Clowns and light

[Tarkus]

Hi new to the forum.
I have 6 clown loaches from 4 to 7 inches in my planted 125 gal. They will only come out after the lights are off.
I had clowns before years ago and they were always active swimming even with the lights on.
They hide in this fake piece of driftwood. I have thought about removing, but I don't want to completely freak them out.

[atmichaels]

Welcome! How long have they been in this tank? Could they still be settling in? Are there any other tank mates? I would leave the driftwood in as that's their comfort zone right now and it probably won't help to stress them out. Do they come out for feeding?

Austen

[Greek]

Hello Tarkus. It would be very helpful if You show a photo of this tank - most problems with shy loaches come from too low amount of places to hide and a bad placement of them. Paradoxically the more hideouts You give them, the less time they will spend in those places

[Tarkus]

Welcome! How long have they been in this tank? Could they still be settling in? Are there any other tank mates? I would leave the driftwood in as that's their comfort zone right now and it probably won't help to stress them out. Do they come out for feeding?

Austen

Thanks...
No they have been in the tank for a while....over a year. Yes they will come out eat, the smaller ones will. Big daddy will only come out with the lights out.
There are all kinds of community fish in the tank a few corys....big fat corys lol..
If I could figure out how to post pics I would.

[atmichaels]

If I could figure out how to post pics I would.

A free hosting site, like photobucket, is an easy way. You can just copy the link over.

[redshark1]

Hi and sorry to hear of the problem viewing your fish. You do need to see them, maybe not all the time but at least some of the time.

I know from my 21 years experience of keeping mine that they are fickle and do what they want often for no reason. They can change their habits without apparent reason. I had them all feeding from the surface for about six months a few years ago!

I also have six and most of the time they lay up amongst the resin wood I have in the tank with maybe one or two of the males out searching for food. However I feed them every day at 6pm and if I am late they come out and demand to be fed. Then, I am proud to own such magnificent fish as the two females are huge in comparison to the other fish.

I also feed them at around 8.30am and they will also come out then en masse most times.

My dithers are nine Congo Tetras.

I have tried to make them feel secure by blacking out the end glass pane of the tank and they are less jumpy now.

So, to summarise, I think the dithers, the set times for feeding and the blacking out have all helped me see my fish every day. But they will do what they want.