Bad Alpha Loach( Alpha loach losing alpha position?)

[LoachOrgy]

I caught my alpha loach with one of the two new baby albino cory's in his mouth when I walked up to the tank this morning. They had cucumber earlier so I don't see how the loach was that hungry. I have been feeding them well.

I had some tank trouble and had half my cory's wiped out. I just now recently added two new albino cory's to the tank. Anyone have this happen often?

[andyroo]

Loaches don't need to be hungry to eat...
Predation on anything they can subdue/swallow seems pretty reasonable- though annoying.

[plaalye]

What species is it?

[NancyD]

Could be the cory was dead or sick before the loach got it

[LoachOrgy]

the cory was fine this morning when i took a look at all the new fish. i keep my eyes peeled. i assumed that at first as well. and there were not bodily bruises just ripped up fins.

my alpha clown loach. about 4.5".

thing is, ive had injured fish in the tank before and the loaches would't touch them. as well as dead fish for a night and not even subtle wearing or signs of chewing on the corpse.

caught the cory in the clowns mouth. red finned! lol.

had to have happened between 7 and 9 am. i fed them late this morning. usually do it at around 730 am. but didn't feed em till 11 or so.

[chelms166]

How many clown loaches do you have? Could be an issue if you have less than 5. The more the merrier applies to fish as well. Do the other fish have any cover? How big is your tank? Under 40g for loaches, especially clowns, could cause a lot of problems. More info on your tank is needed before anyone could truely help you out.

Post up info on your tank including water parameters and size. And also info on fish stock.

I've had cories with my clowns for a couple years now and have had no problems at all.

[Diana]

Any time there is a 4x difference in size there is a distinct possibility of the larger fish eating the smaller, even if they generally are not usually fish eating predators. A 4" + Clown Loach is entirely likely to eat a 1" Cory.
Actual fish predators can eat prey that is half their size.

I would remove the Cories until they double in size. Clown Loaches will not grow so fast, but eventually you will have to separate them.

[LoachOrgy]

Any time there is a 4x difference in size there is a distinct possibility of the larger fish eating the smaller, even if they generally are not usually fish eating predators. A 4" + Clown Loach is entirely likely to eat a 1" Cory.
Actual fish predators can eat prey that is half their size.

I would remove the Cories until they double in size. Clown Loaches will not grow so fast, but eventually you will have to separate them.

well these cory's are smaller. but they were the larger of the babies. not much smaller than the cory's i have had for 3 years with these loaches. they have been living with these cory's for a very long time with no problems. but this was a newer cory that the clown had in his mouth. a bit smaller but not much smaller than my biggest albino cory. id say no more than 1/4" smaller than the older cory.

just thought it was odd that it hasn't happened in 3 years. not one incident.

in fact, most days all the cories and clowns are swimming together.

i have 5 clown loaches. and 7 striatas. 5 cory's now but i had 8 cory's( 4 emeral, 4 albino). had half the cory's get wiped out. the green emerald cory's are about 2" and the albinos are about 1.25" max size. sometimes i get some albino cory's to get larger but its random over the years. i had one get 2" and i had him for several years. the older cory i have now is 3 years old but he has not grown much larger than that after that length of time.

[LoachOrgy]

well fed the loaches blood worms and cucumber this morning. all the fish were fine. all cory's fine.

come back home today and my oldest and last albino cory was shredded.

similar injury in his tail fin being broken as the last cory.

i think my alpha all of the sudden decided to kill the cory's.

personally i think they are being killed when that last piece of cucumber goes floating off the holding mechanism. the cory's will end up getting to it in little corner areas. where i think maybe the loaches end up killing them when fighting over cucumber. really sad, i was hoping this wouldn't happen again.

he had visible fin damage and bloody marks where attacked. poor guy rip.

[LoachOrgy]

well another week went by and now i found another one of my large cory's murdered. i wasn't even in the other room 30 mins ago and i looked at that cory all day and everything seemed fine.

same thing. his fin was shredded or broken. can't point the finger at any loaches but it sure does seem odd that all my cory's are dying now. i wonder if its that they are competing for food.

on the two remaining cory's i see evidence of fin nipping. someone in the tank has ripped a few fins. i have one baby albino cory left along with one 2.5" emerald cory.

or here is an idea.'

my alpha loach is kinda small. one of my other loaches is about the same size as my alpha but is now getting bigger. i believe this loach is a male. the loach is starting to nip everyone all day. and hes becoming more aggressive. although im not 100 percent sure the fish is male. but acting very dominant. so if thats the case, is it possible for the alpha i have now to be killing the cory's because shes losing her alpha status? i don't really know just throwing it out there. I have had several cory's have the same injuries and found them dead. Some of these cory's have been in this tank for years and i can't see how there would be this many accidents this close together.

also the new alpha is a nasty guy. he nips everyone and chases the other loaches. showing dominance. especially toward the alpha female. they are fighting constantly. so far no bodily injury but i hear nipping and clicking quite often.

its sad bc the loaches and cory's have always been together. now im afraid to buy more cory's i found 2 2.5' emerald cory's dead. the ones at the pet store are very small. they will die overnight like the others did.

[theonetruepath]

1. Fish that are natural predator and prey can live together happily for years if they 'meet' under the right conditions (ie usually grow up together)
2. The balance can be thrown off by new fish (eg adding smaller versions of the ones they're accustomed to, or by shifting Alpha status)
3. You have one fish which you yourself say 'nips everyone and chases the other loaches.' Why are you looking to blame the outgoing alpha? It is not uncommon for the occasional loach to 'go rogue' and be antisocial. Re-home him in a tank with less delicate fish.

Quite possibly your balance will then return and you will be able to keep cories again. Until then. either remove the cories or remove the nipper. It's not like you don't already know what's going to happen to them.