Clown Loaches - What are the best conditions for these fish?

Question

I have a pair that are looking very listless and fragile. Looking for other fish to be kept with them and water temp. etc...

Answer 1

Tank Conditions: 72-86°F; pH 6.0-7.5; KH 8-12
Max. Size In Aquarium: Up to 1'
They are compatible with other loaches, Mollies, platies, Plecos, Rainbowfish, Rasboras, sharks, Swordtails, Tetras, Ciclids, Angelfish, Barbs, Bettas, Danios, Discus, Gouramis, Guppies, Hatchets and Killifish.

Answer 2

Distribution: Sumatra and Borneo
Length: Up to 12in (30cm)
Diet: Worms, crustaceans, plant matter,and dried food
Water temperature: 75-86 F (24-30 C)
Community Tank environment


The most colorful and popular of the loaches, the Clown Loach is moderately elongated and laterally compressed. It has an arched back, an almost straight belly profile, and four pairs of barbels. The barbels located on the lower jaw are very small. The head is large and the mouth faces downward, with thick fleshy lips. The spine in front of the eye is quite short. The general coloration is bright orange and the flanks are crossed by three wide, wedge- shaped black bands. The first band runs from the top of the skull across the eye and then obliquely down to the region of the mouth; the second starts in front of the dorsal fin and extends down to the belly, and the third covers a large part of the caudal peduncle and runs down onto the anal fin. The pectoral, ventral, and caudal fins are yellowish with black markings.

The Clown Loach is not a shy as the other loaches. Often quite active in the day, they can be easily kept in a community tank with other fishes. It is very helpful to buy Clown Loaches in pairs, since they are happiest with a companion. In fact, they have even been seen to form a small shoal with armored catfish. One unusual Clown Loach trait is resting on the bottom of the tank on their sides. Although this may alarm owners at first, most come to realize that this is, in fact, a normal behavior.

The tank should have a soft substrate that will allow the fishes to burrow for food. Clown Loaches will eat a wide variety of foods including: brine shrimp, bloodworms, snails, and various dried foods (The dried food should be high in protein). Rocks and roots suitably placed in the tank will provide shelter. Most clown loaches prefer homes that are only slightly larger than they are. The water should be soft and changed often.

Once they are established, Clown Loaches live for several years in an aquarium, where they grow slowly, but seldom reach the size recorded for wild specimens (About one foot). They have not been bred in captivity; probably because they do not reach full sexual maturity.

Due to the popularity of these fishes, they have become increasingly harder to find, and most of the available stock is quite small and expensive. If you do find some Clown Loaches at a decent size and price, buy them before someone else does!

Answer 3

Clown loaches do best in pairs, and can be kept peacefully with aquarium fish. They like temps between 75-86 degrese F, 20-30 degrese C. They are supposed to be active during the day, and an unusual clown loach may rest on there side at the bottom of the tank regularly. They like brine shrimp, various dried foods (high in protein), snails, plant matter, and brine shrimp. Look for signs of disease, and talk to your petstore. good luck!

Answer 4

maximum easily!! the concern with loaches, catfish and toddler fish is they might desire to be dealt with a minimum of 0.5 the cautioned dose of medicated products. And in case you do no longer capture it early, utilising this low dose certainly does no longer something (or no longer sufficient a minimum of) ensuing in dying. The trick is early detection. Ive had some catfish die at 1 / 4 of the cautioned dose, some are extra gentle then others. So did you decrease the dose? If no longer you basically did no longer capture it in time. Its ok tho now you have the certainty for next time = ) remember catfish, loaches and toddler fish all have small or no scales meaning drugs are harm finished at wide-spread rates. wish i helped Angel

Answer 5

Clown Loach
Botia macracantha (bleeker, 1852)

Family: Cobitidae
Type: Cyprinids
Distribution: Sumatra, Borneo, Indonesia
Max Size: 12"
pH: Neutral
Temperature: 76-84° F.
Diet: Omnivorous
Breeding: Expert
Temperment: Peaceful
Sociability: Groups
Min. Tank: 65 gallons
Availability: Common
Area: Bottom

Clown Loaches, scientifically known as Botia macracantha, are among the most colorful and popular of aquarium Loaches. The originate from streams and creeks in Indonesia, Sumatra and Borneo. Three black bands encircle the bright orange body. The dorsal and anal fins are black with orange edges, and the other fins are orange-red, with streaks of black in the caudal fin.

