CLOWN LOACH VIOLENCE LAST 2 DAYS HELP

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LoachOrgy
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CLOWN LOACH VIOLENCE LAST 2 DAYS HELP

Post by LoachOrgy » Sun Aug 21, 2011 3:00 pm

I just had one of my 4.5" clowns die in about 30 minutes of finding him. Please see this thread.

http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=22761

Today I saw all of my loaches(striatas and clowns) at the top of the tank tearing my upside down cat to shreds. they have lived with this fish since the beginning. This cat was in this tank before they ever were.

I caught them in the act of ripping him apart. I stopped it but his intestines were already ripped out. So I took him out of the tank and put him out of his misery. I feel so horrible he would have suffered otherwise I could see his intestines.

Has anyone experienced this?

I introduced 3 new loaches around 2 weeks ago. All at the end of the litter as far as size is concerned with my 5 existing clowns. Now, all the fish have been more aggressive than ever and they are fighting much more. For the first 2 weeks they were all happy go lucky and getting along. Now it appears the clowns that I have had for years are starting to fight. I believe the loach that died yesterday was in a fight. I caught two of my biggest fighting violently and sloshing in the tank today earlier just like what I saw yesterday. I calmed the fight down, but now I have never seen such violent behavior with any of my loaches before. Any adivce would be helpful I am concerned for my tiger pleco and my other upside down cat now. Should I put them in the tank with my smaller botia rostrata?
Last edited by LoachOrgy on Sun Aug 21, 2011 6:00 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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LoachOrgy
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Re: CLOWN LOACH VIOLENCE LAST 2 DAYS HELP

Post by LoachOrgy » Sun Aug 21, 2011 3:08 pm

ive decided to take all my other fish out of the tank except any loaches. I think they may end up eating the rest of my fish now that they are getting bigger. several years ago i had 8 cories and the loaches ate 7 of them. i managed to save 1 but the cory ended up dying.


is there any reason this behavior might be happening? is it the introduction of the new fish or possibly that i fed them a piece of salad shrimp last week? I have not given them any salad shrimp in quite some time. I do feed them shrimp pellets and blood/glass worms on a weekly basis. i give them 2 protein days a week.

my biggest alpha is 6.5". the 2nd size is about 6.25", 5", 3.5", 3.5", 2.5", 2.5" clowns. I have 7 striata also in this 90 gallon. the largest is 3" the rest are around 2.5". Am I pushing it to be over stocked?

another note, i fed the fish this morning. like i normally do. I have been giving them a little more food in account for the new fish but this behavior is surprising me.
Last edited by LoachOrgy on Sun Aug 21, 2011 4:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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LoachOrgy
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Re: CLOWN LOACH VIOLENCE LAST 2 DAYS HELP

Post by LoachOrgy » Sun Aug 21, 2011 3:37 pm

So I moved my tiger pleco, my one glass fish, and my larger 3" upside down cat to my 20 gallon rostrata tank. I am just worried they will get eaten. I don't know how long this is going to last. I will keep my eyes on the loaches from now on. The 90 gallon now only has loaches in it. I may put a larger pleco now in this tank. Although I am not sure yet. My tiger pleco has survived this long with the fish but I don't want to risk any more inhabitants dying. The rostrata tank has 5 rostratas that are roughly about 2.5" or smaller. They are still babies so I hope this works out. I will keep my eyes on them. There are plenty of hiding places.
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LoachOrgy
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Re: CLOWN LOACH VIOLENCE LAST 2 DAYS HELP

Post by LoachOrgy » Mon Aug 22, 2011 1:34 pm

anyone seen this type of aggressive behavior?
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millsn
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Re: CLOWN LOACH VIOLENCE LAST 2 DAYS HELP

Post by millsn » Mon Aug 22, 2011 2:28 pm

Sorry but I've never had this. Do you have a picture of your tank? Perhaps there aren't enough hiding places to seperate your fish? What did you find out against Martin's suggestion of errant electricity in your water?

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LoachOrgy
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Re: CLOWN LOACH VIOLENCE LAST 2 DAYS HELP

Post by LoachOrgy » Mon Aug 22, 2011 8:40 pm

its a 90 gallon there are plenty of hiding places. ive had some of these loaches upwards of 6 years with no problems. i only had that one incident where they killed all my corydora's. i don't know what caused all this violence.

anyway, here is a link to a thread that has some videos with the tank in it. id have to dig for the picture threads.

http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php ... 00#p191700
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Emma Turner
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Re: CLOWN LOACH VIOLENCE LAST 2 DAYS HELP

Post by Emma Turner » Tue Aug 23, 2011 9:20 pm

Hi LO,
This is really unusual behaviour for clowns or striata. I have to wonder if the catfish were ill/dying and that's when the loaches started to pick on them. It's horrible but unfortunately not unheard of for usually placid fish to start picking on sick fish - somehow they know when something is up. Like the survival of the fittest in the wild. I know you look after your tank well, but you might just want to double check water quality and look for any signs of illness in the non-loach fishes you have, just in case. Make sure you have no 'dead spots' in the tank where water flow is slow and rearrange the decor to break up existing territories amongst your older loaches so that the new ones have a chance to settle in without too much aggro.
Good luck,
Emma
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LoachOrgy
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Re: CLOWN LOACH VIOLENCE LAST 2 DAYS HELP

Post by LoachOrgy » Wed Aug 24, 2011 1:44 pm

This could definitely be the issue, I think I agree with the fish knowing something was wrong. The upside down cat had some fin rot several months ago and I am not sure if the other fish attacked the upside down cat in the past but his eye was bloody when i found him. I treated him for infection a few months ago and the fish grew all the fins back and the eye healed. so after about a month the cat was put back in the tank. There didn't seem to be any issues after that for the next few months until the attack a few days ago.

The water quality has been good the last few times I checked over the last few days.

Ive been monitoring the loaches very closely the last few days. I see no visual signs of issues, no behavioral discrepancies other than what ive described. Also the feces looks normal.

For now ive removed tank ornament and left fake plants only to monitor the fish.
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LoachOrgy
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Re: CLOWN LOACH VIOLENCE LAST 2 DAYS HELP

Post by LoachOrgy » Mon Sep 05, 2011 10:05 pm

had to go out of town for 4 days. the loaches were fed well the day i left. then 2 days later they were fed well. fed them tonight. but i noticed one smaller striata of the bunch of 7 had clamped fins when i saw him. im doing a water change now and vacuuming the tank.
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djoneser
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Re: CLOWN LOACH VIOLENCE LAST 2 DAYS HELP

Post by djoneser » Thu Nov 03, 2011 3:46 pm

Just saw this thread, linked from the one where your 3rd largest passed from fighting. Sorry he's gone, condolences.

The only other time I have read of this type of aggressive behavior, it was related to breeding.

http://aquariumlore.blogspot.com/2006/0 ... loach.html check the section on breeding

http://www.loaches.com/loaches-in-books ... le-hammond is the original story I believe.

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