clown loach experts please read

[tropicfishman]

ok, this is my second attempot at keeping clown loach's, I know the basics, keep more than one,plenty of places to hide, good water qulaity and they get big, but when I got my first one he cruised around the tank for an hour or so and then hid in this root thing I have ( its real wood with alot of nooks and cranny's ) well after a month or so he dissapeared and no body was ever found, I assume he died in the root thing, but my water quality never changed. so a couple months go buy and I bought a new clown a couple days ago, he did the same exact thing, hung around the tanka bit, then boom went right into the root the same way theother oen did, and he also hides for days, I haven't seen him in two days, I can see him moving his tail in ther ebut he won't come out. I put in normal tetramin flake food, occasionally bloodworms, and sometimes shrimp pellets. Should i buy a couple more loaches tommorow or something? its only a 29 gallon tank. if its the wooden root, I'm replacing it tommrow with some resin pieces I purchased off a memeber on here. Iono what to do honestly, its really discouraging to think I'm doing some wrong, but yet after all the tests and different methods of feeding and what not, I still don't knowwhat it is, thanks fo rany help guys

[sudz]

Mine love algae wafers. Spirulina works well. The shrimp pellets, they also love. The press on algae tabs are by far their favorite.

If they're getting STUCK, most difinately remove it. They love crevaces. They'll get themselves wedged in the hardest places.

[hc8719]

see if you can get some pond snails, and throw them in the tank, clowns will swim around and hunt for them

[tropicfishman]

I do know that he can move and swim straight down out o fthe wood, he just won't do it. I hope he enjoys it, the wood is comingout tommmrow and in goes th eresin pieces and some ceramic caves and osme new fake plants.

Could it be the tankmates scaring him? I have a redtail shark, 5 tiger barbs, 2 zebra danios, black skirt tetra and a ramshorn along with him, the clown loach, all in a 29 gallon

Hopefully this weekend I cna get the 55 gallon setup and running, I haven't even opened the box yet, how sad, maybe that will help.

As for the food my tiger barbs tear into everything before he can, even after I just feed them, maybe he needs a whole new set of tank mates and some more laoches around

[hc8719]

i cant say that he appreciates the red tail shark or the skirt tetra

supposibly they are more comfortable around sentry fish (neon and cardinals) because if they are schooling happily, then the clowns know theres no danger

again, i encourage snails, the clowns should demolish any snail population well before the snails get out of hand

[pobdave]

In all honesty,al 29US gal tank is rather small for a pair of clown loaches.
With your planned setup I would make sure I fed some frozen brine shrimp pr bloodworm at lightsout.
I have a pair of clown loaches in a community tank but-at the moment my loaches think they are peppered corries!!

[coldmachineUK]

They are normally very playful fish, yep. And they do school if there's a suitably sized enough group (3+) of them. I think your RTBS might be making him nervous.
Also, can you confirm: you only have the one clown, right? The other went missing months ago? I'd assume you only have the one, but I would move the wood root just in case (carefully) to see. It could also be theres lots of trapped detritus around it which may be making the clown unhappy.

They do love nooks and crannies: I never forgot seeing one story on another site about a lady whose clown got wedged in a pot because he forgot how big he'd grown. She had to manually move him, needless to say she got stabbed and slimed in the process!

If you've a 55G in the wings, I would wait until that's set up and cycled and then move your clown across (if he's still ok by then) and get him a couple of friends. You'll need to think about the possibility of upgrading long-term if you keep a group of three though since they can grow huge! (Personally I think the bigger they are the cuter, myself).

Go with replacing the root for now though. Clowns will also love slate caves if you can add any.

I know that with my clowns(5), they range from inquisitive to reticent and shy, hiding all the time, coming out only when it thinks no one is around. Clowns love company, but also like privacy, depending on the personality of the individual fish. I would suspect that a lone CL introduced into a new tank might not do what you expect, as mine took several days to adjust, and sometimes they play follow the leader and need friends. They have several personality traits and can vary.

[hsherman1986]

they defintly need friends, and more space. Get that 55 up and running and cycled asap and get your loach about 3-4 more friends. They will appreciate that.

I have a school of 6 clown loaches in a 55g (will be upgrading to a 150 soon). It started with just one, then I learned they were a schooling fish. When I had just one, he would hide all the time, but he would still come out for feeding. Now that I have six in there, I see all of them most of the time. Though the original one still hides a lot, he is out more often now that he has some buddies.

All six of them were laying in a pile right in the front of the tank before i got up to come to the computer

[sudz]

I have a single loach in my 44 gallon, and 2 in my 15. I put the 2 in my 15 to kill my snail problem. I'll be switching them back to my 44 shortly. Its heavily planted, so its hard to catch them though! Gonna have to use the algae wafer trap again :p

My lone clone is VERY social. He likes to school with my rainbow. I don't think he knows he is a clown, lol.

[tropicfishman]

yes I only have one, also where the clown comes out of the root, is also where the skirt tetra hangs out