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I have a 75gal. it's bottom measures 48"X18". I currently have 7 Clown Loaches ranging from 3in. to 6in. plus a 2in pleco plus two others bound for the LFS.

There are other fish in the tank but my question concerns how much bottom area is needed. I have an Oscar that will soon be needing a bigger tank and I intend to give him the 75 and get a bigger tank for the Loaches.

So is there some rule of thumb about how much room (floor space)is needed for each inch of bottom dwelling fish?

Can you increase the tanks floor space by building rockwork out of large flat rocks?

I did this and my Loaches seem to like it. It has several levels with spaces in between for them to hang out in.

I can hear some of you now, saying the loaches are going to get much bigger and if that happens, if they each get 10in. long I'll figure out something. For now I want to keep all 7. If they are on their way to 10 in. they are doing it at a snails pace.

So how about it? Anybody got some neat little formula for figuring out the space requirements? The total inches of loaches and the one pleco I'm keeping is 33.

Thanks, Mike

Mike,
I would say that bottom space can be divided up exponentially by size of the fish. Cory cats for example, which average around 3 inches, I usually figure must need at least 10 inches square each. For a larger fish, with higher dietary needs, you would naturally increase that, so that a bottom feeder that gets to be 6 inches, would need probably more like 30 square inches of bottom space.
Bottom space can also be increased by adding more rocks and levels/terraces of land.
Loaches seem to have a desire and necessity to eat more than corys, at least mine sure do. They root around more than the corys, and eat twice as much in a sitting. I would allow a 3 inch loach more bottom space than a 3 inch cory cat. That would be pretty much my ideas on this!


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Mike R

By rule of thumb well there are many different size thumbs to start of with. That would the same as your question there are too many "Rule of Thumb" answers

Try to locate a good Clown loach WWW site and get a general opinion of what is thought about what you require.

Keith

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Jeepers, this thread is from before the crash.

I did a rockwork thing 3 levels high in the 75. It adds at least another 3 sq. ft. the loaches can get under it and between all 3 levels and they love it.

Thanks, Mike