Susceptible to white spot disease, this fish is said to not tolerate medications.

This bottom feeding fish grows much larger in the wild than it generally does in captivity. While the it may grow up to 12" in the wild, they rarely reach half this size in the home aquarium. They prefer to be in schools of five or six.

In large tanks, they often swim peacefully in schools, sometimes with barbs of similar size and color. This fish is shy and so dim lights are recommended. Use floating plants to block out some of the light if needed. Rocks and caves are appreciated as hiding places as well as plastic tubes but the Clown Loach will enventually learn to come out of hiding. They prefer a fine gravel bottom as they like to burrow in the bottom of the tank.

Clown loaches are omnivores who will readily accept common aquariums foods such as flakes, algae tablets, frozen foods, live foods, beef heart.

The water should be soft and slighly acidic.

Females are thinner in size than males, and males have longer caudal fins. The Clown Loach spawns during the rainy season in foaming, fast flowing, spring-fed streams, according to information from Dr. Liem of Djakarta. Rarely bred in captivity.

Answer 6

clown loaches have a slow growth rate, but they will grow over 13 inches. so you will need a 100 gallon tank.

other good fish is gouramies and livebearers.

Answer 7

Here is a easy summary which I have had the best luck and my fish is 7 years old:
PH should be at 7.0 which is Neutral
Temperature 78 - 80
Good charcol filter and 20 plus gallon tank
Bio filter.
If you really want to keep them happy feed them small snails every one in a while.

Good luck,
OT

Answer 8

Clown loaches are very popular aquarium fish; however they are not always easy to keep successfully since they easily succumb to ick and are sensitive to poor water conditions. This article is intended to help new clown loach owners provide a good home for their loaches. Clown loaches are found in Indonesia (Sumatra and Borneo), and almost all clown loaches in aquariums are wild caught and distributed around the world before being sold. This can put considerable stress on the fish, and a vital step in getting a healthy clown loach school in your aquarium is choosing healthy fish. But how to make sure that you get healthy fish?

- Check the general conditions in the fish store. Are there dead fish in the aquariums? Is the water clean? If some tanks are mistreated there is a good chance that there might be unfavourable conditions in others too. Only buy fish from stores that take good care of their aquariums.
- How do the clown loaches look? Clown loaches can give you an indication of their condition based on their coloration. A healthy clown loach shows clear distinct colours, while a stressed one loses its colours and becomes whiter. Only buy loaches that show their correct colours.
- Are the clown loaches well fed? Those that haven't been fed correctly are hard to nurse back to health, and it is more than likely you will end up with a dead fish if you buy one. Look at their bodies and see if they look well fed, and ask the shopkeepers how often and what the loaches are fed.
- Are the clown loaches active? Healthy clown loaches are very active and full of energy. A healthy clown loach should be hard to catch.
- Do the clown loaches have hiding places? Hiding places are very important to relieve stress in clown loaches, and you are likely to get higher quality fish from aquariums with hiding places.
- Don't buy clown loaches smaller than 2 inches/5 cm if you haven't kept clown loaches before, since they are much more sensitive when they are younger.

So ideally you should look for the most coloured, most active clown loaches you can find, and buy these to have the best starting point possible. You should also consider the water conditions in the store and try to find one that keeps their clown loaches in water condition similar to the water conditions in your aquarium, to reduce stress on the clown loaches. It should also be stated that clown loaches like resting on their sides, looking almost as if they were dead. However this is completely normal and should not be seen as a sign of poor quality in the fish but rather the opposite. When you have decided where to buy your clown loaches you should buy at least 3 (preferable 8-10). Clown loaches are schooling fish that should never be kept alone!!!

Once you get home with your new clown loaches you should let the bag float on the water surface for 10-15 minutes, and then slowly every 10 minutes add a little water from the aquarium (a coffee cup). Repeat this 4-5 times before you release the fish into their new home.

