Dick wrote:
On Sat, 12 Nov 2005 12:32:25 +0000, Gill Passman
wrote:


Dick wrote:

On Fri, 11 Nov 2005 10:40:09 +0000, Gill Passman
wrote:



Justice wrote:


I at the moment have 2 clown loaches and have been reading that they
should be kept in at least a group of 3. they are about 2" long, should
I get 1 more. I have a 10 gal at the moment, untill I can afford a 30+
gal for them. They also share the tank with 3 glowlight tetras. Both are
really cool fish. I love when I see my loaches on sleeping upside down
on the other one sleppeing on its side.

With Clowns I reckon the more the merrier :-) I would normally go for
the option of at least 3 but it really has to be weighed up against what
you can accommodate and I'd not be inclined if I was in your place to
buy anymore right now - they can grow quite large very quickly....The
questions that you need to be asking is whether your Clowns are happy?
By this I mean are they feeding well, out in the open and dancing and no
sign of ich? If the answer is yes stick with what you have got until you
get the bigger tank. If they seem reserved and shy adding one more might
help but this has to be weighed up against overloading the tank....

I've got 5 at the moment in one of my tanks....they are great fish :-)
Glad you are enjoying yours

Gill


Gill, how big are your Clowns? How long have you had them? None of
my 11 Clowns are more than 4 inches and I have had them for 2 1/2
years. They have not gotten larger in the last year.

I have 2 Clowns in a 10 gallon tank. They are 3 inches or more. I
see no difference in those two from the 6 in my 75 gallon tank or the
3 in a 29 gallon tank. I used to worry about them out growing my 10
gallon tank. I quit worrying when I saw the SAEs were larger and all
have stopped growing.

One might believe those in the 10 had inhibited growth, but that
wouldn't be the case for those in the 75. My largest Clown is in a 29
gallon tank.

dick



Two of them are heading for around 4 inches but I did buy them at around
that size - couldn't resist when I saw a tank full of around twenty of
them all dancing up and down - I rue the day now as they brought Ich
into the tank which I still can't fully get rid of (4 weeks down the
line) - doesn't seem to bother the fish too much right now though so I'm
making progress. They are feeding well, out and about, and have good
colour and aren't nervous at all (they feed from my hand).

The other three I've had around 8 weeks or so now. They were around 1
1/2" when I got them - they grew quite rapidly and I would say one of
them is now 3", one is 3 1/2" and the other just below 2". They are in a
4 foot 47.5UK gall tank. I was suprised at how quickly they've grown - I
was already planning a tank upgrade but think this may need to move
forward if the Clowns keep growing at this rate - lol

My previous Clowns, that I lost in the summer :-(, also seemed to grow
at different rates but nowhere near as fast as these - guess it might
depend on the Clowns :-)

Gill


I received 6 Clowns from an internet vendor that had ich. I had
started my first tank (75 gallon) 6 months earlier and had about 50
fish of various types. I didn't have any medicines on hand. So while
waiting for ich medicine to arrive I tried various things like raising
temperature and covering tank to keep out all light. However, nothing
worked. I finally got the Rid Ich, but only 2 of the 6 Clowns
responded. Finally I "put down" the other 4.

Later, thinking about the experience, I was taken by the thought that
the ich had not spread to the other fish in my community tank. So,
your experience is different than mine. I concluded that healthy fish
do not get ich.

dick

I certainly think that there is some mileage in your conclusion
regarding healthy fish not getting Ich. None of my other fish have any
at all (unless it is hidden in the gills). I always wondered if some
fish get a built in resistance to ich after a certain amount of exposure.

The fact that my Clowns haven't responded to either of the readily
available Ich cures leads me to think that there is another factor in
this. Although the water quality tests out fine and the Clowns
themselves, apart from the odd bit of flashing, seem perfectly happy -
eat well, don't hide, dance etc. - it's just they've got spots.....and
can be clear for a day or so and then they come back.....Think I need to
really sit down and consider what is going on with these fish and come
up with another strategy for dealing with it - various LFS's have
suggested it might be a stress thing but right now I can't think of what
might be stressing them or if it is stress why the fish are behaving in
a completely unstressed fashion.....

Gill

Gill