I have clown loaches that are over 20 years old that have lived with Malawis their entire lives. They're enormously fat and healthy, and the Malawis and clowns basically ignore each other.
African cichlids and clown loaches???
- Thread starter Marauder225
- Start date
No idea why people always say" that's a hard water fish and this is a soft water fish". They are kept in tap water regardless 
I've had clown loaches live with africans for years with no issues whatsoever.
I've had clown loaches live with africans for years with no issues whatsoever.You are absolutly right. My tap water is 7.4 or 7.6 and I keep malawi cichlids that are supposed to be in 8 or 8.2No idea why people always say" that's a hard water fish and this is a soft water fish". They are kept in tap water regardless
I always keep clown loaches with my African and CA cichlids at pH around 7.5. I kept other loaches before but clown loaches are the best because they are most peaceful, social, and come out in daylight a lot. Other loaches I kept you never see them because they hide in crevices all day long, such as Kuli and the many zebra loaches. The red tail blue Botia look similar to clown loaches and grow large, but their behavior is completely different as they are territorial, non social and fight among themselves all day long. One problem with all loaches is that they are very susceptable to ich and can be a magnet to invite ich outbreack. I lost many clown loaches over the years to episodic ich outbreak that spread to my cichlids. Another problem is that loaches will compete for caves with cichlids. So if you want to breed cave dwelling cichlids, you may have a problem. I have three 6+ inch long clown loaches that are bulky enough that they will push the rock aside to make nests for themselves to sleep.
I realize it's a crappy picture, but it's the only one I have access to at the moment. Hard to tell scale here, I know, but it's about 8-10 inches.
Alot of people keep the two together obviously in the wild they live nowhere near each other but clowns tend to be able to adapt the harder water, so you can keep them together its just if you want to set-up a proper Malawi / Tanganykian biotope or not.
