Loaches Online Forum

I recently bought a new clown loach that was a little bigger than my ones at home my alpha loach and the new one didnt get along and now my new loach is alpha meanwhile my former alpha just silks around the tank by himself and sometimes inverts himself in the corner has anyone else ever seen this behavior is this normal anything I can do?

yes, it sounds fairly normal when the social structure rearranges. and also yes, they will hang around in all kinds of positions designed to make us nervous.

Keep the tank clean and make sure there are at least enough hiding places for the displaced sulker to have his own space for now.

I dont know what happened to him, his breathing got real shallow through out the night and died early this morning heres my water parameters ammonia 0 nitrites 0 nitrates 20 81 degrees Farenheit in a 55 gallon tank with 7 clown loaches well 6 now....its like he just seperated himself from the rest of the school like he was sulking but obviously it was worse than that anyone with any ideas just drop me a line

Sorry to hear you lost him.

Was he breathing rapidly yesterday? Any signs of excess slime coat, or spots or redness anywhere?

Any other fish showing any kind of symptoms?

no i first noticed it after lights out, i have a moonlight setup on the tank and i turned it on just to monitor him through out the night, he was vertical in the front corner of the tank and just breathing very shallow and rapid, so i set my alarm clock for every hour on the hour to check on him, and at around 6 a.m. he had died, no other fish are showing signs of distress or anything else, he was a smaller younger loach not very old, i wonder if the fight between him and the bigger one didnt mess him up to bad, or just him being stressed... i dont know he is the first fish to die that i have owned, i would really like to find out what really happened so i can try to prevent this in the future.... thanks for your replies

Hi zac and cass,
Sorry to hear about your clown loach.
Did you quarantine your new specimen before adding him/her to the main tank? How are the others looking?
Emma

yes he was quaratined for about three weeks, quick questionwhile I'm here I need to replace him should I look for ones of the same size or smallerdoes it matter? Havnt really found any articles about it

I would wait a little while before adding any new fish, just to make sure all is ok in the main tank. With regards to adding new clowns, I would personally recommend choosing fish of a different size to the ones you already have. Larger specimens will try to usurp the current Alpha, so there may be quite a bit of arguing. Smaller ones would make a less problematic transition, as they would come in at the bottom of the pecking order and would be unlikely to upset any of your long term residents.

Emma