Hi All

Just wondering what substrate is better? I've read a lot about clown loaches being really sensitive and liking good water conditions... our gravel substrate seems to pick up lots of poo and uneaten food.

Should we encourage algae growth for the clown loaches to eat, and if so, how?

Cheers,
Candice

I often get algae growth in my tank, everybody does. However, I've never seen my clown Loach eating it. These fish can be sensitive to water conditions but they're not as delicate as some people make out. Sand or gravel will be perfectly okay for them.

The clown loaches in my discus tank are with a sand substrate whereas the ones in my cichlid tank has a gravel substrate. Doesnt seem to make a difference to them

Ever heard of the clown loach "marge"? Supposedly she's around 12 inches

Soooo, just goes to show

When i bought my first clown loach three years ago, i knew nothing about it. In fact, i didn't know the got bigger than two inches. I gave him away when i learned that thye liked to live in groups and would eventually outgrow my 10 gallon tank i was keeping him in.

Here's a great article about the color differences in different specimens.
http://www.loaches.com/articles/clown-loach-coloration-marking-variations

Nippienige wrote:

QUOTE:
Don't worry about the bands fading on your Clown loach - I have 6 in my Juwel 190 - 2 of which are over 10" long and they have faded - Clown loaches are delightful fish when kept together and would recommed that you keep a minimum of 6, as they do not do so well in smaller mumbers. Clown loaches are also nocturnal and don't therefore like to come out in the day - and also they love plenty of hiding places. They love to be fed on Cucumber wedges or Courgette wedge as well as sinking pellets and wafers, and also once a week I feed them with a couple of prawns - this is very good for them but only feed them this once a week as it will mess the water up a bit. Clown loaches are also Stress Heads and do not appreciate you disturbing them by poking around in their hiding places. Leave them alone and you won't go wrong.
Keep your water temp at about 28 degrees C and you shouldn't have a problem with whitespot.
Also Clown loaches like a clean environment - I myself run an Eheim 2128 external filter, a Juwel compact internal filter which comes with the Juwel 190, 2 Fluvel powerheads, a UV sterliser and the Deltec MC500 protein Skimmer with Ozoniser to keep my water clean and sterile. Now you don't need to to these extremes but I have a heavily populated aquarium so I keep the water circulating and moving quite rapidly. Clown loaches do not like a build up of Nitrate either. When I do partial water changes I use 50/50 mix tap water and rain water which I microwave at a gallon at a time for 8 minutes each gallon, this then placed in a 4 gallon container which is then heated to 28 degrees c for a week. Also in this container is an airstone to aerate the water. I also place 3 drops of WS4 and a teaspoon of tonic salt in the water. This helps to kill of any bacteria such as whitespot. Obviously I use a dechlorinator as well. In my case I also dose the water for 20 mins with ozone and stand for 1hr prior to changing my water. The Active Carbon will then remove the WS4 in the main filteration once the water has been added to my aquarium. Hope this helps as my Clowns are very happy Clowns - hence the size they have grown to in my aquarium. Rgrds Nige AKA Nippienige

what size were your 10 inch clown loach when you got them and how long have you had them julie

Just have to add my 2ct as I'm very fond of these beautiful and entertaining fish as well. I once took over 3 specimen that had been kept in a 2' tank only but unfortunately had to give them away since I have not enough room neither (and there they died eventually, very sad).
They were only 2" and didn't seem to grow much neither, so I'd be really interested as well in how long it takes for them to get to 10" in size?
I kept them on sand and noticed they would do a lot of digging under rocks and wood, so if I ever get to keeping those again, I'll sure go for sand again. Thinking that might also be good to prevent them from hurting their barbles (sp.) when they dig, at least for the tiny ones. I noticed that, if provided with hiding places all over the tank, they would become very outgoing and were seen most of the day even playing around - better than anything on tv!
Anyone feeding them snails? Here, many keepers breed snails in a small tank to feed to their clown loaches. I gave mine snails from the tiny outside pond (no fish in there) occasionally, and they would be gone in no time although they were as big as the fish.
I'm curious as well about if and how they establish a hierarchic order? With the 3 I had, the two biggest ones would start fighting after some months, I had not heard of that before. But might be because the group was too small.
Only have seen full grown clown loaches once yet when I picked up some young fish from a bloke who had lotsa big cichlids in a huge tank, and they made the pair of Oscars in there look small even I didn't realize at first what they were, my jaw dropped when I finally did. That memory keeps me from getting any, lol. Plus that they are said to get ich easily but can't deal with the med too well. I was lucky though, they were always healthy.
Would love to see more clown loach pics, got any as well Nige and delboybully? (Don't mind me if you posted any already)