Jaguar cichlids with clown loaches

[David R]

Uaru are another good candidate if you want to keep cichlids with loaches, IME. Similar water requirements, not aggressive or predatory.

 

[Bertie07]

Duane gave some very good options. Having said that, IME CL's also generally do quite well in hard mineral rich tap water, so other fish can certainly be utilized as tank mates. Just not overly aggressive specimens or the clowns will have to fight for scraps at meal time, and will stay hidden much of the day. I learned this the hard way years ago. When allowed to live in a safe, peaceful environment, instead of hiding all day under a rock, or inside a cave, this is what you can experience. The photo below was taken in a clown loach only 125 gallon set up that I had running years back. There's only a few set ups that I miss from the past, this is definitely one of them.

View attachment 1304203

Were your clown loaches active without dithers, the tank looks great

 

[Bertie07]

Duane gave some very good options. Having said that, IME CL's also generally do quite well in hard mineral rich tap water, so other fish can certainly be utilized as tank mates. Just not overly aggressive specimens or the clowns will have to fight for scraps at meal time, and will stay hidden much of the day. I learned this the hard way years ago. When allowed to live in a safe, peaceful environment, instead of hiding all day under a rock, or inside a cave, this is what you can experience. The photo below was taken in a clown loach only 125 gallon set up that I had running years back. There's only a few set ups that I miss from the past, this is definitely one of them.

View attachment 1304203

Were your clown loaches active without dithers, the tank looks great

 

[RD.]

Yes, very active. I actually started them out with a large school of Columbian Tetras, only to later remove the tetras. The loaches were kept under somewhat subdued lighting, but plenty bright enough to watch them interact all day. At night when the timer turned the tank lights off, with just low light room lighting on, they would all go to their own sleeping spot and settle in. I had a total of 13 or 15 clown loaches in that 125, and they all used their same individual spot to sleep each night. For some it was just a flat spot on piece of driftwood, others would sleep in a small cluster, behind a rock, on top of a rock, etc. When they starting getting to where I felt some were going to need a larger tank, I split them up and gave them to a couple local friends who had 400-500+ gallon tanks. I currently have a group of 4 with oddball markings that were given to me by one of those same friends. I can't remember a time that I haven't kept clown loaches in at least one tank. One of my all time favourite species of fish. This was taken shortly after I set that tank up.