Loaches Online Forum

I was wondering what to feed a couple of clowns for treats. I have a couple of small (4 in.) clowns and I have tried a number of different loach foods and they just ignore all of them and live off of cichlid pellets that the oscar eats. I was wondering if anyone found a food or treat that the clowns would love. I know they love tubifex and blood worms but they are too large to survive on them. So what do you feed your clowns?

I offer a mixed rotation of foods to all the tanks. At any one meal some fish may turn up their fishy little noses, but overall the fish are growing, thriving. There is some 'feeding frenzy' at almost every meal, however...

www.AlmostNaturalTropicalFishFood.com produces several flakes and pellets that are VERY well received in all the tanks. Their Earthworm flakes are especially liked. This company uses whole fish and shellfish, algae and vegetables in their foods, not any grains or fish meal. I feed their Feshwater Flakes, Algae Flakes and Earthworm Flakes. I also have some other foods by them in the freezer for when I run out of other foods.

Omega One Shrimp Pellets

Algae Wafers that are really algae, not fish meal and fillers with just a smidge of algae.

New Life Spectrum pellets in different sizes for different tanks.

Freeze Dried foods such as Bloodworms, Brine Shrimp, Tubifex, and Daphnia.

Frozen foods such as Bloodworms, Brine Shrimp, Tubifex, and Daphnia, mosquito larvae and Emerald Entre (A San Francisco Brand specialty)

I also make my own frozen food based on the recipe here at Loaches.

Foods from the grocery store include:
Fresh and lightly cooked fruits and vegetables
Shrimp and other shellfish

My Clown loaches daily menu:

In the morning:
TetraMin Tropical Crisps
TetraMin Tropical Tablets
SERA Viformo
Tetra Cichlid Sticks

Lunch time:
Live white worms (Enchitreus albidus)


Afternoon meal:
Live brine shrimp

Before lights go off:
Tetra Color Bits

My clowns get a variety of foods every day but the one thing that whips them into a frenzy is Hikari sinking carnivor pellets, their next favourite is defrosted prawns.

Romaine lettuce, frozen prawns.

hard boiled egg white
They go nuts for this and its easy for them to bite off pieces.

Wow I never thought of a lot of those. Defiantly going to try. Last night I bought some sinking carnivore pellets and will give those a shot tonight. Thanx

If you want to see your Clowns go nuts, try giving them mussles..

i feed mine by hand, once the clown knife and oscars have had their fill.

Mr. Loach wrote:If you want to see your Clowns go nuts, try giving them mussles..

i feed mine by hand, once the clown knife and oscars have had their fill.

Mussels that's a new one on me how do you prepare them ?

just cooked or uncooked deshelled mussle meat. You can get a pack of them from Tesco for £1.

Re. mussels: lightly chip up one edge of the shell and throw in the whole thing- make a game of it. Habitat enrichment is an important part of husbandry.

I'm having very good luck with garbanzo beans and high-end pellet food for fat, old cats. Little clown has also taken to eating the insides out of newly- germinated lotus seeds. A testament to a) their massive buccal suction strength and b) their natural gravitation to the annoying.
A

white worms, blood worms, cucumber, squash, tomato. they will eat carrot. but nuke it for about a minute to make sure its soft. and let it cool down before placing it in the tank. when the carrots are hard. the loaches have a tough time picking at it.

also salad shrimp and there is a link on the site that has a recipe by martin for a loach jello type substance made of fish, banana, shrimp and they love it.


i tried watermellon as well, spinach, peas but sometimes the peas get messy in the tank. try to feed them. they also will eat banana as well. but that also kinda gets messy in the tank so make it a smaller piece.

i have not tried mushrooms yet. i wonder if they would eat it. oh yes they eat chicken too. i grilled some chicken and threw the scraps in there and they loved it.

they will also eat tuna.