Zodiac (Batik) Loach is mean! Help!

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Dos-Loachez
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2012 6:17 pm

Zodiac (Batik) Loach is mean! Help!

Post by Dos-Loachez » Wed Apr 04, 2012 3:37 pm

Hello ;)
I have a few loaches in my tank 2 Golden Dojo (Weather) Loaches, 1 Black Kuhli Loach, 1 Zodiac (Batik) Loach. At the moment all are pretty small and in a ten gallon tank until the Weather loaches get larger I'll be relocating them to a much larger 55 gallon tank. Also i have 3 neon tetras, 3 guppies, 1 ghost shrimp, 4 cherry shrimp. The issue i am having is that for the most part my community is peaceful and friendly.. However the Zodiac is certainly a "King of the hill" he torments everyone else in the tank with the exception of my Kuhli (They seem to be best buds).

Now i love my loaches and really don't want to get rid of anyone but I'm not sure what to do with the Zodiac to calm him/her down. He has even nipped the fins almost completely off of one of my guppies (I watched him do this! Terrible!) I know that for certain fish you can put them on a fishie "time out" and it tends to reduce this behavior overall but in my searching online to find an answer to his "I own everything" behavior I've come up empty. So i am asking all of you! Some say add more of the Zodiac loaches some say the opposite. Others say a bare bottom tank others say more hiding places..

Also please note that i have sand substrate in the bottom of my tank for all of them to dig in and plenty of hiding places for each to call their own. I also don't feed them anything live in fear of encouraging aggressive behavior.

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palaeodave
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Joined: Mon Jul 24, 2006 5:25 am
Location: London/York

Re: Zodiac (Batik) Loach is mean! Help!

Post by palaeodave » Thu Apr 05, 2012 7:07 am

I think your problem is entirely the size of the tank. You'd be amazed at the change in behaviour of fish when given larger dwellings. Move them up to a bigger tank as soon as possible and I'd expect your problem to disappear.
"Science is a lot like sex. Sometimes something useful comes of it, but that’s not the reason we’re doing it" ー R Feynman

monicalovefish
Posts: 27
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 6:33 pm

Re: Zodiac (Batik) Loach is mean! Help!

Post by monicalovefish » Fri Apr 06, 2012 4:41 pm

Granted, sometimes you just can't have certain fish in with others. I had to return a Skunk loach who was torturing my entire tank of Yoyos and Clown loaches. He was awful to catch and I had to take everything out as the little sucker was fast! Either way, he went straight to my local smaller fish store who were quite happy to receive him as they had some other customers who could provide him with the aggressive environment he needed.

I also had to rehouse a Scat. I'd been reading that some Scats do fine in freshwater as they are from freshwater rivers and he was gorgeous! He was probably about five inches in diameter (or as the aquarium store told me - he was a really FAT Scat and looked gorgeous). Either way, with two nephews who were both 6 and who thought this was the coolest thing, we took him to the local LPS store and they gave him a new home. Now, why would I give him up? Well, he spent his days staring at my poor ghost knife fish who was his size and who he apparently loved to nip at constantly. He was caught shredding his tale and my poor ghost knife was bending himself to hide in a small spot and wouldn't even eat. Sob. Needless to say, I chose to return the Scat who'd probably do better in a bigger tank anyway.

Returning fish unfortunately happens to everyone at some point...just give them to a reputable smaller aquarium store so they get good homes.

Monica

Dos-Loachez
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2012 6:17 pm

Re: Zodiac (Batik) Loach is mean! Help!

Post by Dos-Loachez » Wed Apr 11, 2012 10:28 am

Thank you Monica & Dave for your suggestions.
I returned my Zodiac loach to the store i got him at and explained the situation. They were very understanding of the situation and promised to find him a good home, even gave me store credit ;)

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