What to look for in a clown loach?

[West1]

Im going to try to get another clown loach this weekend.

I just lost my first clown after 2days in the tank (I think he had knifeback and never knew to look for this in clowns). So what do I need to look for in a healthy loach? I know not much of these fish. I do know that my tanks water para. and temp is suitable for a loach to live in.

 

[squint]

1. Make sure your acclimate al fish properly. This entails dripping water from the tank into a bucket containing the water the fish came with and emptying the bucket as needed. Using a TDS meter, measure the TDS of the water in the tank and the water i the bucket. Do not add the fish to the tank until both TDS readings are very close (within 5%). This procedure may take a few hours.

2. Quarantine new fish i their own tank for one, preferably two or more, months.

3. Clown loaches are schooling fish and should not be kept alone.

4. Due to their susceptibility to ich, I believe it's irresponsible to keep clown loaches without UV "sterilizers." Wouldn't it be great if the aquarium keeper's scourge could more or less be completely eliminated by a single miracle product? We're still searching for the magic pill to cure obesity but the one for ich already exists. It's no surprise that public aquariums and aquaculture operations use UV. The former's decision making process is driver by peer reviewed studies so they are unlikely to use any devices that are gimmicks. The latter are motivated almost solely by financial concerns so the fact that they invest in expensive commercial grade UV units is a testament to their effectiveness.

 

[West1]

O.KAY! Well I do have a U/V and a sump, with 25% water shanges weekly (every 5 days). Thanks for the info and all of it sound good (your feed back), except when you said I need to keep them in groups. I only want one because of a small snail prob. Do you think one can make do in my tank (150gl)? If not can you sugg. a fish that will eliminate the snails? Thanks squint

 

[Ianab]

If you dont have room for several clown loaches then maybe look at some of the smaller loach species. Depending on what else you have in the tank you could get dwarf loaches (2"), Zebra loaches (4") or Yoyo loaches (6"). That way you can put a group of 4 or so in. They will be MUCH happier in a group. The smaller loaches also eat snails and behave very much like the clowns. They probably wont eliminate the snails completely, but they will eat the small ones and eggs, and you can manually fish out the adult snails that they miss.

These are my little zebras They are very active, even during the day and are allways out fossicking for left over food and chasing each other around the tank.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Ianab]

Just read your other post and you said your tank pH is 8.

I suggest you stay away from loaches completely, they wont like that water at all

Cheers

Ian

 

[West1]

Just read your other post and you said your tank pH is 8.

I suggest you stay away from loaches completely, they wont like that water at all

Cheers

Ian

Ahhh! k.
By the way, I have VATF's with a barracuda and an indo dat in my tank . fish under 5" will sleep with the fishes... in their stomach

 

[Lupin]

Keep levamisole hydrochloride with you for future reference.

 

[West1]

I dont want to use meds (unless I have to)

 

[Lupin]

I dont want to use meds (unless I have to)

I was merely giving an advice.

 

[ewurm]

Check this out, my suggestions and experiences for keeping loaches:

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/blog.php?u=6647