Compatibility with loaches

[VanDogh]

I have 4 tanks. One empty 450L (119 gallons I believe?) And one 220L (58 gallons?) And then two small ones but they are not relevant to this post.

Either way, I am fascinated and in love with loaches! Absolutely love clown loaches and I was thinking of having them in the largest tank. My biggest concern is that they eat snails and shrimps and I am also a big fan of shrimps. Now, will they eat larger shrimps including vampire shrimp or bamboo shrimp? Since I won't be able to have any snails, what other cleaning crew can I house together with the clown loaches? No plecos please, they poop so much!

My second question is, I have 4 kuhli loaches that I am going to move to the other tank. Can they live with amano shrimps? Will they leave nerite snails alone? If they eat nerite snails that's fine as long as they will leave my precious shrimp alone!

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/22/2024 at 8:18 AM, VanDogh said:

No plecos please, they poop so much!

😂 Clown pleco or panaque species are great and don't so nearly as much as the big ones. But anyways.... Back to topic!

I think loaches might ignore some shrimp, and you might get one that is just going to go a bit nuts on the invertebrates.  Their personalities can be frantic at best to the point where they hunt so ferociously that they often get themselves stuck in things.  I would say try it with cull shrimp, but don't put anything in there with them that you will mind losing.  If you have a loss, they will likely clean it up before you even notice. Determining if they will or won't would mean catching them in the act at that point.

The tanks sound fun! Cool to hear about them 🙂

[VanDogh]

On 5/22/2024 at 5:54 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

😂 Clown pleco or panaque species are great and don't so nearly as much as the big ones. But anyways.... Back to topic!

I just googled Panaque pleco and Oh boy  they seem to get huge?

Hmm, I see. So it's all a bet 🤔 I would get a group of loaches which makes it more risky? I really don't mind losing snails even bigger non-pest snails, but I am fond of my little Shrimp guys. They are so silly. Isn't amano shrimps too big for kuhlis? Do you have any experience with loaches and shrimps?

Thanks! I am very excited 😀

Edited May 22 by VanDogh
Typos

[VanDogh]

Someone told me siamese algae eaters makes for great cleaners but I have also heard they get lazy with age. It's really unfortunate I can't keep clown loaches with shrimp 😢

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/22/2024 at 12:30 PM, VanDogh said:

I just googled Panaque pleco and Oh boy  they seem to get huge?

Some of them absolutely can, but there's hundreds of species in that family.  The ones I have are only 3" big.

On 5/25/2024 at 8:44 AM, VanDogh said:

Someone told me siamese algae eaters makes for great cleaners but I have also heard they get lazy with age. It's really unfortunate I can't keep clown loaches with shrimp 😢

SAE are so fun though!  They have the mouth shape of some specialized cyprinid fish that are made for cleaning surfaces.  Otocinclus, SAE, amano shrimp, are my trio for "cleaners" but honestly, I just enjoy the fish themselves!  Female SAE can turn into what I would deem a lazy orca and they just lay around all day.  They are somewhat nocturnal, so during the night they might be doing some work for you too!

[johnnyxxl]

Well I run my tank with the thought big fish eats anything smaller than it.  My tiger barbs are eating my pond snails.  I know that the kulhi loaches were getting some of them.  I have 6 otocinclus plus the pond snails for algae and 5 panda cories currently