Loaches Online Forum

I think I have myself a couple of vicious clown loaches.....

Yesterday I relesead 8 cardinal tetras to put in my 55 gal from my quarantine tank. Right after I put them in the tank two of my clown loaches wouldn't stop chasing them and tried to peck them! I think they are attracted to the tetras' coloring....

This morning there are only 6 of them left!! And I still saw those clowns chasing after them....

I've kept clowns for a while now and never seen such behavior before..

Any idea what's going on....

I'm sad

That would be quite unusual if the clown loaches had gone for them. I would expect them to be inquisitive of new additions, 'whiskering' them etc, but not actually attacking them. Clown loaches are gentle giants and I've kept mine (3" up to 12") over the years with a range of different sized fish including Puntius filamentosus fry (which at one point were obviously smaller than Cardinal Tetras) and the clowns completely ignored them.

A lot of the smaller species of Tetra, such as Cardinals do tend to rest near the very bottom of the tank overnight in the darkness. I suppose it may be that whilst the Cardinals were on the bottom, and overnight being a time when loaches most definitely are active, the clowns might have discovered them floating around in 'their domain' and nibbled. But it is unlikely.

Did you acclimatise the Cardinals nice and carefully? I only ask in case this wasn't done slowly enough as then that could explain the loss of some of them, as they are particularly sensitive to changes. I take it that your water is soft and slightly acidic? I'm thinking that if something went wrong with the acclimatisation, the loaches would definitely investigate any that have succumbed and most probably scavenge.

Emma

Just out of curiosity - what do you feed the clown loaches and how big are they? I had one problem with a clown loach harassinga siamese fighting fish, but I think he thought the long fins were worms. Other than that I can't see why this would happen unless the clowns are missing something in their diet.

I have been keeping Clown Loaches for 10 years, from tiny 1/2 inch to 12 inch adults, I can tell you that Clown Loaches WILL pursue and devour live smaller fishes. This has nothing to do with whether they are well fed or not. Clown Loaches are omnivorious. Don't keep your Cardinals with CL's !!!

Hi Hlie,

In case you´ve got big Clown loaches, take a look a this article:

http://www.loaches.com/articles/clown-l ... ated-items

Hope this is your case!

People's opinions on this may vary, but generally speaking this is not considered normal clown loach behaviour.

That article on Granville Hammond's supposed breeding has to be taken with a very large pinch of salt. It is all very well writing something like that (guaranteed to cause a stir because of the species it concerns), but IMO this has to be substantiated by some kind of proof. More than 11 years on, he still never managed to retrieve those photographs from inside his garage.....

Hlie, I'd be interested to know the size of the tank and how many clowns you have in there.

Emma

sorry for the late reply.

Emma, the water in my city is fairly hard - not sure about the alkalinity/acidity.

I have a 55 gallon with 5 clown loaches ranging from 2 to 3 inches.

Right now the tank has 5 CL, 7 Striatas, 1 bristlenose, 5 Tiger barbs, 4 danios (for cycling the tank - they live forever ), 3 horsefaces, and now down to 5 Cardinals....

Yesterday afternoon I saw it again w/ my own eyes one CL chased and pecked one of my Cardinal's caudal fin.... Now it's RIP....

I will move my Cardinal back to the QT tank and probably return them to the LFS and get store credit.

I think I will get them again when I start planting the tank - hopefully soon....

Edit: I feed my fish different varieties of foods - frozen brine shrimp, frozen bloodworms, Hikari vegetables wafers, flakes, and sometimes blanched veggies.


Thanks for the replies guys.

Oh yeah, something I should add about myself and the tank, lol.

My first encountered w/ CL was in 2003. I kept them in 40g breeder and 29 gallon planted thank when I was still a college student in Pullman, WA.

I graduated last year and moved to Spokane, WA. I gave away all my fish to local LFS and have been not into "fishy scene" since then. Until couple months ago I went to local LFS here and saw CLs again..... They are so CUTE lol.

I used to have lol account before the new website. But I couldn't remember the username nor the password and I couldn't retrieve it in any way possible.... That's why I created a new account again....

I posted a vid on two CLs figthing before but somehow I couldn't find it anymore in this website....

I'm, by all means, not yet an experienced fish keeper. I'm still learning to give the best "home" for my fish. And this forumhas given my invaluable lesson to achieve that goal. Esp. to Emma, Martin T., Graeme, Dr. Momfish (Barbara? - where's she btw?), Shari, and other old members of LOL that I forgot to mention here.

Well, the reason I typed all this because I don't want to be considered as a "troll" like people here thought I was before - that was, I think, couple years back.

Yep, that's a little of my "autobiography"
Sorry for the Off Topic reply

P.S. Any Indonesian, like me, who keep loaches in this forum

Thank you for the positive comments, Hlie, it is always nice to hear that you have found the advice here helpful.

Hlie wrote:P.S. Any Indonesian, like me, who keep loaches in this forum

I think we have quite a number of members from your part of the world. Someone that springs instantly to mind is Hendra who lives in South Kalimantan. Here is a thread detailing one of his very interesting hillstream loach collection trips: http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?t=3080

With regards to those Cardinal Tetras, I think that the Tiger Barbs would be more of a threat to them than the clowns. But whatever the problem is, it sounds like you would be best taking the remainder back to the shop, as they are clearly being picked on by one or more fish. Even if the clowns don't actually intend to harm the Cardinals, their inquisitiveness may be making them very uneasy, particularly now their shoal is down to only 5.

Emma

P.S. If at any point you can remember your old logon ID, we'll have a search for that video clip for you.

thx Emma

P.S. I'd really like to find that clip since I lost the file on my failed HDD....

Hlie, was the video hosted on this new style LOL forum or the old?

Emma

the old one..