I currently have a small clown loach in a 29 gallon with my dwarf gourami and bristle nose pleco. Have a huge snail problem so he’s in there to get a handle on the snails. I know that eventually he will outgrow the tank, so I plan on transferring him to my 150 at that time. That tank is stocked with shubunkins. My lfs told me that the loaches love to suck on the goldfish slime coat. Has anyone ever seen this behavior? Is it something I should be concerned about? Should this prohibit putting them together in the first place?
Loaches and goldfish
- Thread starter koipie doll
- Start date
Not to mention that clown loaches need to be kept in groups of 6 or more and will eventually hit a foot.
Eh, I don’t really worry about the size of clown loaches. It takes them so long to grow that you can easily get another tank by the time it had outgrown it or sell it for more then your paid. Not a good way to think but at least you always have a backup plan this way.
Last edited:
Hit a foot in a decade or two. Stop worrying about max sizes and worry about getting it there. These things grow slower than diamonds
I understand they are slow growers, but I like knowing the max size of a fish before I keep them so I know what i am getting into. Must be a personal preference. Forgot to include that they were slow growers in my original post, but thought I would throwt out their max size since OP either has not done research or is in the process of researching. But the OP still needs to get a group.
Let’s say you live in an apartment and you get a tree to brighten up the room. The tree can grow to be 50 feet but takes a year to grow 3 inches, are you really going to worry about it getting too big? It’s similar to the clown loach, both are notorious for growing slow.
not clown loaches, but I have seen my gold dojo loaches suck on other fish, though I don't know if this is them being aggressive or them just looking for food (they sift around and if they find something they like they go after it)
Like I said, I understand how slow they grow. I have had my group for a decent amount of time. I just wanted to mention how big they get, because i like to know their eventual size, even if it is going to take a long time.