Clown Loaches?

Question

I just bought 5 new Clown Loaches for my 50 gal tank and I was wondering for some questions...

What do they eat?
How fast do they grow?

I was also wondering the estimate of time i have before they start growing

Answer 1

They're slow growers unless you feed them like pigs & change the water all the time. They're not as slow or small as other loach species though. They will eventually fill up your 50 gal in about 2-3 years.

I have 3 staple products that my clowns eat.

Wardley Sinking Shrimp Pellets (cheap orange tube at wallmart... they'll eat it & it will fill them up, they have to be a little hungry to eat them, but this is the #1 thing I've found to make them grow fast)

Hikari Sinking Algae Wafers (medium priced, the most fragrant algae wafer I've found & the loaches love it. its their favorite freeze dried food).

Tetra Rich Mix Sinking Pellets (vitamin C rich pellets that the loaches enjoy and helps maintain their colors.... expensive... cichlids will steal these from the loaches... most cichlids LOVE this stuff, but its too expensive to use as cichlid food)

From time to time, I'll also give them frozen blood worms, and live brine shrimp. They'll eat both very willingly.

I've found that they're also willing to eat frozen mysis shrimps and ground up krill leftovers spit out by my big cichlids.

Clown loaches are one of my favorite loaches... very playful creatures when you don't give them too many hiding spaces & dim the lights a little. I love how they pal around in the bubble wand output.

Mine are kinda strange... any time the power goes out & the temperature drops.... they go snail hunting & I end up with snail corpses littered all over the tank. They love eating the pest snails that come on unsanitized live plants.

Answer 2

Yes you can, I am right now. I have zebra, clown, yoyo, and yellow finned loaches together. Remember loaches like to be in groups of 4-5 though. I don't but everyone acts fine so if not you should be fine. If you do get a clown loach be sure to get ready to treat the tank for ich. Clown loaches get stressed easily.

Answer 3

Clowns are great, aren't they? I have 3 of them in a 30 gal tank. They are slow growing fish that will eat practically anything. They do prefer worms and should have a high protein diet. Snails are also appreciated. Many people use them to control snail populations that get out of hand.

They will not achieve adult size for a few years so you have plenty of time to enjoy them in your 50 gal.

I also have 4 skunk loaches and 4 yoyo loaches. Not in the same tank, though. Of the 3 different kinds, the yoyos are by far the best snail eaters of the groups. I can drop 50 snails into their tank and not see any crawling around the next day.

Answer 4

Sinking pellets and frozen worms like blood worms are great food for Clown loaches. Once they get a bit larger earthworms are greedily eaten as well.

Generally speaking clown loaches are rather slow growing fish so you have some time before the group out grows your 50 gallon.

MM

Answer 5

Clown loaches feed on flake, frozen, tablet and especially live food like brine shrimp.(Omnivorous character)

They grow to the size of about 16cm but take about a couple of years (5-6 years) before growing that large, provided that the tank is wide enough though.