Loaches Online Forum

So once upon a time I had a small group of large clowns, and everything was great. Over the last few years, life has had us moving from one remote rural town to the next. Unfortunately, a couple of years ago I lost a few fish to mysterious issues with the municipal water in one previous town, so I am down to just four clowns. But everything has been peaceful during the last two years, util we moved last month.

Now, almost every time I feed them, the two largest loaches with fight for hours. I thought they'd work it out after a while, but it's just gotten more frequent and intense. It's gotten bad enough now I'm seeing significant wounds on their faces and mouths. Then, this morning after feeding, I noticed the two smaller ones fighting too, which I've never seen them do before. Any thoughts on what might be causing this?

This was an in-town move, so the only thing that changed was a re-organization of decor, but all the previous moves involved that too. I know I should have more loaches, and I am currently trying to find some - the rural area and constant moving have made it hard to find healthy stock and do a good quarantine. But we are at least done moving for a while now, so hopefully they'll have new tankmates sometime soon. Any suggestions in the meantime?

Tank Details:
75g
four clowns in the 4"-6" range, standard length (edited, I overestimated when everyone was hiding yesterday)
no other tankmates
lots of driftwood, caves, and plants
fed sinking variety pellets, algea wafers, and occasional fresh veggies
nitrite & ammonia 0, nitrate 5-15 ppm
2 HOB filters, lots of aeration

I do not know why that should be. I can offer a few ideas that have worked with other species of fish.

Remove all the fish and rearrange the rocks, driftwood, caves and so on.
Put the fish back in this order:
Gentlest first. Especially if it is the smallest.
Work your way up in order of aggression.
Allow each fish at least an hour, and longer is better to get to know the new layout. If there is any way you can add the fish back to the tank one fish per day, that would be even better. Allow the gentlest fish overnight to get to know some safe places.

Other option:
Remove the most aggressive fish and put him in a separate tank for several days, perhaps a week. This is similar to putting a child in time out. The other fish get a break from the aggression, and the bossiest fish gets a chance to cool off, too. When you reintroduce them watch to see if the pushy fish resumes being so pushy.

Other option:
Put a divider in the tank when you feed them.

Other option:
Larger tank such as 6' long so there is more space away from each other, then feed at opposite ends of the tank.