Loaches Online Forum

I'm not sure if other loach owners have witnessed this as I was in shock when I witnessed my 4" clown with a rummynose's had in his mouth. I went to turn the tank lights off for the night when I noticed the clown chewing on something. I found this strange as I last fed them 5 hours ago and they had finished all the frozen bloodworms and what he had in his mouth looked huge.

On closer inspection it was a rummynose's head, as can be distinguished by the red head. I counted the school of rummys and 1 had gone missing since today.

Tank details - 360L, tank established for 2.5 years.

Just tested water parameters - No ammonia, No nitrite, Nitrate 20ppm, pH 6.2.

I'm not sure if the rummy had already been dead when the clown was eating him, but it was a pretty disturbing sight as I never pictured clowns eating other fish. I think what caused the death of this rummy as well as the other one I found this morning was either the stress caused by the constant swimming and darting around from the clowns and yoyos, or the yoyos/clowns might have been nipping at the rummies.

As a precaution, (I wanted to post this message first to see what others thought but decided to go ahead in case there are more casualties) - I have moved (10) half the school of rummies to my smaller 90L tank. I was hesitant at the start as I thought the tank was too short (2') to house rummies since they need wide open spaces to swim, but then I thought better be safe than sorry so took a punt.

The 90L tank has been established for 3 years and has 5 neons, 5 black neons and 4 cories. My only concern is the pH shock on the rummys as the 300L tank pH is 6.2, while the 90L tank pH is 7.2. I did adjust the rummys over 1 hour, so hopefully it wont be too bad.

Could someone please advise if what I've done is the right thing or if there is anything I could have / could still do better for the rummynose tetras?

In the worst case scenario, I would have to give away the rummynose tetras and cardinals from my big tank, but I don't get why before I added 8 yoyo loaches last week, the school of rummynoses (24) and cardinals (18) were healthy and fine, yet starting dropping like flies once I added the yoyos.

Most fish will eat dead tankmates, and you said you lost a rummynose earlier. I think you had another casualty and the Clown was having a snack.

Did you quarantine the yoyos before you added them to the new tank?

I do not know the answers to your questions. We will need to wait for the experts.

(90 liters is about 23 US gallons.)

My modesta eat live small guppies on occasion, though the dead/sick ones are easier to catch and tend to be the only ones consumed.
Count your rummy-nose school regularly to make sure it's not becoming habit, otherwise i wouldn't worry about it.
NB: apparently large animals actively hunt small fish during breeding cycle.
A

Photos of the tank with clowns and tetras

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q126 ... G_2305.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q126 ... G_2306.jpg

I would certainly add more places to hide. What country do you live in?

I would add some large bogwood and some plants. Anacharis and Hornwort are cheap, float and are easy to care for.

ey wrote: I think what caused the death of this rummy as well as the other one I found this morning was either the stress caused by the constant swimming and darting around from the clowns and yoyos, or the yoyos/clowns might have been nipping at the rummies.
In the worst case scenario, I would have to give away the rummynose tetras and cardinals from my big tank, but I don't get why before I added 8 yoyo loaches last week, the school of rummynoses (24) and cardinals (18) were healthy and fine, yet starting dropping like flies once I added the yoyos.

did you use a qtank for the new fish?
how old are the rummynose?
I have found that neons tend to live about two yrs. Perhaps the same with rummynose.
That said fish die and others eat them.
I have had neons in with 7 inch clowns and never had a problem.

I won't put small fish in my loach tank ever again.

A few years back, a group of large wild caught clowns that I got wiped out nearly all of my tetra's, which was about 50+ of them. I suspect that's why them clowns got skinny and why some of them died.

I also suspect that my larger clowns still do eat small fish, like bristlenose pleco fry. No fry has ever survived in my main tanks. I have seen the clowns chase after small juvi rainbowfish when I put them in the main tank. I really do have to let the juvi's growout some before moving them over to the loach tank.

I do feed my clowns either fresh fish or prawns everyday.

I have had clowns in with my breeding group of corys and still had eggs, and fry grew up healthy and happy. Mind you...out of a hundred or so eggs, 3-4 fry survived.

Tammy

Ditto the other answers. Big fish will eat little fish. Don't mix them.
I do not know why some fish would die when others were added to the tank.
Loaches are often wild caught and usually have intestinal parasites. Quarantine and treat for worms before adding them to your main tank.

What were the symptoms of the fish before they died? Did they just disappear? Were the found suddenly dead? Did they show any symptoms such as spots or clamped fins or other indications that something was wrong?

one of the guys up here lost some of his Rhadinocentrus ornatus to his yoyos. the loaches kept picking the eyes out of the rhads. he slowly lost the rhads. and those fish arent easy to find...

I read in a fish hobbyist magazine about a guy who kept yoyos with corydoras - the corydoras ended up with missing eyes. Not very nice

krazykat wrote:I read in a fish hobbyist magazine about a guy who kept yoyos with corydoras - the corydoras ended up with missing eyes(

That exaxt same thing happened to a friend of mine. The Yoyos went straight for the Corys eyes, and they were "blind" the next day.

Kund regards
Marius

My yoyos did this to both Hemiodus gracilis i had.


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