clown loaches....

[andyw823]

last couple of days my 2 clown loaches have been acting strange! They use to always swim around together hunting for food.... now they dont seem to like each other! lots of showing off going on and some (what looks like) serious scrapping going on! There really going at each other and some times their mouth`s are locking together. Are they just showing who is top fish or is there something wrong?

 

[Clairel]

Not sure, have you added any new fish? How long have you had your clown loaches? Are your water stats ok?

I have 2 Clown Loaches, and they dont usually swim anywhere unless there together, they dont fight at all....

Hope you get some answers.... maybe you ought to post in the Loaches section too, you may get an aswer quicker??

Claire xx

 

[collared_drifter]

isent it because there is only 2? because i think your supposed to have three or more so they arent stressed or fight or somthing like that. maybe they are just playing?

 

[andyw823]

Oh there deff not playing they look very serious to me... before they were near each other and were all stiff and showing their fins... they then started scrapping so i tapped on the tank to separate them. So a 3rd could calm them down? i have quite a lot of fish in my tank and dont want to over stock it!

 

[xamdarb]

what size is your tank first of all

 

[andyw823]

what size is your tank first of all

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140 litres. I have 4 platies, 5 neon tetra, 3 glow light tetra, 5 wcm minnows, 2 balloon rams, 2 BN plecs, 1 clown plec, 3 female bettas and the 2 clown loaches.

 

[kat and james]

i would guess that it is because they are only in a pair, although i have read articles that says they can be kept in pairs. we have 4 clown loach, and we never see any aggressive behaviour, except during dinner time when the larger two push away the smaller two, but that is it.
in my experience it never seems to be a good idea to only have two of fish, it is usually three or one, three so that if there is any bullying, then the two being bullied can stand up together, and one.. well obviously there is no one to bully!

 

[Barry P]

My 2 clowns tend to stick together all the time, either beside each other in a dark crevice or hunting for food together.Every now and again they look like they are having a nibble at each other but so far it hasnt caused any changes or problems.

 

[emma12321]

Its a dominance thing, i have 3 clowns and the two that are the same size often do it, the bigger one they know to leave alone. They lock jaws and lunge at each other, swim in circles and turn a dark colour with their dorsal fin stiff. They did it loads a couple of weeks ago but must have sorted out whos boss as they have stopped doing it now.

There is an article about it on www.loaches.com

Emma

 

[Barracuda518]

Its a dominance thing, i have 3 clowns and the two that are the same size often do it, the bigger one they know to leave alone. They lock jaws and lunge at each other, swim in circles and turn a dark colour with their dorsal fin stiff. They did it loads a couple of weeks ago but must have sorted out whos boss as they have stopped doing it now.

There is an article about it on www.loaches.com

Emma

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Yep, they are establishing a peking order. Once they are done doing that, then they should be fine.

 

[Jules H-T]

Mine did it when they were a few months old. I've got a video of it at home I'll see if I can upload. After a few days they stopped, and the winner is now significantly bigger than the loser. They still hang around thick as thieves though, so don't worry about it.

I got 3 more tiddler clown loaches recently, and they are just now starting to show signs that they are going to go through this also. I'll be selling tickets and running a book on them when it happens, not stressing (although I did the first time).