Clown loaches, confidence and decor ......

[hamfist]

OK, the story is this ...... I xreated a small family of 5 clowns about 15 months ago, and have been gently helping them to become happy, healthy well-adjusted members of society ever since.
The problems were twofold. Firstly, getting them to eat was difficult, and that was the subject of a different thread. However, I now have them happy scoffing down pellets.

However, this thread is about decor and confidence.
Internet "wisdom" is that CL's need cover and hides to be happy. My previous attempts at keeping CL's were not happy as I provided these things and I simply didn't see them. I will add that my main display tank is not in a high traffic area of our house and we mainly sit there most evenings to watch TV. We do not have a busy house any more either. This is not conducive to confidence in many species of fish, which thrive on getting acclimatised to a lot of constant movement in front of the tank, thus, they generally get to eventually not worry about people moving around.

My current loaches were also frustrating to me as I saw them far less than I wanted. They also shot away and hid at the first sign of anyone moving near the tank. I could tempt them out ultimately to eat if I was patient and stayed still but it was not ideal. But any sign of movement and they would all zoom away for 5-10 minutes.
So a few months ago I decided to play around a bit with the decor to see if actually reducing the amount of cover would acclimatise them to being out in the open more. It was definately a slight help, although leaving even one piece of decor with a "hide" that they could get into was enough for them to constantly seek it. Enough that it was still frustrating how little I saw them.

I eventually got to the point a few days ago that I had decided to move them on as I simply didn't see them enough. So that evening I removed the large pieces of decor (including the last remaining "hide") in preparation for netting them out in the morning. I did not expect the result ! What I got the following moring was a shoal of 5 CL's happy going around the tank doing happy loachy things, being much less skittish. There are a couple of piles of cobbles around the tank and lots of large plastic plants but now, crucially, nowhere for them to actually hide away.
I decided to put off selling them and to persevere for a few days. What I have now got is a much happier owner (me !) and I am sure a happier shoal of loaches that spend all of their time either resting together in the open or cruising/zooming around doing happy loachy things.
I suspect I might not have had this result had I tried it straight away after getting them, but once settled into the tank and into their own pecking order it has certainly transformed my experience of them and, I think, their experience of life too.

So the moral of the story is ...... if you are not seeing your CL's much, try reducing hides, even to having none. You might be surprised !

What have been your experiences arounnd this subject ?

[NancyD]

Last time I had clowns, their tank had "high shade" caves. Mine did not like to cram all together, rather 1 or maybe 2 in each. The caves were rock +/or wood but more spacious than some arrangements I've seen. While the tank lights were on they liked their eyes in shadow even if half a loach was out in the open. I also had live plants both to provide shade & (oops) veg food/toys if I didn't feed it often enough. Mostly crypts, java ferns & rotala indica, maybe a swordplant. I'm not sure how much plants they ate but they'd punch U shaped holes in the larger leaves.

The tank was next to my computer so I was often right there but not very active. The most popular 2 caves were at my end of the tank. They seemed to be attracted to blue screen backgrounds like on LOL & other sites. They were not shy when we had rock music & dancing either. However, they only danced for water changes sometimes, lol, once in a while for food.

As I've said before they were spoiled for food choices & loved veggies 2-3 times a week. When I raised up young discus they had all kinds of foods. The only kind they weren't crazy about was a beefheart mix. They ate some but it wasn't a favorite & awfully messy as were banana & broccoli.