Loaches Online Forum

Earlier this month I was having problems with my tank (30 gallons) so made some suggested changes. Started using Prime in the tank, reduced the fish load by finding a new home for my pleco, increased the water temperature and reduced the amount I was feeding way down. The water chemistry is now stable and everyone seems be thriving. Question - I'm seeing some aggressive behavior when I feed the fish. I have 5 loaches (1.5 - 2.0"), 4 cory cats (1.0 - 2.0") and 3 tetras (~1.5" each). I am feeding 1/2 Hikari algae disk, 1 TetraMin Variety Wafer, 4 - 6 TetraMin Crisps 2X daily. A couple of times a week I will trade out the wafer for a shrimp pellet. Is this enough? From watching some of the videos that are posted from time to time I know that the loaches can be vigorous feeders but saw one carrying off part of a wafer tonight and hoarding it. Don't want to over do the feeding but don't want to starve them either. Any ideas?

linarite,

in my humble opinion the easiest way to find out whether or not you are feeding too much is to check the fishs belly after you fed them - if it's quite visibly "bloated", you are feeding them too much (not necessarily too much in an unhealthy way but more than they need).

The "aggressive" behaviour is normal. My loaches do this all the time.
Especially when I feed Omega-1 shrimp pellets, each and every loach tries to grab one ASAP and carries it off to whereever it thinks it's safe - which leads to really funny action in the tank.

Hope that helps,

Connor

Split your food more so you always have enough servings for each of your occupants as to reduce aggressive hoarding.I crush or chop to feed everyone at the same time as for your less aggresive fish this may be the only opportunity to eat . No reason to serve huge portions as this can make the larger fish bigger and further develop a problem of desparity in size over time

Connor,
That is exactly what happened tonight. He grabbed the algae wafer and ran. And yes, the action did seemed to get a little heated. Lots of pushing each other around and lots of clicking. It did give me a chance to get a real good look at everyone. No one seems to be getting fat or anything but all looked healthy. A lot like the nice ones we see here.

Tinman,
I have been breaking up the algae wafer for just that reason. I usually wind up with 2 or 3 pieces that I drop in different areas of the tank. I don't seem to be able to do this with the TetraMin wafer but may try cutting it.

I am also using the Omego 1 pellets and think that I might be able to break these in 2 pieces so they can share.

Thanks for help and tips.

And another question - do the loaches click in different tones? Not sure if I was listening to my loaches the other night using different tones or if I had a lizard on the patio making noise. Just thought I would ask.

i had thought i'd heard my loaches clicking in different tones too.

i sometimes feed granules. they disperse all over the place so even the smallest shy loaches can get some.

the funniest thing i saw was when i had a dwarf cichlid. he would try and stuff 2 sinking carnivore pellets in his little gob before they had a chance to sink. he did succeed. i had to distract him before puting the pellets in for the loaches after that

Just thought I'd add my two cents... I've also noticed that my clowns will fight for one of the algea waffers even when there is more than one at the bottom of the tank. It's like they prefer to fight for the food.

I'm glad Linarite posted this because I've noticed that 2 of my 8 clowns are becoming very aggressive and have seen them fighting outside of feeding times.

Any input from long time clown owners is always helpful.

Nice name of the topic, so I will use it for my question.

In your oppinion, what is a minimum filter capacity for clown loach tank of 160 gallons?

We all know they need very good filtration, but since numbers are not my favourite subject, i rather ask experts.

Well, I think I have one that I'm just going to call Hogg. Today he took 2 of the 3 pieces of algae wafer. I know that he isn't eating all of that. Also caught one of the loaches waiting on the driftwood for the tetras to swim by. When the tetra dropped the crisp he was carrying around, the loach snatched it up before the other could even make a move. I am breaking everything into rather small pieces so that everyone gets some. May give the granules a try.

So glad to hear that someone else is hearing different tones. I'm just surprised at how loud something this small can be. As they have become more comfortable in the tank and with me close to them they have become more vocal.

Ded1 asked

In your oppinion, what is a minimum filter capacity for clown loach tank of 160 gallons?

On my 150 I use a Rena 3 ,Two Fluval XP4 plus a bio air sponge AND have a a system that pumps 600 or so gallons every hour in and out of my 150 across two separate bio beds that are common to all my tanks and I am in the process of upgrading from there to more flow up to about 1000 gallons an hour on my beds from this tank alone. Effectively I am at 10-12 times per hour and will increase to about 16-18 times per hour which will be about perfect IMO.Having 6 filters on this tank I may clean 2 or 3 at a time or one of my bio beds without affecting my water chemistry.You should have at least 3 filters to be stable and a minimum change out of 8 times an hour.This is dependent on fish load obviously.