Underfed clown loach

[bosk1]

I currently have 4 clown loaches in the tank. One is close to twice as large as the other three. Of the three smaller ones, I am particularly concerned about the smallest. I have never seen a fish so skinny. His skin is very sunken in, and he simply does not eat much. When food is in the tank, he clearly gets excited, but seems to wander aimlessly and not find it, even though the others find it quickly. This has gone on for a couple of months and I'm not sure what, if anything, I can do about it.

I have tried the following foods:
Frozen brine: probably his favorite. But he has a habit of taking one into his mouth, spitting it out, and then moving on.
Tubifex: same.
Sinking wafers: He likes these, but the others push him out of the way, and he doesn't end up getting much.
Sinking shrimp pellets: he won't even touch 'em.
Veggies (lettuce, cuc's): I see him nibbling, but he doesn't seem to get fat off the veggies.

Any suggestions?

 

[lovemybarbs]

Mine like freeze-dried krill. I crumble them up. Zucchini and peas if they have been nuked a few minutes. Make sure you peal the peas.

 

[Zagz]

You could try QT'ing him and feeding him the wafers and food by himself for a day or two and see if it is an eating problem or not. It might be he has an internal parasite. If it is a matter of the others pushing him out of the way for food, QT'ing him will eliminate that problem.

 

[Voodoo Chilli]

I agree with Zag: a sunken belly on a loach sounds like internal parasites.

How long have you had the clowns?

 

[hsherman1986]

i third the internal parasites. I had three at one time, same thing started hapeneing like what you are talking about, then one died from ick, and one got sent back to the lfs. The third started getting really skinny, wouldn't eat, so i bought a second thinking he might have gotten lonely, but a few days later, he died. He looked like a skeleton with skin

the one i have left is cool tho, she has four stripes instead of the normal three She is about to get some buddies too.

 

[tropicfishman]

use some primafix in a QT tank and it will clear up anything he could possibly have

 

[bosk1]

Hmm... Looks like I'm going to have to set up a QT tank then. I don't have one at the moment. Bother! Oh well, it could be worse, I suppose.

By the way, I've had them since about January. I've noticed the little guy being REALLY skinny for over a month. I figured he just wasn't getting enough to eat, so I just kept making sure there was enough food in the tank that he could get a little bit.

 

[goalorientation]

My clown loaches barely touch the shrimp pellets too, though sometimes I only drop those and the catfish pellets in as a kind of force-feed approach since they are so high in protein. Brine shrimp by Hikari will have them eating from the surface sometimes even upside down along with my other cichlids. The frozen bloodworms by Hikari are easily their favorite though.

Is it just me or are clown loaches one of the most delicate fish care-wise? At the same token they are so compatible with different species of fish! Two of my clown loaches (had for about a total of 6 months) were in my dad's community tank and cleaned up his snail overpopulation nicely. These same two clown loaches now have a 3rd sidekick and are in with 2 convicts and 3 jewel cichlids and a blood parrot and are nice and plump.

Isn't it amazing how a fish can be taken from a LFS in mediocre condition and when placed in a good environment with proper diet can really excel? That's what happened with the third clown loach that I got.

Not gonna propose an answer on the skinny subject, however, I'd like to raise the question as to whether or not this fish was very thin when you first purchased it or has simply gone downhill in order to give these guys a better idea of wut they're up against (Advise-wise!). Could you please post a pic of your clown loaches bosk1? I'd love to see 'em.