Clown Loach Problems.

[klueless]

Hello Tropical Fish Forum. This is my first post on here.
Let me describe my situation. (apologies for the amount to read!).

I have a medium size tank. 1 metre in length, About a foot in depth & maybe 18-20' high??? At a guess. (apologies for the metric/imperial mix).
About 6 months ago I moved house, & knew I was going to be moving, so, gradually let my fish slowly decline over a year or so. When I moved I had 4 Swordtails, Maybe 15-20 tetra in the tank & that was about it. Plus a lot of live plants. I know somewhat about the technicalities of moving a tank & kept as much of the original water as possible, only discarding a normal water change. I re-set the tank in it's new position & left it 3 months to balance out. I lost maybe 4/5 tetras (wasn't too worried about it, it was a big move for them) & one swordtail passed. Shortly after, the swordtails started having babies, so I figured all was well. Time to add some more fish. I decided to get some clown loach having had some a few years back & finding them quite nice fish. I bought 4. One, sadly passed after a day. After that the others soon started popping out of the rocks to say hi. Lovely. Saddened by the loss of one, I did say to my girlfriend that I wanted to replace him. She took it upon herself to buy me 3. I wouldn't have but I figured hey, it's been a few weeks. I'm sure it'll be OK. Here in lies the problem. The loaches now have pretty much got run of the tank. They have devoured most of my plants.... MY PRECIOUS PLANTS!!! & have eaten a swordtail, plus I now only have 6 tetra left. I just can't figure it. I decided after a few went missing they weren't getting enough food. So, I now add a Blood worm cube every other day, plus a decent slice of cucumber to hopefully stop them eating the plants. No avail. The fish are still disappearing, & the plants are still being eaten.
I'm wondering if it's worth me getting a Red tailed Black shark to keep them at bay with their constant chasing, or maybe to just add some other bigger fish to balance the equilibrium. The only other fish in the mix is a medium sized plec, who seems to have been un-affected by everything I've previously mentioned (apart from loving the addition of cucumber to the tank).

I'm thinking about taking all the loach out, adding more fish to the tank, then slowly adding them one at a time.
Any thoughts anyone?

Anything would be appreciated.

Thanks.
Luke.

 

[blackops]

 

[Iiriva]

Well, for starters, your tank is way too small for clown loaches. Do you have any idea how big they get, even though they are slow growers? And yes, they do love to chop up plants.

Have you tested your water? Are you sure it's allright (no nitrite or ammonia) as you are losing fish? Clown loaches don't eat other fish if alive, but they may eat a dead one, and so do plecos.

I'd return the clown loaches to your LFS as they are not suitable for your tank, check that your tank is in good parameters and then maybe get some new, little fishes.

 

[mrlewis1978]

I have 8 clown loaches in a well planted tank, they have never touched a leaf. I dont think it is your clowns. Did you uproot plants etc when you moved? Maybe they are just dying off at the moment and will start growing again when they resettle.

 

[klueless]

Oh dear. I hadn't really thought about the tank size... I did have some in a smaller tank once (2), they seemed OK. The new group do seem somewhat like a wolf pack. I'll test the water in shorty.
Thanks for the advice. I'll see how abiding the LFS is, & tell my girlfriend that they must have passed away. (She'll be none the wiser).

 

[tomtomtom1230]

Oh dear. I hadn't really thought about the tank size... I did have some in a smaller tank once (2), they seemed OK. The new group do seem somewhat like a wolf pack. I'll test the water in shorty.
Thanks for the advice. I'll see how abiding the LFS is, & tell my girlfriend that they must have passed away. (She'll be none the wiser).

My girlfriend urged me to get fish since she won't get attached to them She worries too much if she can't find the pleco or something now, even though he likes burying himself under the Mopani wood which she knows but worries regardless.

 

[klueless]

I have 8 clown loaches in a well planted tank, they have never touched a leaf. I dont think it is your clowns. Did you uproot plants etc when you moved? Maybe they are just dying off at the moment and will start growing again when they resettle.

Thanks again for the post. I guess it could still be a little agitated from the move. I'll do some test in a bit, perhaps tomorrow now & see what the results are.
Just out of interest, what size is your tank? It looks similar to mine in the picture, however, pictures can be deceiving. I'll have a go at loading some pictures of mine to see what the community thinks.

Thanks to you all for being so friendly!

Luke.

