Aggressive Clown Loaches
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Aggressive Clown Loaches
I have had 11 clown loaches living happily in my aquarium for the past nine months. they have tank mates including a discus, some neons, 3 peppermint bristlenose, a couple of tiger barbs and 2 silver sharks. Everyone has gotten along fine until a couple of days ago i realised that my largest clown loach had been damaged on his side. I dont know if he has grazed himself on an ornament or if he was attacked. The most disturbing part is that the other clown loaches are now making his wound worse by biting at it etc. and now i have also noticed the loaches attacking my discus and swimming around the top of the tank erratically for periods of time. also at feeding time i have noticed them coming to the surface to eat instead of waiting for the food to reach them as normal. they go into a bit of a feeding frenzy when they are fed. i havent changed any of my feeding routines and they are very well fed. anyone got any idea why my loaches have become so angry??? please help.
Hi, Emily,
Maybe if you describe your tank a little better, someone may have an idea of what is going on.
How big is the tank to start with?
How big are the clowns?
What are your water parameters (this is one thing to check if fish behaves in an unusual way)?
How are your barbs behaving?
What are their sexes?
Did you make any changes in the tank recently?
Anything else you may think is important.
It is very hard to figure out what is happening in a tank unless you watch it yourself...but with more details this may be possible.
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One thing you probably should do now is to isolate the clown that has been hurt so he has a chance to heal.
Maybe if you describe your tank a little better, someone may have an idea of what is going on.
How big is the tank to start with?
How big are the clowns?
What are your water parameters (this is one thing to check if fish behaves in an unusual way)?
How are your barbs behaving?
What are their sexes?
Did you make any changes in the tank recently?
Anything else you may think is important.
It is very hard to figure out what is happening in a tank unless you watch it yourself...but with more details this may be possible.
-------------
One thing you probably should do now is to isolate the clown that has been hurt so he has a chance to heal.
the tank is a 4ft x 2ft x 2ft, the loaches range in size. the largest is probably close to 6 inches long, and go down in size from that to about 2.5/3inches.
i havent changed the water perameters recently, tank always runs at about nutral ph and fish have always been happy with this.
did a major water change when i discovered the injured one because the tank was quite dirty.
tiger barbs are fine - nothing out of the ordinaery behaviour wise.
not sure what sex the loaches are - i've heard that you can tell the difference because of the shape of their tails but i cant tell, was never really worried because i knew i couldnt breed them.
it is strange because my fish are never usually fussy and are quite self sufficient, i only need to clean the tank thoroughly once every month and a half or so - i know this sounds bad but the tank and water quality is always perfect, so i try not to fiddle with it too much.
the discus is very happy (apart from when it's being attacked) and i usually guage the happiness of the community by the discus's happiness as discus are normally the fussiest when it comes to water conditions. any help would be great, thanks.
i havent changed the water perameters recently, tank always runs at about nutral ph and fish have always been happy with this.
did a major water change when i discovered the injured one because the tank was quite dirty.
tiger barbs are fine - nothing out of the ordinaery behaviour wise.
not sure what sex the loaches are - i've heard that you can tell the difference because of the shape of their tails but i cant tell, was never really worried because i knew i couldnt breed them.
it is strange because my fish are never usually fussy and are quite self sufficient, i only need to clean the tank thoroughly once every month and a half or so - i know this sounds bad but the tank and water quality is always perfect, so i try not to fiddle with it too much.
the discus is very happy (apart from when it's being attacked) and i usually guage the happiness of the community by the discus's happiness as discus are normally the fussiest when it comes to water conditions. any help would be great, thanks.
No brilliant ideas, but perhaps a couple of things I've seen happening may give you an idea what to look for.
1. The only time I've seen clowns getting really aggressive was because of scoaling together with barbs that went really wrong. There were too few barbs (only 3 -- barbs scoals need 6 or more, usually) and their sexes were unbalanced (I asked about the barbs sex, not loaches...). This resulted in a dead barb.
2. The only time I've seen clowns getting agressive to one of their own was when the loach was already sick (your loach is wounded?). This does not tell you who actually damaged him originally, but the next step is to get him out of the way quickly to another tank, so he can mend.
3. The reason I've asked about the water, is because loaches may go nuts on some substances. Did you add some meds, like Melafix,after you saw your alpha damaged, to the tank? -- if yes, it may explain the current behavior. Did you check ammonia/nitrates/nitrites -- just in case?
hth
1. The only time I've seen clowns getting really aggressive was because of scoaling together with barbs that went really wrong. There were too few barbs (only 3 -- barbs scoals need 6 or more, usually) and their sexes were unbalanced (I asked about the barbs sex, not loaches...). This resulted in a dead barb.
2. The only time I've seen clowns getting agressive to one of their own was when the loach was already sick (your loach is wounded?). This does not tell you who actually damaged him originally, but the next step is to get him out of the way quickly to another tank, so he can mend.
3. The reason I've asked about the water, is because loaches may go nuts on some substances. Did you add some meds, like Melafix,after you saw your alpha damaged, to the tank? -- if yes, it may explain the current behavior. Did you check ammonia/nitrates/nitrites -- just in case?
hth
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