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I was just wondering if any types of loaches would work with a tank of africans. I have a 220 with frontosas and Eureka reds and a pair of calvus. I like the looks of loaches and have never owned any. I also have a planted 75 gallon tank with discus that I wouldn't mind putting loaches in. Any help would be awesome.
Thanks

Im not sure but dont they like diffrent phs?

I used to keep Yoyo Loaches with Brichardi without any problems but i don't know how they will do with Frontosa, Eureka & Calvus.


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what is the ph, with lake tanganyikan u probably have them at a high ph level, did u try looking into the lake tanganyikan eel? that may be a better alt. to a loach.

Clown loaches adjust fine to high PH. Mine thrive in 8.2PH. I would go with CL's over Yoyo's due to the Frontosa size. I'm not sure about loaches with Discus, as they may be too active and stress them out. Plenty of room in a 220 for a schoal of CL's depending on the Fronts colony size.

I'm with stallion on this one. I think Clown Loaches would be fine with the Fronts. I have kept them with calvus and Eureka Reds before, and they were fine with them. As for the discus, I have kept Clowns, Yo Yos, and Dojo loaches with discus, and never had a problem. If you have a sandy bottom, you could try some Horse Faced Loaches. As they get rather large, and will burrow in the sand most of the time. So, you might not appreciate them as much, since they will stay burried most of the time.

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There is always a bigger fish...

Out of the loaches I've kept yoyos or for a larger loach dojos should work. All the agressive fish I've kept have ignored them or couldn't catch them while they bounced happily around the aquarium. The ph of both the tanks that have these loaches is 8-8.4 without problems.

Last edited by sham at 17-Nov-2005 18:12

I would suggest keeping the larger loaches, you can however choose to keep a small school. Clowns I have heard do well in African tank set ups, but I think you should keep the Botia Modesta. It's nocturnal, gets as large as the clowns and is aggressive so should be able to hold its own against the cichlids.

In my SA cichlid tank, I keep two raphael cats and they are able to hold out against the Salvinis and Convicts (much larger) very well because of their armour.

Clowns are very mild tempered, grow slowly, and the size you get in the market is rarely above 3.5 inches, so may not be able to fight back, unless you are able to get some good sized clowns.


Clowny

I've kept small (2" yoyos with 4" to 8" frontosas and they were fine.

It kinda depends on what you feed your fish too. I had a friend of mine that had 5 full grown fronts in a 150. He had several other fish that were under 3 inches in the same tank. But, the fronts were only fed the same foods as the other fish, flakes. They had only been fed flakes since they were just one inch fish when he got them. Well, after years of keeping these fish, he was re-doing all his tanks. So he sold the fronts. A few weeks after he sold them, the guy that bought them was upset that the fish were not eating. He was scared he was going to lose them. He had put 2 dozen feeder goldfish in the tank, and not a one had gotten eaten. My friend told him to try flakes, and they then started eating. They never did eat any of the feeders.

IMO, with many of the preditors, if you start them out on not live foods while they are fry/juvies, then they will not have a taste for live foods such as feeder fish, when they get older. Not sure what you feed yours, but IMO, if they are fed non-live foods, I don't think you will have any problems with any of the loaches.

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There is always a bigger fish...

I feed mine flakes and pellets. I'm going to buy a couple of clown loaches

Great point Acid. And good choice Mustang, you are going to love them.

Good choice! BTW, I have an 8 meg clown loach video of my 20 clowns, if you want to see it.

Regards,
Clowny