Fish: Re: [tropical fish club] Catfish

Ray,

I guess there's some cases where ignorance is bliss! I had no idea the
whole time how large clown loaches got, but even back then I was
pretty meticulous about keeping the tank clean and doing water changes
and all. I guess it might be considered inhimane to some extent, but
the fish always seemed to be happy, ate well, and grew to probably six
inches or so. I know when I brought them back to the fish store the
owner sold them not long after, but they were doing well the last time
I saw them in a 55 gallon tank.

I'll just stick to Corys and Discus now...

Alex <-- crawling back under my rock

On Sat, Jul 14, 2012 at 8:56 PM, <sevenspringss@wmconnect.com> wrote:
> Alex,
>
> I'm glad for your sake (but not for the poor Clown Loaches), that you had
> "luck" in keeping those fish alive for many years (as you mentioned). I
> truly regret to have to tell you though, that while it does take a considerable
> amount of time for a Clown Loach to reach 14", a 10+ year old Clown Loach
> should still reach a considerable size. A 29 gallon tank is really way too
> small for this fish to allow it to grow to its full potential; even for just
> one of them.. I'm afraid you must have stunted them after all those years,
> despite them living as long as they did, as just one of them should have at
> least 50 gallons to itself, because of the size they will eventually reach --
> or not very much less than that amount of water. Restricting any fish to
> a container not large enough to permit its proper growth to full size
> usually results in their being stunted, even if it may not appear so to the
> hobbyist. You may have seen Dawn's post, in which she states that her Loach grew
> 2" in two months, although that may have been on another List. A 10 year
> old Loach should be no smaller than at least 8" to 9" or more, and I'm being
> conservative here. After all, this fish won't grow 1" in length per month,
> as the longer it grows, it will be putting on height and girth too, which
> all takes additioinal time as it grows., but a minimum 9" (or more) loach
> after 10 years is not too much to expect. .
>
> Ray </HTML>
>
>
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