Out Of Control Clown Loach... Pls Help....

[yellowcow]

Hoping someone can help. Until last week I had 2 clown loaches, one of which disappeared (presumed eaten) and since then the other loach has gone crazy attacking and eating 5 neon tetras and a betta. I am 99% sure he is the culprit as when watching the tank he could be seen being aggressive. I am hoping to get a new friend for the loach tomorrow and was wondering if anyone thinks this will help calm the other one down? I though clown loaches were supposed to be quite gentle fish? Thanks in advance...

 

[Wills]

Hi welcome to the forum, just before we accuse the clown loach of being the culprit lets explore other options first. How long has the tank been running and how big is it? What are the ammonia and nitrite readings like?

Also while clown loaches are not aggressive they can be quite boisterous like all loaches and some times interfere with other fish. So that could be the aggression you saw?

Wills

 

[Mayu]

Hoping someone can help. Until last week I had 2 clown loaches, one of which disappeared (presumed eaten) and since then the other loach has gone crazy attacking and eating 5 neon tetras and a betta. I am 99% sure he is the culprit as when watching the tank he could be seen being aggressive. I am hoping to get a new friend for the loach tomorrow and was wondering if anyone thinks this will help calm the other one down? I though clown loaches were supposed to be quite gentle fish? Thanks in advance...

Like the other answer said... how big is your tank?

Any fish, peaceful or not, can get feisty if they are in a tank that is not appropriate for their growth. (For example.. a Clown Loach can get to be a foot long, so you wouldn't want to put one in a 30 gallon tank.)

While it takes a while for them to get their full size, they need lots of room to swim, lots of places to hide, and lots of alternative food sources such as snails to munch on.

While rare.. it IS possible for any peaceful fish to become semi-agressive if they are in a tank smaller than ideal for them, with little place to hide.

However, what other fish are in the tank besides the betta and the tetra.

Speaking of... are you sure the tetra were not killed by the betta? Bettas can be very aggressive with other fish unless you have a very large tank where faster fish can swim away easily to avoid getting attacked by the Betta. are you sure the Betta or another fish is not the culprit?

Clowns are generally peaceful and will tend to play or nuzzle with other fish.

 

[karin]

I had a zebra loach that poked out the eye and nipped off one fin from a neon tetra. I was told that the loach can get aggressive if it is kept alone and needs a little group of 4-5 others and then they focus on themselves. I ended up returning the loach to the LFS, because I did not have room for more and all tetras have been fine. BTW I still have the one eyed tetra 6 months later.

 

[FiSh123FiSh]

Clown loaches can grow very big as the others said so it is worth allowing room for growth. They do need some of their own species min of 4 to thrive in their own groups. P


Pretty much backing up what the others said