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.