Loaches Online Forum

My oldest loach swims up and down up and down by the end of my tank. Usually at night and sometimes earily morning...

I have 3 juvenile clowns in a QT tank and I noticed 2 of them also do this...


Is this just normal behavior? Or are they tryinh to tell me something?

I would maybe think in the QT they where just wanting more space... but the others are in a 125. No worries abouy space there...

I know I'm probably just being a ninny fishy momma but can anyone tell me why they do this?

Mine haven't done this since they were about five years old when all six of them did it every day, especially in the mornings.

BTW I think you posted twice!

Yea it was an accident. Not sure how I did it hounestly anf I don't know how to deleat it. I kind of half figured a mod would come along and do it since I'm so techtarded.

So the behaviors "normal".... do you know why they do it?

Just curious.

Since this forum is loach dedicated I figured perhaps other loach owners had experience / observations about it.

My oldest loach is about 6 or 7 years old and they desend in age from there..

My clowns do that twice a day, every day - just before feeding time.

The little beggars...

Mine aren't as old but they do it all the time too, for the last year at least with no ill effect. If you added more loaches, which are more outgoing, I've read that they can trigger the older lazy ones to be more playful too. The less skittish ones you have, the more playful the loaches.
Test your water, do a few larger water changes just in case but from my observations it's normal unless someone can come along and confirm this can happen due to some sort of stress?

I am by no means an expert but we've had our loaches for 2 and a half years. I noticed our clowns exhibited that behavior allot when we first got them or when we add a new loach into the tank. It's adorable and I call it the Snoopy dance. They also do it around feeding time as you mentioned. I've spent many hours watching our fish and have come to the conclusion that the 'dance' has something to do with dominance. All of our loaches were the same size when we started out, now the head fish is huge, the middle ranking fish is big while the lowest fish on the totem pole is growing but slowly. The bigger fish does the dance the most and the smallest rarely does it. I suspect they are using it to stake their claim on the food or their place in the loach hierarchy. At first we had a huge problem with the larger loach, he always ate first and the other loaches wouldn't eat, even after we took the problem loach out of the tank. I took a guess at the source of the problem and purchased another clown who was slightly bigger than our bully. It worked. The new loach is now 3 times the size of the bully and while there are still confrontations, all the fish eat normally. I could be wrong but this is just what we've noticed, but because we don't speak fish of course this is all speculation.

All of my loaches except for my large Yoyos will do this when the water is clean. I know I need to change the water when they stop.

I have about 25 Australian rainbow fish as dither fish in my 6ft clown loach tank, and there is always 10-15 of the clowns out swimming back and forwards, around in circles, etc etc.
ESPECIALLY when they see me walk near.

Before I had the rainbow fish my loaches were always hiding.

They swim up and down into the fastest flowing areas of the tank. I have two fx5 canister filters that dump water into the same corner, and the water is sucked out of the opposite end. The loaches will frequently circle around under the filter outputs.

What you have is a normal loach. Enjoy

So I added a new koralia 425 circulation pump and last night my oldest loach was playing in the current and he bounced on the gravel twice
Once he landed on his side in a flop and the next he landed on his face.

Has anyone else had this happen?

Should I be worried about him? He acted like it startled him and stressed him out... I know it scared me.. I jumped to his rescue... I'm spite of having no clue what to do.... sort of like that mommy instinct kicked in and I had to save my baby.

He ran behind the pvc pipe where I have a big plant situated and "hid:. He was breathing pretty heavy for a moment but later on he seemed alright....

I've jad that buddy for quiet a number of years and I think I'd be so heartbroken if anything happened to him...

you reckon he's ok?

Probably just scared himself.

I'd keep an eye on him, but most likely he's just fine.