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About a year ago my LFS recommended that I put a clown loach in each of my two tanks to control a snail problem. I did ask if just one would be ok as I knew they were schooling fish, but he said that it would be fine.

So I put one in my tetra tank, and one in my livebearer tank. Both have hidey holes and are well planted. One of the loaches (tetra)prefers not to hide and is active most of the time, while the (livebearer) other almost always hides during they day except at feeding time.

The tetra tank fish is healthy looking. I got a good look the livebearer fish the other day, and was surprised. It has grown to about 1/2 inch bigger than the other loach, and is a very bright, almost red all over colour, and the black is very black. I feed them both sinking wafers, and I know they both eat the snails as there is a snail cemetary in the corner of each tank.

Would the difference in growth rates and colour be solely due to different water conditions in each tank? Or is one sex larger and more brightly coloured than the other?

Not a whole lot is known about the gender differences in clown loaches. The fish in the genus Botia as a whole are more a mystery than others in regards to sex and breeding. It could be that males grow larger than the females or vice-versa, or they might just hit the same size. Lemme ask- how large is each one now? Clown loaches can hit about a foot, so there's a good chance that neither is done growing. If that's the case, sexing based on size wouldn't be accurate at all.

If I had to guess, I'd say the tank conditions or genetics are the reason for one being larger. Higher temperatures will speed a fish's growth, and I think high protein diets will as well.

Do you remember if they were the same size when you bought them?

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

yes, they were the same size when I bought them - about 2". One is now about 2.5-3" the other being closer to 3.5-4" now.

The tank with the larger fish is definately in a warmer part of the house though. The amazing thing is really the brighness of it's colour!

I know they can get large. When either of them get too large I plan on either selling them, or giving away to someone who can house them, and replacing with smaller ones again as they do a great snail control job, and surprisingly the one in the livebearer tank isn't eating all the fry.

I once bought four 1in+ CL to put into my 5ft tank. All grew about the same rate and occasionally would put on a growth burst. Before I lost three in a introduced water problem they were all about the same size. When I set up my Betta tank I had a snails so I went and bought a small CL after about three months I put him into the 5ft tank and for some reason he has not stopped growing he would be one of the fastest growing CLs I have ever had in fact he has passed the last of the small CLs. I think they are like all species there are smaller and larger and all grow at different rates.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

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Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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i have 2 CL in my tank the tank was given to me already stocked both of my CL are about the same size but they do very in color one is alot brighter then the other i dont know why but maybe it is normal. mine are in a 55 gallon tank and have not grown much if any since i got them. i dont know if that helped but i did notice the same kinda things with mine and they are both in the same tank.