I had 2 goldfish in a 120 litre tank and when one of them died after 6 years, once I was sure the water was stable, I decided to get the remaining goldfish (fantail, 2 inches long) a companion. Didn't want another goldfish, so the local petshop recommended a weather loach, and sold me a bell decoration so the loach would have somewhere to hide. I brought the loach home and he seems very happy and active. Didn't have time to research him in the last 3 months since I had him, and now that I have, I think even though the dojo loach and the goldfish seem happy, I should probably change my set-up as loaches are schooling fish.

Ideally, I'd like to simply buy another 2-3 weather loaches, as I love my current guy. But I am afraid that my 120 litre tank (with strong fluval filter, very stable water conditions, some plastic plants and medium sized, dark gravel) is too small. I cannot currently upgrade to a bigger tank due to where we live, but could get a bigger tank within 2 years or so. I am also thinking I should probably provide more hiding spaces for the loach(es) and change at least one part of the gravel for sand so the loach(es) will have somewhere to burrow.

So what do you think? Can I add to my current tank, should I stay with the one loach until I can upgrade, or am I totally mad and should return the loach I currently have? Is there any other cold water fish which would go well with this set-up?

what size are your goldfish?

There is only one of them- he's about 2 inches in body and another inch in tail (as he is a fantail, though not as "bulbous" as other fantails I have seen). I only have the one goldfish and one loach, for now.

I'm no authority on this but 2 more loaches shouldn't cause to much of a problem if you are intending to upgrade your tank in the near future. also add some bogwood so they can hide

I bought two more weather loaches on Friday. They seem to be doing well!

The two new loaches are quite small (1.5 and 2 inches), and the smaller one is thin-ish, but not overly so. They are grey rather than the golden colour of my oldtimer. The two newbies often sit together the way I read about, but the oldtimer seems to prefer his own company- I hope I haven't changed his behavious irrevokably by keeping him alone for 3+ months!

I found this if its any help www.loaches.com/species-index/weather-lo...nis-anguillicaudatus

Thanks for that. My filter is quite strong, though not enough to create a river-like environment I think Still the fishies seem happy, and come tomorrow they'll have a piece of bogwood too! Now all I need is to find a couple of cups of sand to have a sandy corner in the aquarium for the loaches to nuzzle in.