I think my clown loach are trapped

[Al Bundy]

I purchased 3 clown loach on Sunday, and for the past two days I have not seen them - at all.

They have found a small hole in a piece of driftwood and have somehow managed to fit themselves into it. Now I'm worried that they're stuck and cannot get out.

Or am I panicing over nothing? They were very shy when I first intruduced them into the tank.

Help greatly received.

 

[Joviella]

Mine sometimes hide in holes......they can and do come out!!
When you first get clown loaches they take a little while to settle and should be fine.

 

[Al Bundy]

Phew! Thats good news. I'm just worried they're missing out on feeding time and are gonna starve.

 

[Joviella]

They will eat when they are hungry enough.......they might even be coming out to eat when you have gone to bed!! What are you feeding them?

 

[Al Bundy]

What are you feeding them?

Well nothing at the moment but my LFS guy told me the flake food I use for the rest of my fish is sufficient.

Is that incorrect?

 

[Joviella]

Flake food is fine, but clown loaches like other things too. Bloodworm(frozen or live),catfish pellets and green veg(e.g.peas) are all good.You will probably find that your other fish will like a varied diet too.

 

[Wishful]

We went through exactly the same thing a little while ago. Within 20 seconds of releasing them, they were all inside a mock tree root decoration. I was concerned that they were stuck, but in the end the space in there was more than enough to accomodate them.

They did come out at night, we saw them very occasionally, but the thing you need to watch for that we fell foul of was white spot. We didn't see them for days and then only with the light off. By the time I noticed that the white spot was present it was too late. We treated the tank, but in the end lost all three.

If I were you, I wouldn't worry about them hiding, but I'd watch late at night to make sure they are popping out occasionally - when you see them have a really good look. I noticed that the LFS that we've started to use lately actually suggests always giving a 3 day course of Protozin when adding Clown Loaches to prevent it happening.

Our loaches, while the poor little things lived, absolutely loved blood worm and variety sinking wafers, I never saw them get flake food once.

I hope this helps, and that you enjoy the little chaps.

 

[FanOFish]

Mine both hid in a crack in the driftwood as well. I would go days without seeing them. They still hide but only one can fit in the crack now.

Try feeding them sinking pellets and then come out at night with no lights on and see if you can see them swimming up and down the sides of the tanks like......well clowns!

 

[Aquascaper]

Leave a table lamp on in the room away from the tank and turn off the tank lights and put an algae wafer in. Sit down and watch

 

[bccromer]

Mine never were shy. They loved blood worms, but would also go crazy over algae wafers. I could drop 2 in the tank and in about 30 minutes just 2 clown loaches would make them be gone. Hope all goes well.

Brad

 

[pnyklr3]

My loaches are a blast to watch! They are definately NOT shy They do, however, disapper sometimes into a decoration I have, but I make sure I count them all every few days.

A little off topic: Is it normal for a loach to eat at the top of the tank?

 

[Boggle]

I don't know if it's 'normal', but I have 4 clowns in a community tank. I always feed the top feeders first, the bottom dwellers last, and since the clowns don't like waiting for their food, they have learned to swim upside down and eat like that.
Or they'll 'stand' vertically if hand feeding.

 

[bccromer]

Yeah I don't know if it is normal or not but I wouldn't worry about it. As long as they are eating I would be happy. They are fairly active fish so they will probably just eat wherever they find the food and look on the bottom for leftovers between feedings. As long as they eat and look healthy I say let them feed where they want and be happy that they are happy.

Brad

 

[Al Bundy]

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

Since starting this thread, I have seen 2 of the 3 clown loach (very briefly). I DID notice on one of them, that his colour wasn't as prominent as the other, looked faded. I couldn't really inspect closely as he shot back in, but could this be whitespot as someone mentioned further up^^?

 

[Joviella]

Clown loaches change their colours depending on their mood. I find that if mine get angry,they go really pale.