Clown Loaches feeding at surface - is this normal?

[paulcooper555]

Hi, I am new to fish keeping. I have 'inherited' 3 clown loaches.
They are 4-5cm long so quite young.
They eat fish flakes from the surface of the tank. This seems odd, any ideas why?
Here's some more info...
I have dropped in frozen blood worms - no interest (the platy gave a few a chew)
They are in a 2ft tank. I have researched this and know it is not really big enough, but I can only do so many things at once and they are still small.
They have rocks to hide under, which they do during the day (lots of burrowing, lying on side that sort of stuff).
The substrate is a fine coral.

Water quality is acceptable ammonia 2.4, ph 7.5, nitrite 0, nitrate 5, I did a 20% change yesterday to bring the ammonia down a bit.
The pump is a bit feeble so I'll put another today.

What concerns me is that these are bottom feeding fish and they eat from the surface - are they having a laugh at me or is there something I need to change (other than the tank?)

Went to LFS yesterday to look at their stock and they were bottom feeding.

Also in the tank one mature platy (2.5") and a lonely guppy (1").

Thanks in advance for any help/re-assurance

[BotiaMaximus]

Your ammonia needs to be 0.0 - has your tank cycled or is it newly set up?

Clowns will eat from wherever the food is, but they should LOVE the bloodworms.

Mine eat from the surface out of a cone feeder which I put various frozen foods into - Bloodworms, Brineshrimp, Daphnia. Then when the feeding is over they go back to prowling the bottom looking for goodies.

[OneWay]

I find the young ones tend to eat from the top more than the more mature ones. I would not be worried at all by there habits.

You may want to cut off feedings for 1 day and then reintroduce the bloodworms,, they should go nuts on them.


good luck

[Diana]

Ammonia of 2.4 ppm is 10 times as high as you should allow it to go.
I would be doing very large water changes twice a day until it has dropped, and keep monitoring it. Keep it under .25 ppm until the nitrifying bacteria have caught up. Add live plants if at all possible. In good light (over 1 watt per gallon) live plants will keep the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate low.
After an ammonia spike there is often a nitrite spike. Be ready for it, and keep up the water changes to keep the nitrite under .5 ppm. Nitrite can cause Brown Blood Disease. Adding salt to the water will reduce the amount of nitrite that crosses the gills and enters the blood. The dose is 1 teaspoon per 20 gallons. This is a low dose, quite acceptable to fish that do not do well with salt. Once the nitrite is gone quit adding salt.

Feed an assortment of sinking foods and you will likely find the Clown Loaches will eat off the bottom.

[paulcooper555]

Thanks to all who replied so promptly.

I 'think' surface activity is related to poor water and youngness of the fish.
After the recent water change my clown loaches waited until after dark then came out to feed lurking around the bottom of the tank on the most part with some up and down to the surface. This is more what I expected.
Also, fixing the gummed up pump filter improved water flow - so I'll keep an eye on this (I cut the blocked filter in half and replaced the worst affected bit).

I will check all the levels again as tank is cycling as the bio-load changed when the fish were introduced and I have been forced to halve the filter.

Again, thanks for all the helpful replies, I now have sufficient information to continue.

Paul

[chefkeith]

If they are comfortable, they'll eat where ever the food is. All my clowns, large and small, will eat at the surface when I feed them floating foods, like cichlid pellets or freeze dried prawns. It's fun to watch and they'll be clicking and splashing loudly when they grab the food.

IMO, it's best to give them a variety of foods, which includes floating and sinking types. They'll most certainly eat any sinking foods, but if you want to see and hear your loaches more often you'll give them the floating types of food too.

[helen nightingale]

do you know if the last owners fed any sinking foods? it could be they are just in the habit of eating at the surface if that is all they used to have

[Eyrie]

I've had clowns eat at the surface before, including one that would swim upside down to do so.

[paulcooper555]

After 2 massive water changes and three filter rinse outs (in tank water). The tank has now stablised.

All loaches are now scratching around in the substrate as expected.

Conclusion - v.poor water quality after introducing the fish (ammonia spike), coupled with a clogged filter restricting flow.

Thanks everyone I am signing off now.

[allialli]

Some loaches eat at the bottom some dont. Mine at first ate at the bottom until they got used to the tank they decided it was home and was comfortable. It just depends on the loach.

[vealboy]

My clowns go where the food is. The small ones frequently are at the top when I drop in flakes, or freeze dried worms. The larger clowns rarely are at the top.

I also have tetra in the tank with my clowns, and the tetra go after the sinking pellets too. The clowns do bully the tetra, so the clowns do get the lions share of the sinking pellets.