Sucking Loach

[Ness]

Hi
I have been stupid enough to take the advice of a fish shop and bought 2 sucking loaches. As i have a relatively small tank i have since found out I shouldn't even have 1 of these little b****rs. We got rid of the most aggressive one to a friends tank (55 gall), now the less aggressive one is being a pain in the a*rse with my gouramis. Could my friend take this one as well? She has a mixture of discus and rummy nose tetras. Her tank is well planted.
These fish really are the devils spawn
xx

 

[donna123]

hi,
i used to have one of those caes, can you take it back to where you bought it from?,
im sure i read somewhere that when they get older and the taste for alge goes they like to rasp off the side of fish like gourami ect ,i hope your friends discus will be ok, i could be wrong but i would not risk it.

 

[tetras4me]

well um take it out of your tank and keep it in a bowl until you find someone who will take it

 

[raptorrex]

i am a little suprised to hear that tetras4me, though the only experience is my 2.5" sucking loach, which i have had for 3 month, its a shows no aggression at all and communes with all fish, i guess fish have different personalitys too lol

 

[karen84]

lol it really dose depend on the fish i used to have one in a community tank and he would always only attack orange coloured fish for some reason.

 

[RandomWiktor]

In a bowl, a CAE would die very quickly from declining water quality, lack of oxygenation, and lack of filtration, so please ignore that advice. My suggestion would be to return the troublemaker to the store, or re-home him with someone who knows about their proper care. I would not suggest giving it to the friend who allready took one, as the species often becomes highly agressive and territorial with age; they will probably fight to the death once they are old enough. And I do believe the discus would be in trouble with a CAE; they'll attach to pretty much any fish they can, eating the eyes and slime coat. They really should be kept singly...
I'd adopt it if I could; I have an empty 30g just sitting around and really miss having CAEs.

 

[Ness]

Shame your a tad too far away RandomWiktor! After taking the advice on here (not the bit about putting it in a bowl lol) I've offered him to my lfs. Not the one I got him from as I think he'd just get passed on to another unsuspecting soul. He has agreed to take him and I trust this guy, may swap him for something more suitable and ban my bloke from impulse buys on the advice of dozy lfs workers
Thanks
X