Are Skunk loach peaceful enough for community tank?

[NinjaFly]

Anyone here had skunk loach(Botia Morleti) in their community tank? I had recently introduced 2 of these into my 4ft tank and I started to realised some unusual behaviour of my fish.

My Corydoras used to stay at the bottom of my tank but recently I realised they have shifted their "home" onto the leaves of my nanas. Whenever I see my Corydoras/fish dash out of an area, the skunk loach is mostly nearby.

I had also noticed that lots of my fish (Cardinal/Corydoras/Guppy) had broken fins/tails and that lead me to guess whether they were marks of fins being nibbed off or it is the diease, fin-rot.

I have read that this fish can be a little aggresive but I have yet to see it in action. I had also tried catching it but this is a small smart little fellow! Somehow, it recognise my net and never swim near it or appears anywhere that is easy for me to catch.

Anyone care to share with me any experience with this little fish?

[avant]

i've 3 of them in my community tank for about a year...
they are quite aggressive but so far it hasnt been much of a problem to the rest of the occupants (mainly loaches, black neons, otos etc)
they are very fast creatures..almost impossible to net them
they need hiding spaces too.
oh yah...corys and skunks dun mix well..

[NinjaFly]

You know, I have tried to catch them for 4 days already and yesterday I managed to catch 1 of them. I placed the fish in my smaller 1ft tank and guess what? The fish jumped out of the tank the next morning!

Imagine I had spent so much effort to catch it and the fish commited suicide![]

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oh yah...corys and skunks dun mix well..
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Do you mean corys and skunks dun mix well or the whole loaches family like Clown loach also dun mix well?

[avant]

loach is one big family..some are okay..some are not..
clown loach should be okay..
skunk loaches are a no-no...
u may wanna go to www.loaches.com
there's a species page where u can know more abt them

pity the skunk died...sigh..
if u dun wan ur other skunks, i dun mind taking them from u

[desolator]

Chain loaches r 100% peaceful. Clown and pakistan loaches r oso likely to b peaceful. The rest of the loaches not so peaceul. It is better not to mix loaches with cory as they r all bottom feeder, they may fight for food, and the cory may get hurt. Last time used to keep Botia modesta, they like to swim into my OH filter, remove than from the filter they still swim back. End up let them roaming btw the OH filter and the tank. They r aggressive, killed a few of my rainbow fish.

[avant]

pakistani loach aren't very peaceful...but shld be okay if u get them in groups..they will only bother their own kind

[stormhawk]

skunk loaches will harass other bottom feeders. they establish a pecking order in the tank with them at the top of the feeding chain on the tank bottom. clown loaches get too big for the average tank. the only loaches i'd advocate would be the coolie loaches or the dwarf chain loach.

P.S. loaches are armed with a spine under their eyes. they'll use that against other fish if necessary.

[vinz]

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On 2/23/2003 5:31:02 PM

P.S. loaches are armed with a spine under their eyes. they'll use that against other fish if necessary.
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... and on any hands that try to grab them.

[avant]

handle with care when u are trying to catch them with the net....they might get tangled and injure themselves..
when im transferring..i usually try to use my hands..

[stormhawk]

avant, i wouldn't use my hands if i was u. they can inflict a small puncture wound on u which will seriously cause some pain and discomfort. trust me, i got poked by my clown loaches years ago and i don't want to get poked again. the trick to catching and moving them is to catch them quickly in a net (not those fine types) and promptly place the net in the new container or tank. they will disengage the eye spine by themselves with little or no injury to themselves and yourself of course. [:]

[avant]

haa...yah..did experience the spines on clown loaches before.. they were protruding out when i was handling them..but i was wary of them so they din inflict much damage.. i guess im lucky
the reason i used hands was that there were reported incidences where loaches tried to break free from the net and instead injured their spines.

[vinz]

Ehh... instead of grabbing them with bare hands, hold them with your hand outside the net. This way, you get better grip and still prevent the fish from hurting themselves by struggling and flipping around. Before you release the fish, use your other hand to carefully work the net away from any spines, barbles, fins or whatever you're trying to protect. Then gently release them into the water.

[Mez]

The Skunk Botia will often chase smaller tankmates, but if kept in a school of around 5 or 6, they tend to stick to themseleves in my experience.