Took home a sick Clown Loach.

[AquariumHabit]

Went to a old family friends house last night , I saw that they had a clown loach roughly 5" in a 15g aquarium with 1 dead Red tail shark , he told me that the Red Tail shark has been dead for close to week and he was LAZY to take it out. I felt really bad for the clown loach since he had ich, water temp was at 85 degrees and tank was obviously way to small so I asked if I could take him home, treat him and keep him and he agreed with no hesitation actually stating that I was doing him a favor. MORAL of the story is I now have a clown loach but only 1 , my current set up is a 180 gallon stock is

1 Severum
7 Geophagus Tapajos
6 Congo Tetras
6 Bosemani Rainbows
6 Yoyo Loaches

So what should I do? should I treat him and try giving him to someone who has a group of them?keep him solo? or add a few buddies for him?

 

[esoxlucius]

Firstly, I love clown loach so well done you from rescuing the little fella. First thing you'll need to do is to quarantine it and get it right. That'll give you a few weeks to have a think what your next move is. I'm not 100% sure but looking at your current stock I wouldn't say you're massively overstocked for a 180. Adding a single clown loach won't upset things too much but therein lies the problem. Having a single clown on its own isn't helping it any. They need to be in groups really. Now, given the fact that they can grow large, albeit very very slowly, that group of large clowns, along with your current stock, may mean your bio load will eventually be quite high.

If you know someone who already has clowns the easiest thing would be to see if they'll take it once you've fixed it up.