Your favorite non-clown loaches
- Thread starter MultipleTankSyndrome
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My vast loach experience has covered plenty of species…
Jk
I’ve only had 2 species, but here goes:
Skunk loach and sun loach
Not the most colorful but very boisterous, which makes them excellent tankmates for tougher fish like mbunas. Given enough space and numbers, they aren’t too aggressive with other fish.
Jk
I’ve only had 2 species, but here goes:
Skunk loach and sun loach
Not the most colorful but very boisterous, which makes them excellent tankmates for tougher fish like mbunas. Given enough space and numbers, they aren’t too aggressive with other fish.
I have a whopping no experience with loaches, but I find cory catfish are heavily underrated. They are so cute.
They might be tough enough to stand up to mbunas, but American or West African cichids are ultimately better choices for cichlid tank mates. Mbunas and loaches differ too much in water parameters to be kept together: https://www.loaches.com/articles/why-loaches-should-not-be-kept-with-malawi-cichlids
My favorite non-clown loaches, in order, are the following. (Each one I only like sliiiiiiiightly more than the one above it, they're all high on my favorites).
Burmese loach: Peaceful, active, great spots and color, fun to track pattern change with age, stays small.
Yoyo loach: Both peaceful and can stand up for itself, active, trackable and beautiful change from yo-yos to reticulated stripes, reasonably small but large enough not to become food for some fish. Also plays dead like the clown loach
Zebra loach: Peaceful, active, nice stripes, stays small.
Kuhli loach (both black and striped): Very amusing to watch when they glass surf, super cute, great color and pattern, never eats or bullies any tank mate. Also stays small enough to justify having a huge amount per tank.
Weather loach: Super hardy, super friendly (with both their owner and tank mates), attractive color (on the golden version), quite active, amusing antics.
One big plus of all loaches is lifespan. You can expect at least 10-15 years of the positive traits outlined above.
The Masked Shadow
, if you meant here on MonsterFishKeepers, it's probably because most fishkeepers are interested in either monsters (eg: pangasius, red tail, tiger shovelnose, Asian red tail, piraiba, sailfin pictus) or mini-monsters (eg: pictus, featherfin, Asian upside down) instead of cute when it comes to catfish. I agree with this - I get all the cute I need from loaches while saving the catfish stock for those mini-monsters.Burmese are great. I like the activity and the fact that they fit in a lot more tanks
Horseface loaches are always one of my favorites. I like seeing them poke out of the sand.
Sumo loaches are cool. It seems like that color pattern shouldn't exist.
But for a monster nothing beats the Royal Clowns.
Horseface loaches are always one of my favorites. I like seeing them poke out of the sand.
Sumo loaches are cool. It seems like that color pattern shouldn't exist.
But for a monster nothing beats the Royal Clowns.
I have clown loaches but I also have a single yo-yo loach that I rescued a couple of months ago. I was looking for it in the tank to take a picture of the little guy and look who came out of their hidey hole to greet me, lol.
Sorry guys, I'm going to be a party pooper. There is, and always will be, only ONE loach in my book.
Sorry guys, I'm going to be a party pooper. There is, and always will be, only ONE loach in my book.
And for those who don't have the space, Leptobotia pellegrini. Neither is to my taste but they certainly are to some.
Do you mean you like clown loaches just that much? Understandable, there is a reason they're everyone's favorites
Honestly I like them just as much as that, just that I have a big liking for other loaches too.
Favourite has to be red tailed ( modesta) which are great in groups, grow large, have a great hierarchy and are friendly.
Close behind are sun loaches (eos) which are meant to be nasty but are just misunderstood. They too follow the same loach hierarchy and are great to watch IF you can get this extremely secretive loach to show itself.
Really like the skunk botia for exactly the same reason.
Then yo-yo loaches. Constantly chasing each other with the matriarch female in charge, activity abounds.
Finally, the Khuli loaches of their many types, often put in tanks which they don’t belong but if you’ve ever tried to catch one- it’s easy to know why they can avoid being eaten.
Close behind are sun loaches (eos) which are meant to be nasty but are just misunderstood. They too follow the same loach hierarchy and are great to watch IF you can get this extremely secretive loach to show itself.
Really like the skunk botia for exactly the same reason.
Then yo-yo loaches. Constantly chasing each other with the matriarch female in charge, activity abounds.
Finally, the Khuli loaches of their many types, often put in tanks which they don’t belong but if you’ve ever tried to catch one- it’s easy to know why they can avoid being eaten.
Man that eaters crystal clear!!
One day I’ll get me some clowns…
My tank was on the low end for mbuna water, which is actually in the safe range for both them and the loaches. I had this confirmed on here first jus to be sure! I think shadow meant he doesn’t have any loaches.They might be tough enough to stand up to mbunas, but American or West African cichids are ultimately better choices for cichlid tank mates. Mbunas and loaches differ too much in water parameters to be kept together: https://www.loaches.com/articles/why-loaches-should-not-be-kept-with-malawi-cichlids
My favorite non-clown loaches, in order, are the following. (Each one I only like sliiiiiiiightly more than the one above it, they're all high on my favorites).
Burmese loach: Peaceful, active, great spots and color, fun to track pattern change with age, stays small.
Yoyo loach: Both peaceful and can stand up for itself, active, trackable and beautiful change from yo-yos to reticulated stripes, reasonably small but large enough not to become food for some fish. Also plays dead like the clown loach
Zebra loach: Peaceful, active, nice stripes, stays small.
Kuhli loach (both black and striped): Very amusing to watch when they glass surf, super cute, great color and pattern, never eats or bullies any tank mate. Also stays small enough to justify having a huge amount per tank.
Weather loach: Super hardy, super friendly (with both their owner and tank mates), attractive color (on the golden version), quite active, amusing antics.
One big plus of all loaches is lifespan. You can expect at least 10-15 years of the positive traits outlined above.
I love my sun loaches too! Problem is, they never come out anymore lol. Definitely much more tame than I expected out of them.
Nice yoyo pics. Looks like they're in various stages of making the transition from 'yoyo patterning' to 'reticulated patterning'.
They really are little speed worms, aren't they? ? Even pictus catfish are outdone for it.