sensitive loach tankmate? ways to get loaches to come out?

[libingboy]

my clowns are still very shy... they'll come out and play if you're admiring the tank from afar, but come closer and they'll hide behind the driftwood. this is with the tank lights out already.
i am constantly worried about ich. so almost every night i have to sit in front of the tank and try to get a good look of the loaches while holding a flashlight. im pretty sure that if i had ich, i wouldnt know it till i have a massively infected loach, if i continue with this manner. i was thinking of introducing an even more sensitive fish to act as sort of an indicator?

i was thinking of a mormyrid, which would be great coz they are solitary. but i heard they hate strong water currents...

or should i just concentrate on getting the loaches out more often? one thing is that i rarely turn on the aquarium light, partly because it heats up the tank. should i be turning on the light more often, so that they associate "aquarium light turned off" as night time?i've already got dither fish, lots of hiding places, loach friendly substrate, lots of filtration and current, so im not quite sure what else i can do to get them to come out.

[Emma Turner]

How many Clowns do you have in your shoal? And do you have any "dither fish" e.g. rasboras, tetras, barbs, rainbow fish etc?

Emma

[shari]

i've got a 30g with 3 little clowns (too small-i know-long story). plantd tank, 2 angels, 2 otos, a bristlenose and a temporary peacok eel.

how hot is your tank without the lights on? mine runs at about 82f. when i first put the clowns in they hid all the time. i feed the angels frozen blood worms in cubes. i hold the cube just under the water and they eat it from my hand. took about 6 times of them watching this and now the clowns are up there clicking and grabbing right along with them and they are out most of the day. when they see me they come begging, just like the angels. they also know that turning the lights on means breakfast...

the smallest one is the least shy, and started the whole eating out of the hand thing. he got WAY more bloodworm the first couple of days

the larger clown always waits for the little one to come up, then when he sees him eating chases him off and tries to take over. man are the clows much rougher on the fingers than the angels. and they can't seem to tell the difference between my fingers and the worms. but it's way fun (as long as i can be stoic and hold my hand still while they attack )

[libingboy]

there's 5 of them, between 3 to 4 inches, and i have a school of 8 congo tetras as dither fish...

my tank runs at around 29-30 celsius (approx 84-86F) without the lights turned on. im thinking of lowering the wattage on the powerheads, to reduce the dissipated heat to the tank.

[Emma Turner]

Congos are beautiful shoaling fish, but are naturally quite timid themselves, which may not be helping the problem.

Emma

[andyroo]

Liblingboy,

Mormyrid don't like current? (that's the elephant-nose group, yes?)
I've got one who rummages about in the gravel and stones right in the current as soon as the lights go out. It's able to swim backwards into the flow to get choice bits and chase shrimp. Seems to dig it....
i've not read that this is a bad thing for them, but i would be willing to turn down/redirect the flow nozzzels if i did.

Re; shyness, my larger loach was very social until i removed his best friend, an Oscar, in preparation for intruducing a couple more very small clowns. He's since become a serious recluse. He's getting better now, but it's been a good 6 weeks. He hates the new little loaches and refuses to play with them. I have good space for more dithers etc... and will continue.

Andyroo

[fusQer]

my clowns are still very shy... they'll come out and play if you're admiring the tank from afar, but come closer and they'll hide behind the driftwood. this is with the tank lights out already.
i am constantly worried about ich. so almost every night i have to sit in front of the tank and try to get a good look of the loaches while holding a flashlight. im pretty sure that if i had ich, i wouldnt know it till i have a massively infected loach, if i continue with this manner. i was thinking of introducing an even more sensitive fish to act as sort of an indicator?

i was thinking of a mormyrid, which would be great coz they are solitary. but i heard they hate strong water currents...

or should i just concentrate on getting the loaches out more often? one thing is that i rarely turn on the aquarium light, partly because it heats up the tank. should i be turning on the light more often, so that they associate "aquarium light turned off" as night time?i've already got dither fish, lots of hiding places, loach friendly substrate, lots of filtration and current, so im not quite sure what else i can do to get them to come out.

try binoculars!

[libingboy]

i got my "mormyrids dont like strong currents" from a few mormyrid species descriptions from fishbase.org. not really sure if it applies to all mormyrids though...

so congos are a bad idea? they're actually out most of the time, but they dont frantically swim about like tiger barbs... hmm... maybe i'll introduce a school of barbs while slowly taking congos out...

[TammyLiz]

If you want to replace the congos with barbs you can do it all at once with no problem. In fact, I would recommend it because it would guarantee the barbs wouldn't be nipping those pretty congo fins.

[libingboy]

what about cardinal tetras as tankmates? good idea? bad idea? i think it will still take some time before my loaches will be able to eat cardinals...

[Glostik]

I keep a group of 10 tiger barbs with my gang of 15 clown loaches.

The smaller loaches like to school with the barbs, but the bigger ones dont even notice the tiger barbs.

My really big clown loaches hide alot, only coming out when the lights are off.