Bobby T.

I know they are both bottom dwellers and both prefer plenty of hiding. I have 3 clown loaches ranging in size from 2" to 2.5". I recently added a ram about 2 weeks ago. They all seem to get along, but I got home from the office on Monday and noticed the ram had what looked like, some scale damage about midway down his body. Could this be from the loaches? It did not look as thought is was from disease. Although I did check. Could it be from the driftwood or decorations in the tank?

platy ben

I doubt it was a clown loaches fault, maybe, like you said, he oculd have knocked himself on something in the tank, is he still behaving normally?

Bobby T.

I couldn't tell you, I can't find him. Unfortunately my tank is heavily planted with alot of hiding spots. I really won't know until I clean the tank tomorrow, which will involve moving things around.

agabr123

how large is your tank? do you have any sharp driftwood in there and what other kinds of decorations do you have? what other fish are in there?

Bobby T.

29 gallon, but will be upgrading to a 75 gallon in about 6 months. Currently I have:
3 Dalmation molly fry in a breeding net
2 neon tetras
1 black neon tetra
3 clown loaches
1 opaline gourami
1 german blue ram
There really aren't any sharp edges on the driftwood. I have two rock formations and a couple of different plant species. 3 anubias, about 15 combomba shoots, and 2 large baby tears.

agabr123

it could have been the opaline gourami, i think they can be a bit more aggressive than the other types of gouramis.

if you can, you should upgrade to the 75 sooner rather than later. the tetras really need to be in a school of at least six (although the neons and black neons should school together), and you're extremely overstocked with those clown loaches (although they're probably only around 3-4 inches right now they will get MUCH larger).

even in a 75 your clown loaches will outgrow that tank. they get extremely big, especially for you having three of them. to live comfortably, three would probably need at a minimum a 180 gallon tank, probably larger.
http://www.loaches.com/species-index...a-macracanthus

Bobby T.

I had researched the clown loaches. From what I gathered a 75 g. tank would suffice, but I will look into possibly getting a larger tank. As for right now the loaches are 2 to 2.5" so I figure by the time I have the 75 g. tank set up they still will not have outgrown the 29 g. tank. I thought the opaline gourami's were peaceful, plus they, well at least this one, seems to be an upper third dweller. Why would it go after the ram?

agabr123

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fres...ds/opaline.php

this site seems to suggest that it can really go either way in terms of aggression for the opaline, you could have a particularly peaceful one or a more aggressive one, but i'd keep an eye out to see. how large is it compared to the ram?

IMO a 75 would be big enough for one clown loach (provided extremely good filtration) but three would need a much larger tank. unfortunately, if you only had one clown loach it would probably stress itself to the point of death, as the really need to be in larger groups (which i assume you took into account by getting three ). i'm not an expert on loaches by any standard so i'd look into it further. however, my personal opinion (taking their size and depth into account) would be that three would do best in a 180 gallon or more.

Bobby T.

I will have to look into the loaches a little more, otherwise I could have a pretty serious problem. The opaline is about the same size as the ram, about 2".

Butterfly

The loaches wouldn't have hurt the ram on purpose but they can get pretty playful and rowdy among themselves and could have caused the ram to rum into something. Keep us posted
By the way Welcome to FishLore!
Carol

platy ben

One of my little clowns also recieved a small sort of gash on the side of his body, nothing serious, then i watched what i think happened, and as carol said, the group were all chasing around and one swam into a stone or the edge of the driftwood or something.

Bobby T.

I ended up losing the blue ram about 2 weeks ago. I am not sure what caused his demise. The rest of the fish are doing great, my water is well established and is not going through a cycle. A week ago I introduced the molly fry to the tank and they have been doing great. I have not seen any aggressive behavior from the guarami. I would love to get another blue ram, being as they are beautiful and peaceful fish. I am going to wait until I decide what to do with the loaches and upgrading my tank first. Thanks for all of the input!