FishNoob wrote:
I'm planning on going to buy some clown loaches tomorrow. Well,
probably clown loaches - this is my eldest's choice; we'll look at
the yo-yos and zebra loaches too, and I'll explain the pros and cons,
but in the end, it's his birthday money, so it's up to him.

Anyway - the store we're going to says they quarantine all their
stock for two weeks before selling it. In that case, do most of you
still quarantine after purchase?

If we're going to quarantine, how long would you quarantine for? If
we're doing that, I'll be filling my 60-litre tank tomorrow morning,
and putting in the heater, but I won't move the filter across from
the 125-litre until we get home with the loaches. I know a 60-litre
isn't big enough for three clown loaches long-term, but it would be
adequate for quarantine, wouldn't it?

I've never quarantined anything before - what should I put in a
quarantine tank? I assume gravel - not a problem, I've got spare. I
know clowns like to have hiding-places; should I pick up an extra
rock or two to provide that in the quarantine tank?

Anything else I should know?


My experience is that in the UK (and you are in UK or Ireland aren't you
if I remember correctly?), they don't QT as such but keep them off sale
for a period of time to make sure that there are no obvious problems and
the fish acclimatise to the local water conditions - usually around a
week...maybe not all places do this but the ones I use do, and it sounds
like you have the same sort of thing in place...

With Clowns I never buy them straight afer they go on sale - I tend to
pay a few trips and check them each time before plunging in...if they've
been in the shop for a few weeks, which is very stressful for them, with
no obvious signs of ich/white spot I will buy them - I've adopted this
policy after losing a number of newly purchased Clowns to Ich....If they
have even one white spot don't buy any of them...

Right now, I have 4 Clown Loaches in QT...it is a normally set up tank -
plants, gravel and driftwood for them to hide under - it is 15 gall...it
also contains other fish - but experience has shown me that Clowns also
benefit from "dither fish" when settling in...3 have been in there for
around 5 weeks - although shy they seem fine - the other has been in
there around 6 days (bought from the same supplier and the same batch of
fish - he had just grown bigger and I couldn't resist). The fish will
move into their permanent home over the next few days...

The reason I am doing this is because it is a lot easier to treat a
small tank for ich than the larger community tank....and theoratically
easier to spot ich - however mine are so good at hiding it makes this a
little harder...

So give it a go, make sure there are plenty of hiding spaces for them
and keep any eye on them for at least a couple of weeks. Also ensure the
water quality is spot on as I've noticed sensitivity to even the
smallest trace of nitrites...

Good luck

Gill