Very thin moose faced loaches

[Francois van Brederode]

I have recently bought 3 mooseface loaches that are very thin. (body about just over half the width of the head)
They are between 7 and 11cm long

-They do look healthy and active to me. (ie: not pale, and nice and diggin')

-They are now in a small Q-tank in a dark closet. (they are only disturbed when I feed them)

-They recieve a 8 hours of very subdued lighting a day.

-The substrate is filtersand. (that's the only thing in the tank, no decor)

-Temp is 25 C at the moment

-Catappa leaves added to soften the water a bit)

They have so far more or less refused (frozen) artemia and (frozen) black mosquito larvea.
They do seem to take (frozen) red mosquito larvea.
I can't get live foods around here easily.

Now my questions are:
How do I fatten them up nice and healthy in double quick time?
What temp. should they be cept on?
(Loaches website says: 18-22 C)
(Loaches Book says: 24-26 C)

[JonasBygdemo]

Have you tried tubifex? I don't own any moosefaces, but our loaches go crazy when we feed them with it.

[clint]

cocktail shrimp, my yoyos, striata and clowns go crazy for it.

[Francois van Brederode]

I do have FD tubifex and FD shrimp, so I will try those.

Thanks.

[Thomas]

maybe it's an idea to buried the food (tab food) in the sand, so the loaches can chewing it out.?

[Francois van Brederode]

Might be a good idea.
I have some slowly desolving tablets wich blanket the bottom with particles if left alone.

I'll try that tonight.

[piggy4]

Personally I'd try some finely chopped earthworm , not many fish will ignore them and they are great for beefing up skinny fish !

[CatsandFish]

Don't be shy and tell the guys you found your holy grail of funny faced loaches

I'm sure you will fatten these odd balls up soon enough
One glance at both your Various Loaches and Hillstream Loach tanks
Should be more then enough convincing ^^

Btw, the male Stiphodon's are fattening up already

[Francois van Brederode]

Okay, I did find my holy grail of Loaches.

However I'm down to just 2 moosefaces now.
The largest dicided it was time to explore the wonderful world outside the water.
I found him behind the tank last night, must have wriggled himself through the hole where the wires run.

I went and bought a larger tank with a better fixed cover for them now.

The remaining mooses are eating there brine shrimp and daphnia now.
So I hope it is only a matter of time before they look nice and wel fed.