rm
Passport
- Family
- Loaches and Botia
- Grows to
- 30.5 cm (12")
- Lives
- 20+ years
- Temperament
- Peaceful
- Care
- Intermediate
- Swims
- On the bottom
- Keep
- In a group of 5 or more
- Water
- 24–30 °C (75–86 °F)
IndonesiaMalaysia
Care requirements
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On record for Clown Loach: adult size, lifespan, minimum tank, temperature, ph, hardness, minimum group, diet, care level, swim level, tank length.
A figure that is not on record is left out rather than guessed. One marked Suggested comes from keeping knowledge rather than a page.
- Minimum tank 473 L / 125.0 US gal
- pH 5–7
- Hardness 1–12 dGH
- Diet carnivore
- Tank length 180 cm minimum
Care notes written from general aquarium knowledge, not from the cited sources.
About
Clown loaches are sold as three-inch juveniles and they do not stay that way. A mature one is a deep-bodied, orange-and-black fish the length of your forearm, and it can outlive the person who bought it — these are decades-long animals, not years-long ones.
They're also intensely social in a way few community fish are. A proper group develops a pecking order, sleeps piled together in a heap, and follows each other around the tank; a lone clown loach hides permanently and never really thrives.
They make noises. A contented group clicks audibly, and you'll hear it across a room at feeding time. They also lie flat on their sides to rest, which convinces every new keeper that the fish has died.
Tank setup
Plan for the adult fish and the adult group. This is the single hardest thing about the species and the reason so many end up rehomed — the tank that suits them is a very large one, and buying six juveniles commits you to it.
Give them structure everywhere. Smooth rocks, caves, driftwood roots, flower pots, anything with a gap they can wedge into. They're inquisitive and they explore constantly, and cover is what makes them confident enough to be visible.
Check every ornament for traps. They squeeze into small spaces and get stuck in anything with a one-way opening, which is a common and avoidable death.
Use sand or fine gravel. They root through the substrate and coarse gravel damages the barbels.
Keep the light subdued and the water soft and warm. Java fern, anubias and moss tied to wood give you shade without needing bright lighting.
Feeding
Clown loaches are enthusiastic omnivores that eat almost anything, and they'll take food from the bottom, mid-water or the surface.
Feed a proper mix: sinking pellets and wafers as the base, with frozen bloodworm, mosquito larvae and brine shrimp regularly, plus blanched vegetables. Growing fish need real quantity.
They eat snails, thoroughly. A group of clown loaches will clear a pest snail problem and will also eat any ornamental snail you were fond of.
Avoid: underfeeding a growing group, which produces stunted, sickly fish, and avoid feeding only at lights-out — they're active enough to feed in daylight once settled.
Filtration and flow
Filter heavily. They're large, greedy and messy, and the bioload of an adult group is substantial.
Give them decent flow and good oxygenation. They come from big river channels and handle current comfortably.
Keep nitrate down with real water changes. They're sensitive to poor water for their size, and long-term neglect shows as eroded barbels and faded colour.
With plants
Clown loaches don't eat healthy plants but they will disturb them. They dig, they root through substrate, and a newly planted stem gets excavated.
Anchor everything or attach it to hardscape. Java fern, anubias and moss on wood are untouchable and give the shade they like.
Expect softer plants to take damage over time simply from a large fish barging past.
Health
They are notoriously prone to ich, more so than almost any other common fish. What to treat it with is a question for the label rather than for a rule about loaches: some products name botiids and expect the ordinary amount, others tell you to keep away. Follow the one in front of you, and ask a vet who sees fish if nothing you have says. A dose you have quietly reduced yourself can be too weak to finish the parasite, which leaves it in the tank and the fish still carrying it.
Their scales are small and their skin is sensitive. Handle them with a container rather than a net — the sharp spine below each eye catches in mesh and the fish can injure itself struggling.
Watch for a fish that stops eating and hangs apart from the group. In such a social species, isolation is an early symptom rather than a preference.
Breeding
Almost nobody breeds these at home, and the reason is scale. In the wild they migrate upstream into flooded forest to spawn when the rains come, and the trigger involves changes in flow, depth, temperature and chemistry that a tank cannot reproduce.
Commercial production relies on hormone induction rather than natural spawning, which is why the fish stay relatively expensive despite being common.
Occasional accidental spawnings are reported in very large mature tanks. Nothing about them is reliable enough to plan around.
Tank mates
Avoid16
- Kribensis Clown Loach grows to 30 cm against Kribensis at 8 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Least Killifish Clown Loach grows to 30 cm against Least Killifish at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Panda Garra Clown Loach grows to 30 cm against Panda Garra at 9 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Scarlet Badis Clown Loach grows to 30 cm against Scarlet Badis at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Assassin Snail Clown Loach is not safe with Assassin Snail: loaches and botia and snails are a bad pairing.
Only with care32
- Chinese Algae Eater Chinese Algae Eater is aggressive and Clown Loach is peaceful.
- Convict Cichlid Convict Cichlid is aggressive and Clown Loach is peaceful.
- Jewel Cichlid Jewel Cichlid is aggressive and Clown Loach is peaceful.
- Amano Shrimp Clown Loach is a risk to Amano Shrimp: loaches and botia and shrimp and yabbies are a pairing to watch.
- Bamboo Shrimp Clown Loach is a risk to Bamboo Shrimp: loaches and botia and shrimp and yabbies are a pairing to watch.
No conflict is recorded with the other 60 species in the database, so nothing to flag.