Clown Loaches: complete care guide!
- Jul 08, 2020
- Anshika Mishra
- 4027 0 0
Are you thinking about getting some Clown Loaches? Then you must know some of their pitfalls and some of their awesomeness.
Clowns Loaches Personality
They get the name clown loach because they are kind of clowns. They do funny things, They all carry a stone back and forth in the aquarium. Another Clown loach will grab it and run away from it. They'll chase it. You can almost think of them as almost like a dog. They also make clicking sounds.
They will also sleep on their side in the middle of the tank; literally will lay there and just put on their side. You might think that they are dead, and when you get close to them, they will wake up and give you that look like, "what are you doing? I was just taking a nap." These are just some of the funny things that they will do.
They have a spike under there eye as well, which is used to fight.
You can also pack 40 clown loaches into a small space. It's like a clown car when they come out of that thing.
How to Keep Clown Loaches Alive
Keep'em hot!
One of the most important things is to keep them hot. They'll do so much better in warmer water Temperatures between 85-86 degrees are ideal for these tropical fish.
At these temperatures, the clown loaches tend to fight off ick, which is the number one culprit of killing clown loaches. You will read from different sources that they are susceptible to ick; this is because they are being kept in water that is too cool. So, keep them hot, the warmer water will have the following effects:
- It will help keep their metabolism up.
- They are more active and full of life.
- It makes them more resistant to ick.
Clown Loach's Tank Requirments
Clown Loaches are highly recommended to anyone with a tank that is at least 55-gallons, but that's the minimum. If you get smaller clown loaches, you can keep them in a smaller tank. This will require more care on your end, which means more water changes. The warmer water and higher metabolism also suggest more frequent feedings. If you do have them in a smaller tank after a few years and they start to get bigger trade them in at your local fish store or to somebody with a bigger tank and get some smaller ones. This will sound like a good plan, but usually, you will fall in love with them and will upgrade your aquarium just to be able to keep them.
You will want to keep rocks, plants, or wooden logs to keep your Clown Loaches happy. It will also provide hiding places to help reduce their stress levels. When they do get larger, it will be harder to keep them with plants.
Water Conditions for Clown Loaches
Besides the warmer water temperature between 85-86 degrees, you will want to keep your pH as low as 8 or as high as 8.2 while keeping Clown Loaches, and they do well with African cichlids.
Clown Loaches Diet
Clown Loaches are hardcore carnivores. Keep in mind that they will eat snails, so if you got a snail problem, you just need to get clown loaches, and they would quickly fix your snail problem. If you have snails that you love in your tank, you may want to reconsider having Clown Loaches
They love to eat invertebrates of all type including:
- Mussels
- Snails
- Blackworms
- Blood worms
- Tube-effects worms
- Glass worms
- Pellets
They would eat any kind of worms. They are great bottom-dwelling fish. They have the barbell, which they scatter around to help them search around rocks and crannies to find every last morsel of food that they can eat. They love to eat things like zucchini, you can put a big chunk in there, and you will hear them click the same with their paws. Or you can feed them well. You will notice those clicking actions super cool, you can hear it from across the room.
Wait, didn't we start off talking about the downside to them? So far, so good, right?
The Downside to Owning Clown Loaches
They get huge. I am talking about those little 1" Clown Loaches that you see at your local fish store will get up to 12-13 inches, and they get beefy thick. They are giant taco-shaped. They look rad, but they get the size of a football, and that is the problem.
When you first buy them, they will look cute and small. Most hobbyists would have had a hard to assume them grow into such a huge fish, and even if they do, they will think it would be slow. Well, it is true, they do grow slowly, but still, you need to have them in school they have a pack-mentality, so they feel straight in numbers.
How Many Clown Loaches Should I Get?
So, if you only have one or two of them, they will hide all of the time. If you have six of them, they will hide most of the time. If you have 12 of them, you will see them most of the time, and if you have 30 of them, you will see them all of the time.
They have a pack-mentality, so strength in numbers. So, as they get bigger, you will have to buy a bigger aquarium or find a new home for them because that is the commitment you have made when you buy Clown Loaches.
How to Make Your Clown Loaches More Active
Let's say that you can't keep a 100 Clown Loaches. You might have several schooling fish already in your tank. Maybe Rainbowfish, maybe its Congo Tetra fish, maybe its Tiger Barbs; you can get other schools of fish that are active. They can encourage your Clowns Loaches to come out and be more productive.
Another trick is to turn the lights down a little so that it is not as bright, the dimmer the lights are, the safer they will feel safer in your aquarium. Your water might turn brown form some of the woods in the tank, with the dim light, as a side effect, in return, they will start to make more outgoing. Make sure to feed them well keep and keep the water warm. That's another thing that makes them more active, and you will enjoy them. You can keep them in a community tank. You can keep them in an oddball task.
Everyone likes them. They go with everything. They are awesome. Clown Loaches get sold at a very high rate. The problem is that when sold, people only get a couple of them. So, most fishkeepers only have 1 or 2 Clown Loaches in their aquarium, and about 1/3rd of the keepers have 20 or more of them.
Quarantine Your Clown Loaches
So Clown Loaches should be kept in big groups to keep them happy, their colors change as they get bigger and depending on what you feed them. The strips you see now will even split, and eventually, as they get bigger will kind of faded out. They can live a very, very long time in the proper conditions. They are likely to be kept too cold water if they are shipped to you. The best solution is to quarantine them. And when they start doing well, then add them to your display tank and enjoy them.
Give them plenty of places to hide while they are in quarantine, so they are not stressed.
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