Found his feet so to speak

[midman]

Hi everyone,

My new adopted Clown loach, the one which is about 6-7 inches long has started to get quite bossy in the tank. I have put some tubes inside the tank where they all love to hide. One for him and one for the remaining 7. However, in the evening he chases them all over the place - clicking loudly all the time. Nothing really aggresive - just chasing them off. He/she will spend time in the tube and not allow any others in except for my smallest Clown. He will then go to the tube below and empty them all out before returning to his own tube.

On a smaller point, the amount of food they eat is incredible. Samson, as I call him will actually take blood worm from my hand in the morning as I put it in the water and flake food from the surface. I can put 2 or 3 blocks of frozen bloodworm in and it is literally gone in 15 seconds - seriously. Is it okay to feed them this much Nitrite is fine. I am going to get a bigger tank, but not until we move house shortly. Any help would be appreciated.

I don't know if it is any coincidence that this loach is the one I have posted about with the tail mutation. Maybe he just needs a bigger tank. he does have privacy though.

[Emma Turner]

Hi midman,

It's good to hear that the new clown has settled in well.

It is difficult to say if the amount of food you are giving them is ok, as I can't recall what size tank it is, what filtration you have, and what other fish are in with the clowns.

With the frozen bloodworms, I take it that you are defrosting them in a cup of tank water before adding them to the tank? Otherwise it could cause them problems, if they are consuming frozen cubes within 15 seconds, as they will not have sufficient time to have thawed properly. You should try and vary up the food a little more too, as bloodworm is a very rich food (I never feed it to my loaches, but a huge amount of loach keepers do). Try them with white mosquito larvae which comes from cleaner waters and is not so rich, also brineshrimp, krill, and chopped up prawns. They'd also very much appreciate the sinking Catfish pellets made by JMC - they are a loach magnet!

Emma

[Desi]

I second the white mosquito larvae, my clown loaches go ape for it. I don't feed it real often maybe once a week probably a little less then that but they love it.

[midman]

Hi midman,

It's good to hear that the new clown has settled in well.

It is difficult to say if the amount of food you are giving them is ok, as I can't recall what size tank it is, what filtration you have, and what other fish are in with the clowns.

With the frozen bloodworms, I take it that you are defrosting them in a cup of tank water before adding them to the tank? Otherwise it could cause them problems, if they are consuming frozen cubes within 15 seconds, as they will not have sufficient time to have thawed properly. You should try and vary up the food a little more too, as bloodworm is a very rich food (I never feed it to my loaches, but a huge amount of loach keepers do). Try them with white mosquito larvae which comes from cleaner waters and is not so rich, also brineshrimp, krill, and chopped up prawns. They'd also very much appreciate the sinking Catfish pellets made by JMC - they are a loach magnet!

Emma

I do feed the loaches frozen brine shrimp. You made a good point about the frozen foods, but to be honest the loaches pretty much pull it all apart before swallowing. My tank is at about 30 degrees C. I think I leave it frozen so that they can carry it around and keep it away from my other fish. They all seem to be healthy, so I guess they are ok. But obviously if there is anything else unseen that may happen, other than it being a bit cold for them - let me know. I do have quite a small tank - only about 25 gallons, but I do have 2 filters running and I do make twice weekly 4 gallon water changes. My nitrite is fine, nitrate does get a bit high though. I have also noticed that my plants aren't doing so well, despite the nitrate. PH is around 6.5, but definitely below 7.

[Emma Turner]

You do want to be careful with feeding frozen foods the way you are doing. If the fish are continually ingesting little bits of ice, it can cause them internal/digestive problems, that may not be apparent immediately. They would never ingest ice in their natural habitat. If you are worried about the other fish getting all the food, you can always buy a small length of clear rigid tubing from your lfs, and use it to pour the defrosted (in tank water) food down and target feed the bottom dwellers. But honestly, if you poured that amount of defrosted food right in front of one of your filter outlets, the filter will cause the food to move all around the tank and all fish should benefit. (Many people actually use this method when feeding fish that don't seem to want to take anything but small live foods, as the action of the filter flow causes the food to look like it's moving itself around the tank).

I'm glad to hear that you are getting a bigger tank when you move house, as the thought of a 7" clown in a 25 gallon tank is rather distressing. If the nitrate is high in your current tank, then you are probably overfeeding, and maybe slightly overstocked? The amount of partial water changes you are carrying out seems ok, but ideally, the nitrate wants to be below 40ppm. It'd be interesting to know what the nitrate reading is of your tap water. If it is high, then you are fighting a losing battle. Your best way forward in that case would be to use RO water in the future.

Hope this helps,

Emma

[midman]

Thanks for reply again Emma. I put zero nitrate into the tank as I drive my water through an ion exchange resin. I have tested it before at 20ppm and tested it at 0ppm post filter so I am happy that I am not putting Nitrate into the tank in the first place. I accept your point about the tank size. Don't worry me too much by being distressed about it as I value your opinion and I would hate to think that I am being cruel to the fish. They seem very happy and very active so I am not too concerned at the moment. I really am making efforts to sort this out - you may have seen my thread asking for advice about making a sturdy stand. At risk of making my fish wait a bit I would prefer to not have to unsettle them twice, once with a new tank and then with the move. I changed up to this tank last year and lost the only ever fish I have - including 2 clowns!! By the way, is there really any limit to the amount of water you can reasonably change I dechlorinate and denitrate and my PH is always bang on the line and doesn't seem affected at all, however many changes I make. Sometimes I have filtered as much as 10 gallons a week to do water changes.

I used to feed my loaches through a tube and also in a plastic feeder at the top of the tank - although I worried about their barbs a bit. As I do with gravel instead of sand. I have to address this too!! It is difficlut as I started off with just a communal fish tank and I am trying to change to more suit the loaches, and I very much appreciate your help.

I am trying my best given the circumstances. I just couldn't leave that Clown Loach in the fish shop with all those Plecs.



Chris.

[Emma Turner]

By the way, is there really any limit to the amount of water you can reasonably change I dechlorinate and denitrate and my PH is always bang on the line and doesn't seem affected at all, however many changes I make. Sometimes I have filtered as much as 10 gallons a week to do water changes.

As long as the deinoised water you are putting back in is of the same temperature as the tank water, then you could do slightly bigger changes. Or else you could up the amount of changes you are doing to 3 a week instead.
When you come to move house with your fish, you might find this article that I wrote for Maidenhead Aquatics of some use: http://www.fishkeeper.co.uk/read_articl ... =4&search=

Emma

[midman]

I had a look - thank you.