Clown Loach in plated tank ??

[Henry]

I would like to try two or three Clown Loaches in my 75 gal planted tank. I
think they are really neat fish and they should eliminate my snail problem.

I do seem to remember hearing that they are very hard on plants however. Is
this true? If so, then maybe I don't want them after all.

Any input from anybody who has had Clown Loaches in a planted tank would be
greatly appreciated.

75 gal tank. Canister filter. Pressurized CO2 injection. Tank is heavily
planted. Light: about 2 watts/gal.

[George Pontis]

In article t>,
says...
> I would like to try two or three Clown Loaches in my 75 gal planted tank. I
> think they are really neat fish and they should eliminate my snail problem.
>
> I do seem to remember hearing that they are very hard on plants however. Is
> this true? If so, then maybe I don't want them after all.
>
> Any input from anybody who has had Clown Loaches in a planted tank would be
> greatly appreciated.
>

I have an 80G tank with a four or five potted plants. The fish include 6 fully
grown clown loaches and assorted Lake Malawi cichlids. The plants were in a mix of
sand and fluorite. The plants did OK with CO2 but had fairly low light.

The loaches dug up most of the plants and uprooting a few of them. I abandoned all
but two swords, then repotted them with a layer of 1" river pebbles on top. This
seems to have solved the problem.

[Elaine T]

Henry wrote:
> I would like to try two or three Clown Loaches in my 75 gal planted tank. I
> think they are really neat fish and they should eliminate my snail problem.
>
> I do seem to remember hearing that they are very hard on plants however. Is
> this true? If so, then maybe I don't want them after all.
>
> Any input from anybody who has had Clown Loaches in a planted tank would be
> greatly appreciated.
>
> 75 gal tank. Canister filter. Pressurized CO2 injection. Tank is heavily
> planted. Light: about 2 watts/gal.
>
>
I kept 3 clown loaches in a 55g planted tank. They started at 3" and
grew to 5" before I moved cross-country and gave them away. I had no
problems with them digging up anything. The substrate was laterite and
fine gravel, DIY CO2 with Duplaplant fertilizers and I was growing
swordplants, crypts, val. spirallis, aponogetons, hygrophila difformis,
....and heaven only knows what else directly in the substrate. They kept
my tank snail-free, as expected.

And actually, those loaches started as 1.5" babies in a 29g planted CO2
injected tank with a lot of rotala spp., aponogetons, crypts, anubias,
hygrophila polysperma, and whatever else I felt like experimenting with.
They also caused no problems there.

--
__ Elaine T __
><__'> http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__><

[blank]

I have 3 clown loaches about 3" long in my 75 gal planted tank. No problems
whatsoever.

[Dick]

On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 00:33:36 GMT, "Henry" > wrote:

>I would like to try two or three Clown Loaches in my 75 gal planted tank. I
>think they are really neat fish and they should eliminate my snail problem.
>
>I do seem to remember hearing that they are very hard on plants however. Is
>this true? If so, then maybe I don't want them after all.
>
>Any input from anybody who has had Clown Loaches in a planted tank would be
>greatly appreciated.
>
>75 gal tank. Canister filter. Pressurized CO2 injection. Tank is heavily
>planted. Light: about 2 watts/gal.
>

I have 11 Clowns, 6 in a planted 75 gallon tank, 3 more in a planted
29 gallon and 2 more in a lightly planted 10 gallon. In over 18
months, none have bothered any plants nor rooted deeply into the
gravel. They are 4 to 5 inches in length. They eat what the rest of
the fish eat, flake food.

dick

[Iain Miller]

"Henry" > wrote in message
nk.net...
>I would like to try two or three Clown Loaches in my 75 gal planted tank. I
>think they are really neat fish and they should eliminate my snail problem.
>
> I do seem to remember hearing that they are very hard on plants however.
> Is this true? If so, then maybe I don't want them after all.
>
> Any input from anybody who has had Clown Loaches in a planted tank would
> be greatly appreciated.
>
> 75 gal tank. Canister filter. Pressurized CO2 injection. Tank is heavily
> planted. Light: about 2 watts/gal.

No problems with my loaches digging up plants at all. For those that have
had issues, the fish were probably looking/burrowing for somewhere to hide.
Give them some rocks/a cave to hid in/under & they'll be happy & won't dig

rgds

I.

[Victor Martinez]

Henry wrote:
> Any input from anybody who has had Clown Loaches in a planted tank would be
> greatly appreciated.

Like others have said, I've had no problems. I have a 110g heavily
planted tank with 10 clown loaches ranging in size from 2 to 6 inches.
No problems whatsoever.

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam here:
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[jonmiilton]

I have a 80G tank with four or five potted plants. This includes 6 fully grown fish, clown loach and a variety of Lake Malawi cichlids. These plants are in a mixed sand and fluorite. These plants also, but has very low light and carbon dioxide loach most of the plants and dug a little, they are uprooted.