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Clown loaches with haps

gcaligan

Members
Anyone keep a group of clown loaches in a hap / peacock tank?
I saw a picture of someone's tank on MFK who had them, and it was one of the nicest looking tanks I've seen. The orange / red as well as the different body shape added some good contrast to the typical mostly blue African tank.

I've never kept loaches before, so not really sure how well that actually works. Any thoughts?
 

Thai

Members
Although rare I've seen then with Africans before, I keep a school of 18 in with centrals myself, love them!

image.jpg
 

gcaligan

Members
How do they get along with bigger, more aggressive fish?
It looks like they should be kept in a lower ph than a typical Malawi tank. Do you maintain a lower ph in your tank, or do they seem to adapt to whatever you have?
 

verbal

CCA Members
Clown loaches are relatively hardy. They should be able to adapt to most tap water in this area. If you aren't adding anything to the tap water it shouldn't be a big deal.
 

Reed

Very Fishe
Not a problem have had them mixed for years

Sent from my GT-P7510 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 

dogofwar

CCA Members
I've kept them with Haps, peacocks and Fronts...as well as lots of New Worlds.

I wouldn't keep clown loaches with mbuna, though...

The food, circulation and water characteristics arguments put forth in the article don't really hold water if you're using tap water, feeding quality pellets, filtering with a HOB or canister and keeping your tank at 78 or so like most aquarists...

Matt
 

Charlutz

Members
It's not their natural habitat, but clown loaches do fine with rift lake africans, including mbuna. I've heard that they are susceptible to ich in soft water, low ph tanks. They've been extremely hardy in my 8.0+ ph hard water tanks with africans. Not one instance of ich. The only issue I had was when I kept them with a breeding pair of substrate spawning neo. buescheri, the fish in my avatar in a 40br. The lamps harassed the loaches non-stop. In a mixed tank, or with less territorial fish, they will be fine.
 

gcaligan

Members
Good to hear all the responses. I had read the same article on loaches.com, but thought the reasoning sounded a bit suspect. By their logic, Eskimos shouldn't be able to survive in Florida. Anyway, I went ahead and got a few and have them in a quarantine tank. I feel a little better about adding them to my African tank now.
 

frankoq

Members
I have 3 clowns mixed with 22 cichlids in a 90g tank.
It's funny/scary to see them sleeping on their side at the bottom while the cichlids are swimming around. They seem to get along fine but I do see the occasional nip in their tail. PH is kept at 8. They are really fun to watch. they swim sideways or up side down. they scrape cichilds bodies if they let them. They get to pellets stuck where cichilds can't get to. quite a cleaning crew.
 

Howie

Members
I have 7 CLs. They are getting big and hang with big haps and peacocks in my 120 and with aggressive mbuna in my 36.
 
Clown loaches and African cichlids are compatible tankmates and I have done it for years. The oldest fish in my cichlid tank are three decade old clown loache which out lived every one of their cichlid tankmates.

The problem with small CL is that they can become egg thief. So if you keep egg laying cave dwellers, you may not see any fry because small CL will enter the caves at night and rob the eggs. Big CL is less a problem because they can't get into small caves. But being big, they are powerful and will attempt to push their way into rock pile which must be security stacked or else you run the risk of collapsing.
 
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