dirtyblacksocks;1787229; said:Put an oscar and some loaches in a bare bottom tank and you'll see how much the loaches leave behind - they're good at rooting around and getting food out of cracks, but they're still messy eaters.
Cory cats on the other hand eat just about everything but poop. Just my experience - if you like the look of loaches then they're fine for a cleanup crew, it's not like they'll be making things worse. Just thought I'd throw that out there =)
I know as a fact that loaches don't like bare tanks though. They spend most of their time picking around the gravel and like you said trying to uproot plants. I used to have a little 15 gallon tank with just different species of little loaches, I never saw a spec of food when I did water changes ever two weeks. Thanks for your imput though, I think bare tanks are interesting, never tried one myself.