I've kept CLs for a long time and it would be years before they get anywhere near 12inches. The last time was up until my filter leaked real bad and I was ignorant to doing any kind of DIYs having to give my loaches away. Had those babies for almost 5 yrs in a 90G and they were only 3-4max. Really torqued me to look back on it, I loved those beauties and was too stupid to know what to do. That's why the next setup is going to include a redundancy and a non commercially bought canister (DIY 5 gallon version). Big CLs with one or two big Frontosa's is where I'm at.