Tank setup
Clown loaches can be kept in aquariums of 100 L / 20 G or more. Keep in mind that even though clown loaches grow very slowly they will get big eventually and need an aquarium of at least 540 L/ 125 G, and that should be considered a minimum.

Decorate your aquarium using a bottom substrate of sand or fine gravel that allows the clown loaches to dig . I recommend keeping your clown loaches in a planted aquarium, however the choice of plants differs greatly depending on whether you keep juvenile or adult clown loaches. Juvenile clown loaches can be kept with most plant species, while adults can be kept only with hardy plants such as Java fern and Anubias. All other plants will be destroyed and/or eaten by the adult clown loaches. I also recommend using floating plants to dim the lighting, which makes the loaches more active during the day.

Clown loaches want a setup with a lot of caves and other hiding places, preferably so narrow that they can just barely squeeze themselves into them. Don't be concerned if your clown loaches have squeezed themselves into caves they dug under rocks or aquarium equipment. Odds are they are not stuck - they just like it that way.

Hiding places can be created with rocks, roots, PVC pipes, flower pots, coconuts and different kinds of aquarium decorations. Sharp objects should not be used to decorate aquariums for clown loaches. You can not create too many hiding places and you should create several for each loach.

Clown loaches are sensitive to poor water quality, and they require good filtration. Higher water circulation is also appreciated since clown loaches live in currents in the wild.

Clown loaches are excellent jumpers, and you should make sure that your tank is properly sealed.

Health
As I said earlier, clown loaches are very sensitive towards poor water quality and are usually the first fish that get ill or die if the water quality drops. Water changes of at least 25% a week are recommended. Because of their low tolerance to poor water qualities they are sometimes called indicator fish, since their health indicates the status of the aquarium. Clown loaches are very sensitive to chlorine, and even small amounts can cause a mass death of loaches.

This species are very prone towards getting ick if the water quality isn't good enough, and are sensitive to most ick medicines and salts. So keep an eye on your clown loaches and only use half the recommended doses of medicine, otherwise you risk the medicine killing the loaches.

Food
Clown loaches are carnivores and only eat vegetables to complement their diet. It is therefore recommended that they are given food that reflects this. To get your clown loaches to grow, optimal feeding 3-5 times a day is recommended. (They still grow slowly). Their diet should contain a variety of foods, and can include almost any carnivorous food. A good base may be shrimps, different sinking wafers, different frozen foods, and as they grow older, fish slices. Clown loaches can make a clicking sound, and they will do this when they are content. Therefore you will soon find out what is your loaches' favourite food by them clicking when they receive it. Like most other fish, clown loaches might need some time to accept new foods, however once they do it might become a favourite. Clown loaches are one of the few fishes that eat and like snails, and can therefore be of good use in snail control.

Breeding
Clown loaches have been bred in aquariums, however it is very rare. Sexing clown loaches externally is hard, but possible by looking at the tail fin. The tail fin tips on the male are slightly bent inwards, making the fin look a little bit like a claw. The tail fin tips on the females aren't shaped like this.

Clown loaches have to be quite old and at least 7 inches / 17 cm before they are sexually mature. In the one good account of clown loaches spawning they spawned under the following conditions:
- Temp: 84F
- pH: 6.5
- Ammonia & Nitrite: 0
- Nitrate: < 25

Four large clown loaches (over 25 cm /10 inches) were kept together in a planted aquarium, and a few weeks before spawning they changed their behaviour and started eating live fish as their only accepted food. The females in the group grew very fast on this diet, and had doubled in girth by the time of spawning. The night during which the spawning took place, two clowns were swimming close beneath the surface entwined in each other and "clicking." The next morning, 450 eggs were found spread about the aquarium. Clown loaches eat their own eggs, so it is recommended moving the parents if you wish to succeed in spawning them.

The fry were fed liquid fry food for the first two weeks, after which they accepted crushed flakes. They grew relatively fast, to 2.5 cm/ 1 inch in 6 weeks. After that the growth rate slowed down.

It's suggested that older fish are essential for breeding since this fish might have to be quite old to be sexually mature. Clown loaches live to be about 50 years, so it is quite feasible that they may spawn later in life than many other species.














They love those snails so give them snail.
Some people even get these snail to kill snails! 10 pts would be nice.