Is this normal loach behavior?

[revhead]

Ah that's great news lin..
Your fish are enjoying the ever so slight rise in the temp. Also great news.
Driftwood, imo, serves several purpopses. If you can find hollow peices, they make excellent natural looking caves & serve to lower the general hardness & ph of the water with the tannins it releases. I quite like the 'tea' color as well. If that gets too much, you can always run carbon in your filter to lessen it to an extent.
Here's where my guys live & they seem to appreciate the many hidey holes in the wood & between the rocks. Since this pic i have removed much of the substrate & added more wood. I never did have gravel but i have taken most of the pebbles out just leaving the larger ones & every time i go to my lfs, i search through the piles of driftwood looking for any peice that's hollow or has yet another little hole or slit my loaches can squeeze themselves into.






Btw, thankyou for the compliment on my avitar & your very welcome.
I use the avitar as my screensaver too. I was asked to change it on another site i frequent as it's 'too scary'...lol.

[linarite]

Just an update -

I have gotten the temperature up to 78-79F, added an additional piece of driftwood to make one large cave area along with several small ones, got another light that is a mix of natural and blue light, added another large plant that will provide more hiding space and substituted a sinking shrimp pellet for the Tetra Freeze Dried Shrimp.

I also added two more clown loaches to my tank. After watching them at the store today I selected two from a group that were out and busy in the tank. I didn't want any more "shy" ones. After adding them to the tank I did notice that one of my original ones was out doing loachy things with them. Still have two that are hiding but hoping that after they get a chance to explore the new caves and dense plant cover they will become more active.

While watching the loaches harass my Chocolate Pleco this afternoon I decided that Clown Loaches are the "Labrador" of the fish world.

When the new ones have had some time to adjust I will try to get some new pics.

[qumqats]

Don't be suprised if it takes quite a while for them to settle down / become comfortable. I've noticed it takes as much as a month or MORE after major changes for my clowns to become comfortable with the tank and start coming out much.

[linarite]

Actually, I saw all 5 out and about yesterday. It was great to watch them interact. They were all over the tank. They are still a little nervous and run any time I walk past the tank but it doesn't take too long before they are out again. I do have one that I am watching carefully. He appears a little dull, not complete grayed out but not brightly colored like the rest. He was eating well yesterday but kept acting a little different. I won't say he was flashing but close. I haven't seen any indications of ick or such in the tank but am keeping a very close eye on things. I have a friend who claims her smaller fish will do this to get the gravel to move around so food will come floating up. We will see.