Clown Loach growing thin

[Feline]

My 2 Clown Loaches are not getting enough food because those 20 Swordtails are stealing all the sinking pellets for them.

I tried feeding the swamp of Swordtails more flakes (a cupful of a contact lens container) but still after they gulped all within 2 minutes. But they always migrate to the bottom in search of more food, thus stealing pellets for my Clown loaches.

I don't want to overfeed but I want my Clowns to have something to eat... they are growing thin

Any suggestions?

 

[Loveless]

try hand feed your clown loaches. they would gladly take blood worm and flakes off of my hands, hope that helps

 

[Cheese Specialist]

try hand feed your clown loaches. they would gladly take blood worm and flakes off of my hands, hope that helps

Mine won't take any, at least not the other day. Maybe it's because they are scared of Bub my black angel? How can I encourage them no not be shy?

In answer Feline's question. I have my clown loaches in the tank with lots of differetn fish and they always get their fair share of the food. Perhaps try putting something in the tank that only they can eat effectivley. Like lettuce or cucumber. I do this for mine every once in a while and they go mad for it. The other fish sit behind them to catch little bits floating past.

HTH

 

[Captain Canuck]

I don't know how thin your clown loach is getting, but if it is noticable it might be what they refer to at the loaches.com forum as skinny disease. Just in case, here is a link to a site with some information about it.

http/www.geocities.com/pktechlizard/skinny.htm

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I don't know how thin your clown loach is getting, but if it is noticable it might be what they refer to at the loaches.com forum as skinny disease. Just in case, here is a link to a site with some information about it.

http/www.geocities.com/pktechlizard/skinny.htm

Cheers, I was just about to mention that

It's a good thing for clown loach people to remember in any case. Looks blody nasty though

 

[Captain Canuck]

It is nasty and sad to watch it happen. One of my first clowns had it, unfortunately by the time I read about skinny disease and bought some medication, it was too late.

 

[Feline]

I'm sorry to hear about your loach, Captain! That skinny disease is really horrible.

My Clowns are only a wee bit thinner than usual, not as serious as the pictures from the link showed *knock on wood*

It mentioned a drug called Levamisole hydrochloride. Could I possibly get it in the UK? It's so hard to get drugs here, everything needs a prescription from the vet!

 

[Nina7777]

Hey there- how new are your loaches?
I had the same problem when i first got my clowns. My balas kept eating all the food I was trying to feed them. I ended up buying two veggie clips and placing them on opposite sides of the aquarium (HA! you would think this would work but my piggy shark just saved the ones on his side and went down and at my clowns clip) So finally i started putting both clips on one side of the aquarium, and I put one peice of seaweed in each clip in the mornings (clowns love it!!!!) and two cubes of tubifex worms in the evening in each clip(this helps hold them in place so my clowns can eat then before they float to the top.) Everyone seems to be doing good! Another suggestion which also helped to get my clowns to eat, was to buy 2.00 (us dollars) worth of live brine shrimp. So many come in a two dollar batch that everyone got there fair share!

 

[Feline]

Hi Nina, 2 of my Clowns are 9 months since they came home as babies (4cm head to tail) and now they are 4 inches long. Since I've upgraded my tank, I bought 2 more baby Clowns, only 2cm long. I could see the babies searching for food but not the big Clowns.

However, perhaps its due to a change of new environment cause I saw the big ones eating for the first time in this week! I can tell they are picky, but where no alternatives (live food) is availble at the mo, they have to eat the pellets!

Will try feeding some frozen shrimp / bloodworm or cucumber later on!

 

[londreana]

hey i dont want to start another thread as this one is about the same topic.. ok i had been searching everywhere for clowns no such luck ,seems that all the suppliers to the big stores were having problems with their stock So i decided to buy on-line, its the first time i have done this, not too impressed with the results but then again i did pay too much for them iether, so summing up not bad.

Getting back onto the point, aswell as neons i also ordered 5 clown loaches, it was a heavy box so to my surprise when i opened it searching through litres and liters of water were 5 small clowns, they looked like babies, i doubt thier even an inch long, well there about 1.5cm - 2cm.

After browing on the link provided, very helpfull by the way, i am now rather concerned about my clowns as they kinda look very similar to those in the picture

Im not sure if this is normal, they are eating well, at the mo ment i am overfeeding and doing big water cahnges everyweek to coompensate, as my rainbows, neons and especially dianos love those sinking catfish pellets, but im keeping an eye on them just to make sure that they eat...

so what im wondering is, just to reconfirm babies are supposed to be skinny right? i mean i can clearly see the line of latitue (?- ok maybe wrong terminology for it, the red line across there body) and their heads are also very skinny aswell as i can see their gill moving very clearly. so maybe my fish dont have this, you can clearly see that their tummies arent rounded outwards, which concerns me alot, in fact it seems quite hollow ...

i would put up a picture my a dont have a high quality camera so the images come up really blured and the clown dont stay still long enough!!

 

[Feline]

Hey~ Your Clown Babies are really small!! But I think all Clown babies look semi-transparent and yes, you can see the "blood vessel" (or something similar) and the spine

Mine looks thin as well, but at times I can see them eating, and their fins are up, colour looks alright.

 

[londreana]

i had a look again at this website, mine clowns looka lot like this i'm really scared and worried... i mean i dont know if there supposed to look like this, they are babies after all... they've been feeding ok up to now, though tommoro will be thier first frozen bloodworm meal, if they get there first that is!!! the coulor on the babies is manginifacnt, deep black and bright yellow...

i suppose i just need reassurance..

 

[Nina7777]

IMO i would just assume that they are young. IME if the clowns are sick they will loose some of their color and turn almost peach with silver stripes. Just my opinion though.

 

[FanOFish]

I don't think I saw this mentioned....another thing you might try is to drop in the sinking pellets right as you turn off the aquarium lights.

Loaches tend to come out at night and as the platys are winding down the loaches may have a better chance finding the pellets.

Good luck