Loaches Online Forum

I purchased a new 6inch clown loach yesterday. In the shop I picked one that looked lively, fiesty & full of energy.

He/She took to the new tank immediatly & started exploring (instead of going into hiding for 2 weeks). I fed them a few hours later by lifting the front portion of the lid & putting it down again after feeding. I definately remember putting the lid back down. If I hadn't have put the lid down the lights would have shone out of the tank & alerted my attention.

I checked on my new loach at 10am this morning & he/she was happily & actively swimming around. I did not feed them (as I usuelly feed them at 6pm & then again at 9pm due to having to leave for work at an early hour in the morning). The lights were off & the lid was closed.

I have a covered aquarium where the front portion lifts up when the fish are fed. I did not lift the lid; I then went to have a full day out paragliding as the weather was nice & sunny!

At 6pm I arrived home to find the clownloach dead on the floor outside the tank !! The lid was on the aqaurium all the time & My house has been empty all day. I have had no visitors who could have popped over to feed my fish whilst I was out.

How can this happen?

Could the loach have "rememered" which part of the lid lifts up, swam so hard at it & bash the lid open & then jump out???

I am at a loss for words - but its the only way that it could have got out.

Are Clown Loaches known for this kind of behaviour????

sorry for your loss, and bad experience.

i dont know about clown loaches, but i wouldnt put it past my yoyo loaches. i rehomed 2 at about 6" long, and very chunky. i had them in a juwel tank, with thin plastic flaps as the lid. they investigated their new home a lot, at all levels. they would stick their noses out the water. my bedroom is above the room with the tank in, and one night i heard a big "donk" noise, and i was so scared it was them bashing their noses on the lid. i then started keping heavy books on the plastic flaps to hold them down, and lowered the water level for a bit.

when it cam to moving my tank over to a bigger one, i was amzed how my rasboras could jump. they were jumping a few inches to avoid getting caught.



Do you know how similar your water is to the shop's water, and did you acclimatise carefully? are your nitrates quite high? occasionally, it has been k nown for fish to jump to try and escape different water to what they have been used to, as the change in water can be a shock to them. Do you already have clown loaches, or was this your first one? could it be the new one was stressed by sorting out a new social hierachy?

Or your loach could have just been being nosy.

I've lost two yoyo who decided to commit suicide, by jumping out

It seems to be a very normal response for almost all fish when they're transferred to a new tank, they try to jump out. When I got my loaches (B. kubotai) a few months ago, they tried to escape through my filter outlet and I had to put something in front of it to prevent them from getting stuck.
My Danios were also trying to get out and one jumped straight over the edge of the tank and ended up in the pump compartment of my internal filter.

It is the Juwel tank that I have. It has a thin flap at the front. It does have a "catch" that secures it shut. I'm assuming that the flap was down but not secured.

This is my 2nd clown loach. My remember that other one became startled when the lights (on a timer) came on (& then went into hiding for a week) when it was new.

The water level is high, only a couple of inches between the surface & the lid.

The combination of the above must have given an easy escape plan (unfortunately). The lights must have made it panic. A lesson to be learned.