The clown who wouldn't grow...

[pedzola]

So I have this one clown loach who was purchased along w/3 others back around March.

All 4 were the same size when I got them (tiny).

Now, the other 3 have gotten much larger, but this guy hasn't grown very much at all.

The odd thing is that this tiny clown is CONSTANTLY scouring the tank for food and filling his little belly. The others hide all day long.

I know this little guy is not sick. The entire tank went through a pretty serious regime of a variety of medications a while back to get rid of a mystery disease. This included Levamisole and another parasite treatment too.

He's not sick. He looks healthy. He eats a lot. He's just really small!

The only odd thing about him is that he seems to have very large mouth barbells for his size. Like those grew, but the rest of him did not.

Anyone have any experience w/clowns like this?

He is very active so he's hard to get pictures of. I will try sometime, but the tiger barbs always block the camera - he swims around w/the tiger barbs because he is about their size!

- Chris

[angelfish83]

The two things I think of are that perhaps it was stunted by being in a packed tank longer than the others or maybe it has some sort of parasite that can coexist with it without removing its appetite... It can happen. The animal continues to eat voraciously but 90% of what it eats is consumed by the parasite before the animals intestine is able to extract nutrition from it...

Other than that I have no idea. Sorry you have problems though... I wish everyones tank went perfectly the way they wanted it in their heads...

[DRLashambe]

I had a real "ranking" of growth amongst my guys, and from watching their behaviour, it seemed directly related to dominance. In my case, the smallest clown was purchased much later, and he doesn't get the best hiding places, so he spends all his time wandering around the tank as well.

For growth, nothing beats providing a variety of various protein rich foods. I have snails, bloodworms, sinking pellets, flakes, and brine shrimp that go into my tank, and with that regimen I see a lot of growth. If your little guy is out when everyone else is hiding, I might suggest dropping some protein rich stuff when he's alone to ensure he gets a lot to eat.

I sincerely hope it isn't illness.

[mikev]

You know, maybe you don't have a problem at all.

You did levamisole pretty recently as I recall, two month ago or less.

Clowns are slow growing, and it is not clear that they will go into growth right away after a worm is removed. The one I had here concentrated on growing his belly for perhaps 3 months, only recently I start seeing some length increase.

[pedzola]

yah I think he's not sick. MAybe just slow grower. *shrug* I remember the first 3 clowns I had bought, all of them grew pretty slow.

Maybe this guy is just a runt.

[crazie.eddie]

Aside from a variety of foods, I would also have to suggest frequent water changes. I had 5 clown loaches in my 55 gallon tank for a long time. They appeared to grow at such a slow rate, that it wasn't noticeable. I recently moved them into a 125 planted tank with discus and kept more frequent water changes. Prior I was doing once a week, at the most once every 2 weeks. Now in my 125 gallon tank, I've been doing every 3-4 days, at th emost, once a week. Boy, did they grow.

I feed mine Hikari sinking carnivor pellets, which they love as much as snails or bloodworms. I also feed FBW, flakes, tetra bits, shrimp pellets, frozen mysis shrimp, and frozen brine shrimp.

Here's a photo of my largest loach in my 55 gallon tank back in May 2006...


Now here's the same loach (front left), along with the other loaches, in my 125 gallon tank, taken Sept 2006...


I cut out the measurement part of an aquarium backing and taped it on the bottom, front of my tank so I can see how big my fish are. The notches are in Inches.

[andyroo]

Switch up the diet.
Seems to kick-start the growth process.
Particularly don't forget vegitable needs: blanch spinich, zuccini, cucumber, apple, etc...

Andyroo

ps: and then there's the possibility of hormone-loaded battery-chicken liver... Not really a good idea, i suppose.... ;)

[shari2]

I see a couple of roly poly clowns in there! Eggs? Or just fat? Yo yos look something like that when carrying eggs...

No, I don't mean to open up a can of worms here, but...

[crazie.eddie]

I see a couple of roly poly clowns in there! Eggs? Or just fat? Yo yos look something like that when carrying eggs...

No, I don't mean to open up a can of worms here, but...

Fat, they are fed well

[shari2]

so how come they don't ALL look that way????

[crazie.eddie]

so how come they don't ALL look that way????

Do you mean, how come all of my loaches don't look like that? Actually, they do. Some eat more than others, but still are fed very well and fat.

[pedzola]

I put the following foods in my tank:

Morning or early afternoon: flakes. (only 2 of the clowns actually eat the flakes - this small guy is one of them).

Dinnertime: 2 or 3 cubes of various hikari frozen foods... blood worms, mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, and/or a "freshwater mix" type of cube.

Night: Hikari Carnivore Pellets and Hikari sinking wafers.


I never see the clowns come out except for the pellets and wafers at night. I squirt the frozen food into their hiding spots, and I'm sure htey eat it. lol The yoyos certainly go nuts at dinnertime.

The flakes are mostly eaten by my tiger and cherry barbs.




Also, I do a 10-25% water change twice per week. When the first 3 clowns moved from the old 40g tank into the current 75g tank the definitely had a growth spurt. Differences = more meaty foods, more water changes, better filtration.

[pedzola]

Also...

I've tried cucumber, watermelon, canteloupe, banana... no interest in any of it. I got a yoyo and a couple tiger barbs that sniff at the stuff or maybe take a little nibble... but thats it.

Clowns show no interest.