just go a big BOTIA MODESTA

[messiner]

aka blue loach, aka redfined loach. I have always been a loach fan and i would love to get ahold of some monster clowns bu this guy will do :thumbsup: . He is about 4 1/2in long and by far the biggest botia ive seen come in the sore i work at. ive read they get to 10in, cananybody back this up? anybody keeping these?
MONSTER LOACHES :headbang2
will get pics tomorrow promis!!!!

[js302]

yeah they're cool but never heard a them getting that big.

oh and btw, it's BOTIA MODESTA.

[messiner]

damn my dislexic typing!

[qumqats]

You know how aggressive they can be? What tankmates do you plan for him? Species Index : Orange-finned Loach (http://www.loaches.com/species_pages/botia_modesta.html)
Do a search on the loaches.com forum and see how many people have had problems. Loaches Online Forums (http://forums.loaches.com/)
OR
Loaches.com Forum Archive (http://www.loaches.com/archive_search.html)

[messiner]

view my sig, he better be able to hold his own

[Jason_S]

yeah they can be pretty aggressive when kept by themselves. I've heard in groups of 6 or more they're pretty peaceful. I did quite a bit of reading on them some time back and it seems like most places I read said they grow up to 12" just like clowns but one site did say closer to 8". that's probably more likely the size you'll see in an aquarium unless they are in a huge tank. :)

[messiner]

anybody else keeping big loaches?

[DiXoN]

a friend used to keep them but they were only small around 3-4''.
they seemed easy to keep he had a5 of them and they lived in his mixed cichlid comm tank with no problems at all

[BRG]

I have 7 modesta ranging from about 5 1/2" to 3". They are kept with other loaches, clowns, kuboti ( pokadot ) yo yo. Normaly they are nocturnal and not seen until after the tank lights are off, but I recently reduced the lighting and they are out much more now. Most of the agression used to be just between themselves but recently it has been aimed at anything in the tank. The largest loach is a 6" clown that I picked up at a LFS that was traded in because it was to big.

[jagsndoviman]

i have 3 they are a tight nit group about 4'-5' live wit 13'pike,10'jag and other monsters cichlids they dont even look at the lil guys they fight with eachother a lil,use to fight with the fish now just stay to themselfes active during the day sleep at night werid catch them on there sides on top of eachother in the caves i make for them wich is why i have no pic's they hide when i get the cam

[PufferXtreme]

I have a 5 incher at work, he has to live by himself the little scrapper!

[Taz2478]

i had 3 8" clowns til that freakin storm hit. lfs got 2 9" in but they $85.

was just in 1 shop that had died strawberry and blueberry botia modesta.

[FishHeadSoup]

i had 3 8" clowns til that freakin storm hit. lfs got 2 9" in but they $85.

was just in 1 shop that had died strawberry and blueberry botia modesta.

:cry: :( :cry: :( :cry:

[Taz2478]

I thought they looked familiar and strange coloring. came home and did a search. found a site that talked about all the various dies and tattoo techniques being used and thats one they talked about.
To make it worst she was selling them for $13. She did have nice Yo-Yo loaches though which I might go back and get to play with my borders.

[ckk125]

i have 3 4 inch orange finned loach..they grow quite fast for loaches.

[trudidan]

found my blueberry botia's in a dizzying courtship ritual the other nite and now the flowerpot where they live is all dug out with the sand pushed outside of it. either that or there was an earthquake i didnt notice:confused:

[loach43]

I had one roughly 3" that murdered my favorite sturisoma. I gave him away immediately, otherwise I would have tossed him into a frying pan with some garlic. I was really mad at that fish.

[Lupin]

LMAO! They're one of the nastiest loaches and not many people realize just how much damage they can cause if kept in a large group especially when they will happily clash against each other even involving other fish outside their genus.:ROFL:

[ewurm]

I once had a large Modesta win a territorial dispute with a Salvini cichlid. Modestas can hold their own. MEAN.

[AnthonyB]

Was at a store the other day that had a big one that some one brought in along with a Yo-Yo that was up there in size too. They didn't last long as someone else came in and bought them but the modesta was just awesome looking.

[rucus]

I have botia's and they can get fairly large. It just takes forever to get them to be monsters.....but when they get there they are truely beautiful

[AnthonyB]

Yeah, I actually thought it was better looking than the dozen or so large clowns that the store also had that were roughly the same size (Not for sale).. I might have even bought it if I had a tank ready for him but he was gone by the time I did. Ended up buying some clowns instead which was the initial plan to begin with anyways. I thought I had hit the mother load when I went in there and saw all those nice loaches until I saw the not for sale sign on them

[canufeelme]

I have 11 of these bad boys (bought 10...they were buy 1 get 1 free, then friend gave me their last guy). they are great. so freakin active. they were small when i got them 3-4 months back and now they are FAT! They have grown nicely. they dont mess with any of my other fish. they cluster together and swim around my tank. I hope I can get them to be real monsters

[endi]

i've seen some at lfs around 7-8". and they were super fat

[Jenni]

I have a group of 5, between 3-5 inches. They are currently living together in a 30 long, with a stray, odd botia that was sold to me by petsmart as a skunk loach, but when I got the bag home, one didn't have the back stripe and appeared longer and skinnier. The stray was happier with the Modestas than the skunks, so he was adopted by them. They're facinating little goofs, staring out at me with their big eyes. They're sorta paranoid and only come out briefly to eat, but when the lights go out, all hell breaks loose. I want to get a blue light so I can see just what they're up to. The biggest problem I've had is them jumping into the hang on back filter, but they are never hurt. I just stretched some netting from a produce bag under the out-flow and haven't had the problem since.

[nolapete]

I have 3 that live with my two fat sleeper gobies. The red-finned blue botias are 4"-6" and are one of my favorite fish.

[Mr Pleco]

anybody else keeping big loaches?

I picked up 2 last weekend that where a fat 6" each, biggest I've seen. So far I haven't seen any agression problems with my CL's...but most of my CL's are close to that size or larger.