Clown loach diet advice

[alexnw]

I'm a new clown loach fanatic. I've been planning and setting up my 150 gal tank for the last few months. Can someone advise me on how often I should feed non-veggy food to my clowns? I added 10 clowns (2.5-3inches in size) to the tank 4 days ago and they have already eaten two of my Denison Barbs and even one of my Pearl Gourami (3 inch size). The clowns are very active, dancing up the walls and seem healthy. I'm thinking that I haven't been feeding enough "meaty" foods to them. I've had them in there for 4 days, but they aren't taking shrimp pellets or the flake food the LFS told me they had been eating. I gave them bloodworms yesterday and brine shrimp this morning and they went crazy for them. Can someone advise please? I'm guessing I need to increase the feedings of the stuff these carnivores really like!

(Additional info: The tank was fishless cycled with a heavy ammonia load and is planted, so it handle a heavy bio load easily. Nitrates and nitrites are zero. Water quality is perfect with 10x tank volume water cycled per hour including a good powerhead at the surface. I have 4 other tanks with assorted Rainbows, Tetra and two of them dedicated to fancy goldfish. But I'm a novice when it comes to clowns!)

[millsn]

I'd have a look back through using the search function. There's lots on here on feeding.

[Martin Thoene]

Lots of useful info here: http://www.loaches.com/care/the-loach-almanac

............................. http://www.loaches.com/articles/home-co ... n-fishfood

Martin.

[alexnw]

Great links thanks! The search didn't surface these great articles.

[judita1]

hey, pretty cool, thank you!

[SgtMajWiggles]

A cheap and easy live food source is ramshorn snails. I've got them going in another tank and feed them to my loach tank.

[nibblefish]

A cheap and easy live food source is ramshorn snails. I've got them going in another tank and feed them to my loach tank.

I am always stocked up on the ramshorn shells the fish go crazy over them and from what I understand the health benefits are enough to be considered plus. Also, one of the best things you can do is make sure you have a good clean tank. recently a friend recommended a set of discount filters that could be added to my tank and the fish are doing better than ever. Diet is not the only way to keep your little fish family alive.