Oh dear. I hadn't really thought about the tank size... I did have some in a smaller tank once (2), they seemed OK. The new group do seem somewhat like a wolf pack. I'll test the water in shorty.
Thanks for the advice. I'll see how abiding the LFS is, & tell my girlfriend that they must have passed away. (She'll be none the wiser).

My girlfriend urged me to get fish since she won't get attached to them She worries too much if she can't find the pleco or something now, even though he likes burying himself under the Mopani wood which she knows but worries regardless.

Ha! Well, it was me who was into fish before I met her, however, now she buys me things every now & then that basically I'm just not too bothered about. Still, she does it out of kind/love, so I don't complain.

Thanks for your message.
Luke.

I have 8 clown loaches in a well planted tank, they have never touched a leaf. I dont think it is your clowns. Did you uproot plants etc when you moved? Maybe they are just dying off at the moment and will start growing again when they resettle.

Sorry to bother you again.
Is your avatar a picture of your tank? I only ask as it looks like you have Java fern in your tank???
If it is, & you have I might try replacing my tanks with them, maybe they wont touch them. I have a few types of plants (I'm not too sure of their names) The fish seem to be eating all the thin leaved ones, however, the ones that cling to my rocks & bogwood with their roots hanging all over (name draws a blank) they don't touch. Maybe I just need hardier plants

Cheers.

 

[MBOU]

If you find your local maidenhead aquatics, they will likely take the clown loach off you and if you ask nicely, might swap them for some tetras etc providing your water is ok explain your problem like you did here. Its all about your attitude, if you came on here mouthing off about how its fine to keep clown loaches and you know better etc then i guarantee you'd have got a different reaction! lol

Welcome to the forums by the way!!!

The clown loaches can easily get over a foot long each! so think 30-40cm per fish awesome fish...

But in atank with plants and lots of small fish and not enough space? They become the nightmare you have found! I have seen them decimate plants, they are terrible for digging and chewing the roots! And can become terrible fin nippers and voracious eater of small fish when they turn into a mob.

You have enough of them that they are really acting as a shoal with a bit of a 'pack mentalitiy' and hunting, its good and bad! They are happy enough in your tank that they are behaving completely naturally as clown loach would do in the wild!! only trouble is its just not good for keeping other fish or plants or the clown loaches in the long run!

If you really like the loach behaviours, you might get on well with something like 4 Botia Striata or Zebra Loach, they are kind of green and ccream stripey with loads of tiny stripes in the same loach shape but max out at about 8cm tops, often a big smaller! They would be perfectly happy in that size tank, would help keep swordtail population down and give you the loach behaviour you like without terrorizing you tank or plants!!

 

[MBOU]

Also plant wise, the clown loaches are mainly terrible for digging and eating the soft buries roots which in turn wrecks the plants, they also knock the plants about. Having plants on bogwood helps with this but might not stop it if the loaches have already got a taste for plants?

Two main leaves that go on the wood, Java Fern and Anubias (big waxy leaves is a great plant to grow!) there are others like Bolbitis (sounds like a disease huh!) and a few others.

Keeping plants happy and healthy is a whole new game, a greatone if you dont have clown loaches! Its so rewarding to grow the plants as well as fish! Things like lighting on the tank and feeding the plants will make a massive difference! Some plants need liquid fertilizer and others prefer the stuff that goes into the gravel! Both are a good idea, JBL 7 Balls are clay balls you press into the gravel between plants and feeds the plants for months and a bottl of liquid food fed once a week into the tank after water changes helps keep other plants healthy.

And then little things like... being a bit rough with the plants is sometimes a good thing! If you see dead or dying leaves... snip them off at the base! Means plant is putting less energy into trying to heal the dying leaves and throws up new leaves in its place! Then cut off a few more older leaves and it suddenly puts up even mre new leaves...

I made a Java fern with 5 leaves go to a small hedge with 40+ leaves in a year doing this

Make a trip to the plant section of the forum and they can give you much more and better advise... but honestly growing aquatic plants is pretty and rewarding! Especially when you look at some of the high tech planted tanks or plants like the tropical water lilies or madagascar lace plants

 

[ShinySideUp]

I'm wondering if it's worth me getting a Red tailed Black shark

Don't do this, no one will be happy.

 

[mrlewis1978]

Hi there no problem - the tank is 48 X 18 X 18. That is it in the picture but its been replanted and changed to sand since then. It has planted bogwood with java fern and anubias, plus valis. I keep all my more boisterous fish in this tank. They are really active in my tank and dont seem to affect the plants (although they are tougher plants), maybe I am lucky. They will all be going into a 6 x 2 x 2 next year.