any luck using clown loaches? I just bought 6 small ones.

"Zimm44" wrote in message
...
any luck using clown loaches? I just bought 6 small ones.

Most of the 'botia' loaches are very good snailers either at pulling them
out of the shells, or devouring the snail eggs. CLs are best known for
eating them out of the shell, though they sometimes need to be taught
(crush a snail in front of them, they will get the idea ;~). The
downside to the CL is their eventual size. Typically they don't grow
very quickly, but if given a steady supply of snails, they will not grow
typically, they will grow fast. CLs are great characters, very
personable, but you will need a good sized tank eventually.
--
www.NetMax.tk

"NetMax" wrote in message
. ..
"Zimm44" wrote in message
...
any luck using clown loaches? I just bought 6 small ones.

Most of the 'botia' loaches are very good snailers either at pulling them
out of the shells, or devouring the snail eggs. CLs are best known for
eating them out of the shell, though they sometimes need to be taught
(crush a snail in front of them, they will get the idea ;~). The
downside to the CL is their eventual size. Typically they don't grow
very quickly, but if given a steady supply of snails, they will not grow
typically, they will grow fast. CLs are great characters, very
personable, but you will need a good sized tank eventually.
--
www.NetMax.tk




Yo-Yo loaches will remain a reasonable size, unlike clown loaches. Yo-Yo's
will also terrorize the snail population quite as readily as clown loaches.

Keep a small group of three as they are much more active that way.

Tom

Has anyone had experiences with Chilotilapia rhodesii (spelling?) and MTS?

Well I got 6 small clowns two days ago. They are still extraordinarily shy.
Maybe it is the aggressive postures of the tanganyikans. who knows. I just
can't wait for them to start feasting on these ugly brown moving lumps. LOL My
tank is 75 gallons so i think I have enough room for them.

Did you read up on Clown Loaches? My gut reaction was, "Wow, that's a
lot of inches of fish!" While small now, they will grow.

I looked at The Krib and couldn't locate them immediately so did a
Google search and found:

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/lo...clownloach.htm

This site says they grow to 6" in an aquarium and 12" in the wild. My
LFS advertises the longer length. I didn't realize how long they'd live
either.

After not researching critters more than once and purchasing items I was
assured would be fine that subsequently died or caused problems, I try
hard not to buy now without research. The LFS personnel rarely know a
thing about what they sell and often give conflicting or contradictory
information.

Zimm44 wrote:

Well I got 6 small clowns two days ago. They are still extraordinarily shy.
Maybe it is the aggressive postures of the tanganyikans. who knows. I just
can't wait for them to start feasting on these ugly brown moving lumps. LOL My
tank is 75 gallons so i think I have enough room for them.

http://www.loaches.com/index.html is a nice site for info. IMO, a 75g
would be a good starting home for 6 Clowns, possibly for 4 or 5 years
(depending on how quickly they grow). It's not just their size, but
they get into under and around everything all the time, so even when they
are only 6" long, you will start wishing you had a longer tank
(especially depending on the qty & type of your other fish).

I have enough tanks so that as the fish grow I simply upgrade them to
larger tanks, and this makes the best use of all my tanks. If in 4-5
years you still have 6 CLs, they are growing fast and your other
inhabitants are feeling crowded, you can decide then what works best for
you. Note that you can be a bit more leisurely in your upgrade plans
with same-species botia as they are community shoalers. This wait & see
strategy would not work as well for territorial fish (like cichlids,
which *is* the newsgroup you are in).

ps: What you might not realize is that if you still have six 6" CLs in 4
or 5 years, that they will be house pets, and you might not think twice
about getting them a bigger tank on one of your regular trips to the LFS
to pick up treats for them ;~) These fish are very personable
characters.
--
www.NetMax.tk

"Flatspin" wrote in message
news:2FS9d.17908$R43.6269@fed1read01...
Did you read up on Clown Loaches? My gut reaction was, "Wow, that's a
lot of inches of fish!" While small now, they will grow.

I looked at The Krib and couldn't locate them immediately so did a
Google search and found:

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/lo...clownloach.htm

This site says they grow to 6" in an aquarium and 12" in the wild. My
LFS advertises the longer length. I didn't realize how long they'd
live
either.

After not researching critters more than once and purchasing items I
was
assured would be fine that subsequently died or caused problems, I try
hard not to buy now without research. The LFS personnel rarely know a
thing about what they sell and often give conflicting or contradictory
information.

Zimm44 wrote:

Well I got 6 small clowns two days ago. They are still
extraordinarily shy.
Maybe it is the aggressive postures of the tanganyikans. who knows. I
just
can't wait for them to start feasting on these ugly brown moving
lumps. LOL My
tank is 75 gallons so i think I have enough room for them.

"Zimm44" wrote in message
...
Two of my three tanks are infested with a very small almost brownish
looking
snail. What's the deal? They are in a 75 gallon tank that is home for a
tanganyikan population which includes frontosas, compressiceps, calvus
white,
leleupis, and juies. I am worried that these snails may somehow eat the
fish's
eggs. I love to watch these fish breed so any help would be appreciated.



I'm surprised no one has suggested any of the Syno. cats.
Syno. multipunctatus (cuckoo catfish) demolishes snails well quick.
As will any of the others S. petricola etc.

NetMax wrote:
http://www.loaches.com/index.html is a nice site for info. IMO, a 75g
would be a good starting home for 6 Clowns, possibly for 4 or 5 years
(depending on how quickly they grow). It's not just their size, but
they get into under and around everything all the time, so even when
they are only 6" long, you will start wishing you had a longer tank
(especially depending on the qty & type of your other fish).

When I started getting interested in fish years ago, the clown loaches were
a lot brighter orange than I'm seeing in stores now. Is it just in my head,
or have others noticed this?

Cindy

When I started getting interested in fish years ago, the clown
loaches were a lot brighter orange than I'm seeing in stores now.
Is it just in my head, or have others noticed this?

Cindy

Clowns are mostly wild caught, so unless something about their
harvesting is causing the colour shift, I don't think so. Their
colours are faded when stressed (new arrivals, when fighting, when
sick etc) and also when they age. IMO, the best colour really comes
out in smaller specimens (under 4") which have been well acclimated
to a tank (6-12 months) and are being fed a wide variety of quality
foods. Perhaps this is what you were comparing with the stores.

At work, I tried to keep enough display tanks of fish (not for sale)
so that customers could see what more mature and settled specimens
looked like. Some examples of fish which looked unimpressive young
or after transport were Electric Blues, Mooris, Cacatoides,
Appistogramas, Chocolate & Licorice gouramis, Brochis, Kuhli & Clown
loaches and various tetras (Congo, Penquin, Glowlight, Red Phantoms
etc).

That was probably it. I worked at a fish-only store that had quite a few
display tanks and many many selling tanks, and the new stock was always put
in a different tank than the old. The little clowns were beautiful.
The stores I frequent now don't keep that many tanks or many fish in the
tanks, so you don't get to see what they look like once established.

Cindy