Clown loach info

Question
Hi

I wanted to know if you could give me some advice on how to take good
care of clown loaches and how to make them happy , etc.... I've been
thinking of buying some (around 5) and i want to have as much info about
them as i can.  Also do you think my tank. Will be overstocked with the
addition of the five loaches?  It is a 29 gallon. It has finished the cycling
process and i have two 30-50 gal filters. The fish that i currently have are
2 red irian rainbowfish
2 angel fish
2 longfin serpae tetras
2 bolivian rams
2 pearl gouramis
1 powder blue dwarf gourami and
1 rhino pleco.
BTW am gonna be upgrading the tank in a few months to a 55 gal tank.
So is it ok if i put the clown loaches in my tank?
Thank in advance for any info :)


Answer
Hi Aldo,

Sorry not to get back to you sooner, I had a busy weekend!

Unfortunately, 5 clown loaches is way too much biological load for your already fully stocked 29 gallon. Clown loaches are very prone to ich, so only do well in established tanks. If your tank finished cycling less than 3 months ago, I would definitely wait before adding ANY loaches except the hardiest ones, like kuhli loaches. They would actually do fine in a tank your size, along with dwarf chain loaches (who also need well established tanks and excellent water quality).

Those two loaches are really the only ones I would recommend for a 29 gallon tank. Other loaches just get too big and are too active. Speaking of getting big, do you know how enormous clown loaches get? Take a look at this article from the best site on loaches there is:
http://www.loaches.com/species-index/clown-loach-chromobotia-macracanthus

Mind you, they ARE very slow growing. If you had a 55 gallon tank and were planning an upgrade to a 90 gallon tank, I would probably say that 5 clown loaches would be fine...but if you only mean to get a tank as big as 55 gallons, you really ought to look into some other loaches. Clown loaches are the most common loaches in the hobby, but that doesn't mean they are the best choice.

Here's my advice. Wait until you have the 55 gallon tank, and then look into YoYo loaches (Botia almorhae) or Zebra loaches (Botia striatus). These two are ok for a 55 gallon tank, and would enjoy being in a group of 5-6. Both of these are readily available. They are somewhat aggressive so should be able to hold their own with the bottom dwelling Bolivian rams, who will be vying for the same space. There are probably other suitable loaches that stay 6" or so in size at maturity, but I am not a loach expert - might want to try http://forums.loaches.com and see if anyone knows of any others.

To make loaches happiest, you need tons of water movement. A turnover rate of at least 10x is highly recommended - this is especially true of any Hillstream type loaches. So for a 55 gallon tank that would be 550 gph. Two hang on back (HOB) filters can accomplish this easily, or a canister filter and HOB power filter.

AquaClear 110, Emperor 400, or Penguin 350 would all be a fine choice. I would probably just opt for one AquaClear 110 (I like their flexible, rinseable, reusable media vs. disposable cartridges) and use two powerheads at each side, maybe Maxi Jet 900s or so. I used to buy all my equipment new, but now I look for used deals at Buy/Sell sections in forums, eBay and aquabid.com - you can find great deals on filters, especially common ones like Emperor 400s.

I hope that helps! Take care.
Nicole