Loaches Online Forum

Crazy, (appropriate call-name considering the topic, by the way) In smaller drainages/rivers your main scavengers are usually going to be shrimp, crayfish, crabs and amphipods more then fish. Eating big chunks of flesh (like a leg, for example) requires specialized teeth and jaws, and for a small ri...

Ashdavid and the forum, As an extension to the chemical defense topic line from the other week, in teh tanks where the clowns were eaten what was the temperature? I ask as my loach seems to be suffereing from what i thought was a fluke or large parasite drama as he's got a couple of whiteish lesions...

Good news, and thanks everyone for the help. Ran a 1/2 dose of that green formaline based medication. Chewing thing has gone away and appetite is back up, though big white spots still there and a new spot beginning on opposite flank. It really looks like a wound or a bite. Will continue formaline tr...

Martin and company on a Saturday mornin', Speciation, evoloution and biogeography right there in your fish-tank ! These are fast water spp likely from hilly/mountainous areas, yes? You can get situations where each stream is essentially isolated from the next, so each will act as an island and you'l...

All right, He's looking like he's chewing something uncomfortable and swimming with mouth open. Lethargic as compared to usual. Suggestions for fluke/flatworm treatments? Don't know where he'd have got them though... No drama on any other fish in the tank. Water has been over 25C / 77F overnight. Sh...

Folks, I've got a clown with 2 sizeable (2mmx1mm) ovoid marks in his middle black stripe, one on the top right in front of the dorsal fin and one on the flank. They look like scratches, but the regularity of them/their shape makes me wonder. If i had put any new/native fish in over the past 6 months...

Ashdavid, Have you got any photos on-line of your 2000gal set-up? I'm producing a budget for the client, so my questions will have to do with costs in the initial and for ongoing maintenance. Feel free to contact me directly at this (profile) e-mail addy. Everybody, Thanks for your input. The LFS ha...

Emma, I see these snaps and it breaks my heart that i can't get my clowns to grow... I suppose we're illuminating some possiblities as to why. I've got six fish all under 8cm in 100 gallons with high flow. Fantastic set of fish by the way.... What, 25-30cm long? Re; predation with biting versus comp...

Chiefkeith, Based on the responses above i would have to disagree.... 1-Colours point strongly to a defence, possibly a chemical one (as well as the spine) 2-Transport bags containing film that kills everything but the loaches points strongly to a chemical defence, likely toxic rather then just dist...

JD, Thanks for the response. The spine was my first thought as well, with the colouration denoting this. But i never saw any wounds... even so trivial as a ripped fin... on the loaches to indicate an initial "tasting" attack. Other loaches have the spine but no bold colouring. How do other loach spp...

Clown loach has a head like a suction pump: it can suck the snail out of its shell. larger snails are too strong however and can survive, though they often get eyes, sexual organs or other projections that the fish can get a grip on ripped off. Sorry if this is too graphic for children. You're suppo...

I've just posted a related question above (re: chemical defense). i've kept clowns with all manner of toothed nastiness without drama. The current collection has an oscar and a clown living together fine. Oscar is very aggresive to all fish but loach (except at feedign time when they take pokes at e...

Loach Listers, What do you know about the toxicity or chemical defenses in clown loaches? In University i kept a hard-core predator tank (as you do as a macho youth) with big oscar, arawana, eels, snake-head, leaf-fish, clown knife and other toothy horrors, and a pair of little 4cm (<2 inch) clowns....