Clown Loaches And Malawians

[Sonny Disposition]

OK. As I think my Malawi showtank through, I'd probably want to keep some clown loaches in it. Not only are they cool, they eat snails--even those burrowing little Maylasian spiral snails, which just about nothing else will eat.

My thinking is, if I put sand in the bottom of the tank, I'd introduce some of the Maylasian snails into the sand, to eat up any food particles. I'd keep some clown loaches in the tank, to keep the Maylasian snails from over populating.

For cichlid species, I'd keep an Aulonocara and Labidochromis caeruleus.

Thanks.

 

[Charlutz]

The loaches will do fine with the malawians, but try to get ones that are at least 2.5" or so. Even though they don't come from hard water, my loaches thrived in it. Something about the water also kept them from getting ick, to which in my experience they were very susceptible when kept in community tanks. I had not one case of ick in 15 years in keeping them, or red tailed sharks for that matter, in tanks with malawis. I found that the loaches did get tired of eating MTS though. My sand beds were just littered with the shells, but then they stopped eating them. I finally dumped a cup of bleach in the tank to get rid of them.

 

[phishphorphun]

Ditto what Charlile said.

 

[DeeCee]

We have a Mbuna tank with 3 clown loaches in it, and all seems to be going well. I gave them a treat of snails the other day from another tank, they were thrilled and were begging for more! Here's a shot of them -- they're named Huey, Dewey and Louie......... heee heee!

DC

 

[Sonny Disposition]

Thanks, Bobby, Charlie and Donna. My clown loaches are larger than 2.5 inches. My hypothesis on clown loaches is that they're not really soft water species, but a marginally brackish water species that migrates up river to soft water to spawn. (Think about it--they're from an archipeligo, where higher salinity is probably the rule, rather than the exception.) Mine are in Silver Spring tap water now, but I'd kept them with the mollies in a tank with a teaspoon of instant ocean per gallon. Once, when there was an outbreak of something (I forget what) I brought that up to four teaspoons a gallon and they were ok. Since calcium can substitute for sodium as far as a lot of estuarine species are concern, I'm thinking clowns won't have a tough time in a Malawi tank either.

The loaches will do fine with the malawians, but try to get ones that are at least 2.5" or so. Even though they don't come from hard water, my loaches thrived in it. Something about the water also kept them from getting ick, to which in my experience they were very susceptible when kept in community tanks. I had not one case of ick in 15 years in keeping them, or red tailed sharks for that matter, in tanks with malawis. I found that the loaches did get tired of eating MTS though. My sand beds were just littered with the shells, but then they stopped eating them. I finally dumped a cup of bleach in the tank to get rid of them.[/b]

 

[Sonny Disposition]

Nice color on the clowns, Donna. Are you feeding them a color formula?

We have a Mbuna tank with 3 clown loaches in it, and all seems to be going well. I gave them a treat of snails the other day from another tank, they were thrilled and were begging for more! Here's a shot of them -- they're named Huey, Dewey and Louie......... heee heee!

DC[/b]

 

[DeeCee]

Thanks, Bob. I've always liked the clown loaches -- except when I learned the hard way that:

1) they have those (*$%&(*%&)$(%^ barbs, and

2) There's no GOOD way to get a clown loach out of a ceramic log without getting skewered.

No special food at all, they just get New Life Spectrum, same as everything else here :winking0011:

DC

 

[Charlutz]

Botia macracanthus - "macracanthus" means "large thorn." I clipped this from a page I found somewhere on the net.

Here's a link to the page: http://www.bollmoraakvarieklubb.org/artikl...own%20loach.htm

 

[DeeCee]

That's an interesting article on Clown Loaches. I've often wondered what it would be like to try to breed them. Guess I'd have better chances if I had more of them than 3! Thanks for the link!

DC

 

[phishphorphun]

They supposedly have never bred in captivity. I have an exceptional photo series of my two big males during a dominance battle. The loach experts over in England used the series for an online article they did. Supposedly my males displayed pores in the snout area that only appear when the male is breeding. I lost the link to the site when I reformatted the hard drive on my old computer. I will have to post the series in the photography section here.

Here is a close up of the pores I was talking about...

 

[Sonny Disposition]

Apparently an official with a state funded research center in Florida got them to breed, but couldn't get them to breed a second time. I e-mailed him to find out more, but he wasn't talking. I lost the link to the original article.

Just found these links to clown loach breeding:

http://www.bollmoraakvarieklubb.org/artikl...own%20loach.htm

http://www.fishlore.com/Articles/BreedingLoaches.htm

They supposedly have never bred in captivity. I have an exceptional photo series of my two big males during a dominance battle. The loach experts over in England used the series for an online article they did. Supposedly my males displayed pores in the snout area that only appear when the male is breeding. I lost the link to the site when I reformatted the hard drive on my old computer. I will have to post the series in the photography section here.

Here is a close up of the pores I was talking about...

[/b]

 

[DeeCee]

OMG, the last article said they can live to be FIFTY YEARS OLD ??????? Holy Crud. Excellent information in the links though.

And Bobby, yes, I'd love to see pictures of them. The 3 I have now were bought from a some pet store about 4 years ago maybe when they were tiny. I had a huge one that didn't survive the move to Maryland, wish she would have made it.

DC