Loaches Online Forum

This past month I decided to sell my clown loaches, some of which were with me for 20 years. They were so peaceful and like members of the family, but they needed to be in a tank bigger than my 120 gallon. I've always liked Sidthimunkis and decided to purchase a school of 12. I thought things were going well until I started to see the bottom caudal fins of my rainbow fish "worn" away slightly. The rainbows can do damage to each other now and then, so I didn't think anything of it until I just did a water change on my tank. As the water level got lower, the rainbows were obviously closer to the bottom and I could observe the Sids attacking my rainbows. I had seen them chase some of my other loaches, but no damage is ever done. They never mess with my Otocinclus, and when I first put them in the tank, they were schooling together. It seems strange that they are targeting such big fish. These are young Sids, so my question is whether they'll grow out of this obnoxious behavior, or if I have to sell them. Do they mellow with age?

I'm really sorry to hear about this problem but from time to time our hobby throws up these senarios and reminds us we can't take anything for granted.

We put together combinations of fish which often don't live together in the wild and the results cannot be reliably predicted.

The problem may continue and it may depend on how much damage is actually being done and how long you are prepared to put up with it in the hope of things changing for the better. It could be a forlorn hope.

It's very frustrating and I plan to keep an eye on the situation before I make a final decision. Have you seen this aggression in Sids yourself? I'm surprised no one else mentioned their experience.

I've kept sids a few times over the years & never seen that behavior. But like Redshark said, anything's possible. Skunk loaches harassed other fish often...but not my beloved sids. I never kept either with rainbows however, well, maybe dwarf neons. It may come down to which fish you want most if it continues. Maybe it's a case of low water level during WCs making the sids feel the sky is falling & the normal upper level swimming rainbows are too close to the sids bottom territory & must be nipped back where they belong. I don't know