Clown loaches pricing question...

[danotaylor]

If you choose to go with Clown Loaches, temporarily raise you temperature to 80 - 82 degrees. That's not the therapeutic temperature range, but it's usually enough to stave off the Ich parasite.

Ok, this is the info I was looking for. I really want to keep the largest group I can afford atm, but want to minimize the ich outbreak potential. I can buy 10 x 2.5” clowns with the money I currently have, which, though smaller in size than the available modesta, will be a better social group size. Whilst it isn’t feasible to keep my big tank in the mid 80’s long term, it is possible to raise the temp to 80-82 as a temporary measure prior to introducing the clowns.
Arriving at a seemingly responsible decision which incorporates good experiential advice from a few experienced loach heads

 

[danotaylor]

Ok MFK’ers, as promised, here’s a loach update. I decided to put them initially into my 125gal since the MTS numbers are worse there.
I ended up going with Midwater recommendation of the largest group my budget would permit, and also A201 recommendation by raising the tank temp to 80F prior to picking them up. Hoping that will avoid an ICH outbreak.
I got 10 x 2.25-3” clowns for $135. These guys are so active, they’re almost as tough as the tropheus to photograph. Once they settle in and start schooling together I’ll get some video footage.
So the site won’t load pics atm. Will try back in a while

 

[danotaylor]

 

[FJB]

Nice looking group. Good luck.
For myself, I would never put any fish (any species, any source) in my tanks without a minimum of a 4 week qt, longer if possible. It is just not worth the risk.

 

[danotaylor]

Nice looking group. Good luck.
For myself, I would never put any fish (any species, any source) in my tanks without a minimum of a 4 week qt, longer if possible. It is just not worth the risk.

Thanks mate.
You are right of course. The trumpet snail delirium definitely clouded my judgement on that decision. I even have a 40B QT tank set up that I just moved the bishop tropheus out of last week

 

[danotaylor]

There are two variants of Modesta, depending on which waterway they come from. Some have orange red tails, and the others have washed out yellow tails. But both variants do mix together.

Until big, they are barely indistinguishable from Lecontei, which have yellow tails, are slightly slimmer, and get a violet sheen instead of a blue sheen.

So at the LFS I bought the CL’s from they had a tank w loaches labeled as “blue botia”. They were super active, literally racing around at all levels in the water column. They had faint yellow tail & fins, and a charcoal grey/black body. There were 4-6” fish in the group and they were 3/$40. I almost got them except I remembered someone here mentioning a not so positive character/temperament trait for 1 of the yellow tail botias.
Someone mentioned eos had yellow tail, and also Lecontei. Is there any definitive way to tell them apart?
Thx team

 

[Midwater]

Someone mentioned eos had yellow tail, and also Lecontei. Is there any definitive way to tell them apart?

Yes. You have to ask them.

 

[A201]

I believe the Blue Botia is more or less the same loach as the Modesta.

 

[danotaylor]

I believe the Blue Botia is more or less the same loach as the Modesta.

Thanks mate.
They look like the ones Midwater posted the pic of but I wasn’t sure.
I might go back and get some for the 500gal. They were pretty big and very active. I didn’t wanna get them if they were eos. @3/$40 for their size seemed very fair as well

 

[audioscience10]

I will tell you if you have a lot of hiding spots you may never see the blue ones. I have one in my cichlid tank with yoyos and polkadots. I was sure he was dead until i saw him the other day. they are nocturnal. so they hide all day. I would love to get more though. That seems like a really good deal.