Clown Loach Behaving Oddly

[degsod]

Hi all,

My clown loach (coco) has been baving oddly since Monday. I first noticed iton Monday evening when he was lying on his side and appeared to be dead. When I went over he immediately turned over normally and swam off. He is eating fine and the tank water specs are all ok.

Yesterday he was swimming upside down and keeps resting on the bottom of the aquarium upside down. The same has happened today. Whenever I put food in he is there ready to eat and swims around happily.

The tank is a Trigon 190 with the internal filter and is planted quite heavily. He is about 4 inches long, I also have a Golden discus (Inferno) about 4.5" in diameter, an Angel fish about the same size (Angle), a large silver shark about 7" (Silver Surfer), a small silver shark about 2.5" (MiniMe), an X ray and Rosy tetras about 3/4" (Silent Assasins), a Plec about 6" (Tiddles) and a smaller plec around 2" (Mini tiddles) and finally a Pearl Gourami around 2" (Silk)

all the fish came withthe tank when I bought it and it has been setup for around 10 weeks, I perform a water change every week of about 10%. The water is crystal clear.

Please help

 

[NaughtyT]

Clown loaches do these things hense the name,mine play dead alot,they sleep ontop of each other they spend time thinking they are silver sharks and follow them around,all very amusing and great fun to watch,i have 4 of them and at nights they all sleep next to each other in thier cave and all lying on thier sides.

If he looks fine and is eating etc i wouldn't be too fussed,just to let you know though,clown loaches preffer to be in groups and thats when you will really see thier charachter.

 

[degsod]

Thanks for the message, I have been looking for some clown loaches to keep him company, but all the ones I have seen are very small, I would like to get some around the same size.

Mine does the same thing with the silver sharks swimming around thinking he is one of them.

I have turned on the aeration tonight as most of the fish seemed to be congregrating near the surface. Now they think its great fun swimming through the bubbles lol

 

[degsod]

UPDATE, CoCo is behaving normally now since the additio of aeration

 

[-SPB-]

I have some and they do stuff like this all of the time. I've gotten used to it!!!!

Also, they do like to be in groups as they are a very social fish, just having one isn't ideal. Not sure that the tank you have is the best size either as they do best in a tank of at least 55g.

 

[degsod]

I will be getting some more companions for him, I am looking for some aroundthe same size as him. Hope to upgrade to a larger tank in the summer, probably a 5 x 2 x2

 

[STD]

I have some and they do stuff like this all of the time. I've gotten used to it!!!!

Also, they do like to be in groups as they are a very social fish, just having one isn't ideal. Not sure that the tank you have is the best size either as they do best in a tank of at least 55g.

Mine are always scaring me by laying on their side

 

[degsod]

Good to know I am not alone in being worried then. He has just had a tug of war match with silver surfer over some blood works I put in the tank. Very entertaining lol

 

[moomin07]

our clown loach thinks he is a catfish, we also wanted to get him a large friend but all local lfs have small ones

 

[degsod]

I know, thats the problem they are all tiny, there was one lfs nearby which had good sized ones in but the quality of fish from them is always poor, the tanks are dirty and you always see dead fish.

Also they sell painted fish so I don't give them too much business if I can avoid it.