Loaches Online Forum

Yesterday i noticed one of my 5 1.75 in clowns was brathing rapidly and appeared swollen beneath the gills. He also seemed lethargic in comparison to the others and his usual self, resting against the glass at the front of the glass. Water parameters were fine but a 50% water change was done to be on the safe side. No change in his condition and although it didn't appear life threatening (he was still trying to feed) it was very worrying.

Anyway, while feeding chopped prawn today he was cramming in as much as possible until suddenly he exploded in a fit of pea and prawn. It appeared some pea from a couple of days previous feeding had caught up in his throat preventing any food entering his stomach. He's on the road to recovery now with the lesson learned; microwave peas for at least two minutes before deshelling so they're nice and soft for your loachies!

I would of thought the pharyngeal (throat) teeth would of handled the pea. Never the less, i would recommend squashing the pea before placing in the aquarium. Scary!

I like to blend them before placing them in the aquarium. Scary idea that he was in essence choking.

the peas are being shelled before feeding correct? make sure you remove the peas from their shell, it's usually difficult to digest the shells.

It's probably best to squash them after shelling them for fish of only 1.75" in length. At that size, they are, in essence, very small young fish. Larger clown loaches are able to handle foods of this size or bigger without problems (pharyngeal teeth, as Graeme has already pointed out). The important point is to feed appropriately sized foods for the size of the fish that you keep.

Emma