do with them being added to a more mature tank, or the fact that they feel more comfortable with the school of barbs around.
