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Clown loach sidthimunki and Crypts/ suitable plants

Mr Loach

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20 May 2018
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36
Location
west midlands
I ran a thread about a disabled person looking to set up a planted tank with only 30% water change every month. The general consensus was to use crypts, however many people questioned wether it is possible to keep plants with loaches. my new tank would have clowns and botias sidthimunki so I guess the real question is what plants iare ok with such fish??
 
Thanks for your help unfortunately my experience is clown loach nibble holes in the leaves and stems
 
I have 7 clown loaches in a 1000l tank. My main problem is that they dig up anything that gets in their way - they have routes around the tank. I use a lot of wood with Anubias attached. Crypts do well, so does Tiger Vallis. My other battle is with the angels who eat Aponogetum and anything pretty. The Tiger barbs and Congo Tetra do no harm.
 
Are you saying as long they do not uproot the plants clowns are ok with crypto ie they do not bite holes in the leaves or stems thanks
 
When I had them they annoyingly bit holes in leaves of anubias. They never ate or uprooted just bit small semi circular holes everywhere. Something faster growing than an anubias like a crypt may be safe due to the leaves multiplying quick enough to replace the damaged ones.

cheers

Conor
 
Mine pecked holes in everything I added with them including plants that are normally described as very tough like anubias and java fern. If I tried to plant anything it wasn't planted for long but I have seen people mix clowns and plants with differing results. I know sciencefiction here keeps a few plants including crypts and a crinum calamistratum (a really tough bulb that's a member of the onion plant family and supposed to taste yucky) in pots. So you might be able to give that a go, hiding them behind the hardscape. If that works you could try a few more like vallis. Moss is quite hard to destroy as small bits will just grow wherever they land. You can buy big quantities of java and Christmas moss pretty cheaply.
Another option is to try something like horn wort which grows quickly and is technically a floating plant but you can weigh it down with lead. If they disturb that it will just float to the surface. A similar plant to try would be water sprite as that happily floats as well. If they destroy anything that floats then I think it would be hard to keep anything in there so it might be better to try floating plants and if they survive try a few plants lower down and just add them that way.
 
My loaches don't seem to damage the leaves. I feed them JBL nova tabs and Spirulina tablets. They live behind a large piece of wood covered in Anubias.
Sounds like it depends on the loaches!
 
I have clowns in my 180L tank and I successfully grow all Crypts, Java Fern, Vallisneria and Siamensis 53b. I do also have Anubias.

I recently planted Limnophila sessiliflora and the clowns instantly and relentlessly began pecking at it and as this particular plant is fairly soft it wasn’t long until I just had tufts of it floating everywhere.. :thumbdown:

Interesting to read others have had the Anubias chomped on by the clowns as I do have some damaged leaves and have always put it down to a deficiency! Live and learn

 
Interesting to read others have had the Anubias chomped on by the clowns as I do have some damaged leaves and have always put it down to a deficiency! Live and learn

I think some of the disparity in their behaviour is that clowns vary with age, tank size and group size. When they are small they are generally well behaved and shy. As they mature and grow they can become more destructive, especially if not given ample space, something that is clearly visible when kept in a large group. In groups they can be very bold and often spend all day in the open, often sparring and being generally boisterous, so it's no wonder some of their attention can turn to plants. They are a wonderfully rewarding fish to keep but they can limit your chances of a picturesque planted Eden for at least part of their long lifespan.
 
There are many small loaches that can be fine with plants, but not clown loach that can grow big and powerful. I kept many clown loach over the years and several grew to 6 to 8 inches. I didn't keep them with plants but with rock piles and they would habitually pushed rock aside to make nests for resting. With plants, I have no doubt they will dig and tunnel through them to make nests and a mess.
 
Have you thought about just using hard scape and only floating plants ?
I’m sure the loach will appreciate to shade the floating plants provide

Or totally thinking outside of the box here what about using a water lilly ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I had 3 clown loaches in this tank, largest was around 15cm.

pict0025mv2.jpg


Under the large mountain of plants on the left hand side, at the back I had a plastic tube where the loaches would hide and rest!

Worked out pretty well and they hardly uprooted any plants!! :)
 
I have two clowns in mine and a range of plants; valid, 3 sorts of crypts, h. Pinnatifada, Amazon sword, lotus. They have not uprooted or nibbled at anything.
 
My clown loach & botias do not give up until any Vallis has been uprooted and eventually destroyed. Crypts generally ok but if they decide they don’t like them there they won’t give up until there uprooted. Any suggestions to get vallis started, using liquid carbon is there any vallis that’s ok with it. Cheers
 
My clown loach & botias do not give up until any Vallis has been uprooted and eventually destroyed. Crypts generally ok but if they decide they don’t like them there they won’t give up until there uprooted. Any suggestions to get vallis started, using liquid carbon is there any vallis that’s ok with it. Cheers

My clowns used to bite through the leaves of vallis so nothing I tried worked. I thought planting it in a pot and then allowing it to get a foot hold, didn't work, nor did surrounding it by stones. I just gave up in the end and switched to a onion bulb, which had more success.

If you are determined to try vallis then I'd rather try root tabs and water dosing than liquid carbon because most vallis doesn't seem to like it at less than low levels.
 
I dosed Seachem Excel as per recommendations (larger dose after water change, smaller daily dose) - Tropica Vallisneria spiralis ‘Tiger ‘ exhibited excellent tank takeover activity and was completely “unmeltable”
(Note very soft tap water, pH 6 - 6.4, Sera FloreDepot enriched base layer with fine gravel, weekly Tropica fertilizer )

In another tank I had 6-7 Ambastaia sidthimunki , they didn’t cause any apparent deliberate damage, but their roughhousing did damage soft leaf/stem

My most determined plant destroyers were a shoal of Chocolate Gourami (S osphromenoides) that one day decided the M umbrosum was an Enemy, first day it was just small shoots and leafs, by day 3 they were constantly biting through stems and spitting the remnants (I had a lot of M umbrosum), and soon reduced the plants to substrate level - they’d been peacefully coexisting with the plants for several months :crazy:
 
My most determined plant destroyers were a shoal of Chocolate Gourami (S osphromenoides) that one day decided the M umbrosum was an Enemy, first day it was just small shoots and leafs, by day 3 they were constantly biting through stems and spitting the remnants (I had a lot of M umbrosum), and soon reduced the plants to substrate level - they’d been peacefully coexisting with the plants for several months :crazy:

But... but... but... Chocolate Gourami are pussy cat fish!

Good luck growing Vallisneria with Excel. The time I had it in tank takeover mode I started dosing liquid carbon (to boost my foreground) and it retreated, got outcompeted by crypts and vanished.
 
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