advice on mixing clown loaches with a fahaka

[lesleyanndunn]

my fahaka is about 4.5inches
hes in a 5ft tank by himself
saw others have put other fish in with their fahaka
and was wondering if i might try a couple of clown loaches in with mine?

good idea? bad idea?
ive had clown loaches before and know they grow and need to be in groups.
i cant say whether my fahaka is aggressive enough to go after them
he didnt try much with the shrimp, and they are still walking about the tank!

would a couple of clown loaches add much to the bioloaD?
dont want to do anything that would put the fahaka at risk.

[xrayjeeper83]

I dont think you will be putting your fahaka at risk, but the clowns may end up as dinner one day. They could be in there for years before he decides to turn on them, or it could be days. Most the time people get away with small, fast moving, schooling fish. Clown loaches tend to hang at the bottom and arent known for speed

[Pufferpunk]

I have 2 huge ones with Filbert but he has surprisingly let a lot of different fish live with him. And then he's killed a few too.

[lesleyanndunn]

thanks, i think i might take the chance and put a couple in.
hes usually up round the top of the tank
and isnt interested in the bottom
that may change tho!

[RTR]

Considering that Clown loaches live essentially forever (over 40 years in captivity), and get huge. the tank is inadequate if they should live. They also have very effective opercular spines such that ,even if eaten, they just might kill the fish that eats them - a bit like the puffer's toxin defense - it only works when one or both fish involved are killed or seriously threatened or killed.

In any case, I would not house any other fish with a Fahaka myself. They are predators.

[sao870]

ok thats amazing........ why and how do you know so much??

[Pufferpunk]

Maybe it's his 50+ years of fishkeeping experience?

[sao870]

haha that would do it but it could be more ............................................................
maybe he is a ROBOT!!!!!!! lol jk

oww by the way i did not mean to come off as insulting. just natural curiosity

[Pufferpunk]

I'm sure no insult taken.

[xrayjeeper83]

sao Ive wondered how these guys here an know so much stuff, and still remember to breath some times. LOL

[RTR]

And to top it off, I am currently legally visually handicapped... But I have kept an awful lot of fish for an awfully long time and by training and inclination I am a scientist, so I really, really, want to know "why" we do (or need to do or not do) the many things that we are all supposed to do. I am violently allergic to mythology as a fish-keeping practice. I also have rather strong and non-mainstream ideas about fish-keeping.

I suffer from the too-frequent misunderstanding that if folks understand why they are doing what they are supposed to do, they will be more likely to do it. That is another hangover from my years in the research labs - everybody who worked for me had to know why they did what they did in the lab, where the pitfalls were, and how to evaluate data. The devil is always in the details. Quick fixes generally are not either quick or fixes. Due to all that and more, my tanks would generally be considered over-planned, over-equipped, overly complex, and absurdly expensive, and generally over-scaled for the fish they house. But my fish also live long lives, only very, very, rarely suffer from communicable disease, and look healthy and lively, reach full wild size or more, and an awful lot of them breed. in short, I am compulsive and neurotic.