Loaches Online Forum

Here I was doing a WC so I could reach the bottom of the 75 gallon tank my loaches and danios are in. I had taken out about 20% of the water so my arm isn't wet to the shoulder, and just as I had reached down to replant one of my uprooted ludwigia, a suctioning little loach mouth had attached to my fingers!

It scared the heck out of me, which causedme to jerk, and in turn scare the bejeezus out of her. I was so surprised that my female dojo had come to me for food that I dropped my plants right back into the water and ran to the fridge to get a piece of shrimp. I thawed it in some water and chopped it, then took it to the bottom of the tank with my fingers, and there was a loach swarm. The female seems to be the most trusting. she let me touch her all along the spine and pet her without seeming to care. my gold male let me touch -- for as long as I was feeding, but got antsy when the food was gone. The silver was the most skittish but not so scared that he wouldn't take the food.

it amused me to see them sniff out the shrimp as they saw it coming towards them from above, they resembled begging dogs sitting back on hindquarters with their front paws raised. This is the first time, out of at least six WC's that they have ever done this. The last time I did one they fled the very sight of my hand. Even without food, when it was all gone, she let me continue to touch her.

I feel so excited. It seems like when I thought I was having such a bad day, she picked now to come up and beg for attention. I wonder how long it might take before they come to the surface and let me feed them there.

If you feed them in the same place every time, they pick up on it real quick!
Who said fish aren't pets????! lol

lol, awesome! loaches can be little beggers. the more hungry they are the more they beg.

Sounds very similar... I never tried to touch any of my fish before or hand feed them until one time I had my hand in the tank doing some planting and they swam right up and by my hand (dojos). Just the other day I tried hand feeding my puffers, never tried it before, and they ate right out of my hand first time (was holding a cube of bloodworms). I probably wont be sticking my fingers in there without holding food anytime soon though! I've been able to get clowns to come to my fingers as well for food, but really havent tried it very much.

They've quickly became my favorite fish. It's growing more tempting to return my livebearers and to get at least two more loaches.


Here she is relaxing under one of the massive aponogeton crispus that I should probably trim back. There's about a dozen floaters on my surface now. I don't suppose loaches like these do they? If it helps them feel more secure I'll leave them there.
This is the place I see them the most.

my bettas are the same way.. I have to push them away while I'm pruning my plant because they always hang around my hands.

shari2 wrote:If you feed them in the same place every time, they pick up on it real quick!
Who said fish aren't pets????! lol

I actually just finished a science fair project about goldfish memory to see if they remembered when and where i fed them, as well as that when i tapped on the glass,food would come. In a week they were already waiting at the surface for food!Man they learn QUICK!