Clown Loaches OK with Oscars?

[pjsmetana]

Still in the trail to find the perfect scavenger that is not a catfish...

I've read that Clown Loaches can get up to about a foot in length and will eat leftovers from the tank floor. These pretty decent scavengers? How well do they work with O's? I know they are a peaceful fish, and I've seen a lot of people keep them successfully with African Cichlids, so they must be pretty strong survivors.

 

[Sarah88]

i wouldnt see Os messing with clown loaches, the only bad part is these guys are super slow growers and if the oscars got too much bigger then they may try to take a bite at them but ive seen lots of tanks on here where people have kept schools of these guys with Os and other cichlids

 

[Loves severums]

yes they can get along with oscar.

 

[Wretched5705]

my oscar ate mine...all of them...how he survived from those spines I will never know. Whatever ones he cudnt eat he just killed. dunno if Gorgeous George is just a psycho or if he was wronged by a group of loaches in his past, but it really didnt work for me

 

[Mo0]

You would probably be fine if you had about at least 5 or 6 of them but if the oscar gets too big it will most likely eat them for a midnight night snack when your not looking so try to get them at a bigger size and they do grow slowly really slowly

 

[Oscarum monstruoso]

my oscar ate mine...all of them...how he survived from those spines I will never know. Whatever ones he cudnt eat he just killed. dunno if Gorgeous George is just a psycho or if he was wronged by a group of loaches in his past, but it really didnt work for me

With a name like that, you absolutely have to have a ton of his pics in your gallery. I want to see this guy!

 

[Wretched5705]

With a name like that, you absolutely have to have a ton of his pics in your gallery. I want to see this guy!

thats actually him in my avatar lol

 

[midnightkiss]

Hmm, I was wanting to add a couple when I get my bigger tank, I guess not a good idea. haha

 

[CTU2fan]

You would want big ones, and the big ones really aren't proper scavengers. They'll get some stuff, but not really to the point of being useful (especially considering what they'd cost).

Just out of curiosity...why not catfish?

A group of geos/satanopercas would probably do as good a job as CL's, with their sand-sifting, but if you don't have sand goes are a bad idea. 2-3 senegal bichirs will do a fair job at scavenging; mine does. Again, you'll want to make sure they're big enough not to be snacks for your oscar, but at least they grow quicker than clown loaches.