How Many Loaches is Too Many

[Miguel]

I 've seen a tank with more than fifty..Impressive sight. Never forgotten..

It remains, Brian, one of my "projects"...

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Technically it would be fine, but personally i wouldn't do it. As far as bottom dwelling fish go, i have 2 clown loaches, 8 albino corys, 3 panda corys, 1 sailfin pleco, 3 otos, 7 clown plecos in my 5ft long main 125gallon tank and that to me looks busier enough (although i want to get 1 more clown loach, posibly more, as they do best in trios or more).

Loaches like being in decent sized groups of their own kind, however they also like to have a lot of space too; over-crowding the bottom of the tank with bottom dwelling fish wouldn't be good even if they were peaceful with each other. I think how many loaches you went for would depend on what kinds of loaches you want exactly, what types of loaches are you interested in?

 

[Bderick67]

Technically it would be fine, but personally i wouldn't do it. As far as bottom dwelling fish go, i have 2 clown loaches, 8 albino corys, 3 panda corys, 1 sailfin pleco, 3 otos, 7 clown plecos in my 5ft long main 125gallon tank and that to me looks busier enough (although i want to get 1 more clown loach, posibly more, as they do best in trios or more).

Loaches like being in decent sized groups of their own kind, however they also like to have a lot of space too; over-crowding the bottom of the tank with bottom dwelling fish wouldn't be good even if they were peaceful with each other. I think how many loaches you went for would depend on what kinds of loaches you want exactly, what types of loaches are you interested in?

It's not what I am interested in, it is what I already have.

I have a 120 gallon (60" x 18" x 26") planted tank filtered with 2 Eheim 2026 canister filters.
Current stock includes;
a 12-13" Black aro
2x 5-6" marble angels
a pair of 3-4" firemouths(they spawn every 3 weeks)
5x clown loaches
5x yo yo loaches (loaches vary from 3-6")
3x blue botia
a 2-3" clown pleco
a 2-3" albinp bristlenose pleco

And the following soon to be removed
a 5-6"common pleco
a 3-4" red tail shark
2x convict fry 1/2-3/4"
3 or 4 chinese algae eaters 3-4"

I have three more clown loaches I would like to add to the mix when they are outa quarentine.
My question is;

Would 16 loaches ranging in size from 3-6" be too much.

I realize some fish will out grow this tank and they will be moved to larger tanks when the time is right.

 

[Lrry93]

I have over 60 in a 150 around 3 inches. Its a crazy tank. They do bug the other fish in there bumping and checking them out.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Personally i would just keep it to the 5 as they currently are, even though clown loaches grow slowly, they will grow to 12inches+ long over time, which will make the bottom of the tank very crowded considering that you'll also need stuff like caves for the loaches to take shelter in. You can add the new ones right now, but i would keep a close eye on them as they grow, i would personally upgrade the tank to something longer when the clown loaches hit 8-9inches.