Clown Loaches And Airstones!

[james.]

Hello there, I'm a new member and a relatively inexperienced tropical fish keeper.

I have two clown loaches that I'm having a problem with. The two loaches were until last week housed in a smaller tank, but upon realising how large they would grow I've bought a much larger tank to keep them in (and hopefully add a few more clown loaches too). In the smaller tank the larger of the two loaches hardly ever came out of hiding, but the smaller was quite bold and would swim around the tank. Since moving them to their new home they both came out of their shells a lot and were swimming around the tank a fair bit.

I was pleased with this, and was looking forward to watching them swim happily around. The problem started yesterday when I bought an airstone for the tank to add some movement to the top of the water. There wasn't much surface movement with the filter alone and I thought the introduction of an airstone would help, not only with movement of the water, but also with oxygen in the tank.

Upon switching the airstone on however (there are two connected to the same pump) they went into hiding. The airstones do provide a lot of movement to the top of the water, and I honestly thought this would help, but after an entire day yesterday the never appeared from under their bogwood.

I switched the airstones off last night and this morning they were back to swimming around the tank, though the larger hasn't been out as much. Is this normal behaviour, should I perservere with the airstones, or should I just have them running for a couple of hours a day?

I really need help with this as I don't want to upset the fish and only want what is best for them, any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance,

James.

 

[groovitudedude]

I have a four foot air curtain in my 100G, and the clown loaches don't mind it. They actually like to play in the bubbles sometimes. Your loaches are probably just scared, as it is the first time in the tank with an airstone. Also, two loaches is too little. 3 is minimum, 5 is suggested. Also, it would help to know your tank size in Gallons so that we can determine how many loaches you would need and/or want. I'm glad you got a larger tank. What are you keeping your loaches with right now? Are they alone, or do you keep them with other fish?

 

[james.]

Currently I have a 75 gallon tank. I'm going to further upgrade as they grow. There are three small albino corys in with them, but there is a sailfin to go in there too. That's probably all that will live in the tank until I upgrade again (when I move home, as I just don't have the space right now! )

I was planning to add more clowns, not a huge number but enough to make them feel more comfortable, quite soon. I'm quite inexperienced and I'm really learning as I go, fish stores I have noticed will sell you anything and sometimes not tell you the whole truth about how big a fish will grow. The thing is, I don't see this as the fishes fault, so I see it as my responsability to provide better for them now they are guests in my home.

It's a wonderful hobby, and it really helps having people like yourself to ask for help, thanks a lot mate,

James.

 

[mikev]

How large are the clowns? This matters, since loach psychology changes with growth.

Now, normally stronger current/airstone will be an attraction to botia's. But there may be a "secondary" effect.

For example, this is what happens in my 125g right now. Larger clowns (4"-5") feel more secure when the tank surface is mostly covered by the floating water sprite plants, this way I see much more of them. If I turn the airstone stronger, it will clear part of the surface from the plants and this switches the clowns to the hide-during-the-day/venture-out-at-night behavior; if I tune it down, floating plants spread over and the fish feels secure during the day.

A strange, but totally deterministic effect.

The rest of the loaches in the same tank (yoyo's, smaller clowns, etc) don't care about the airstone, their behavior is identical either way. The only other fish in the tank that cares are the bows.... their color is better when the plant cover is not complete but they are also more nervous.

 

[rossyt99]

My Clown Loaches seem fine with the airstone on constantly... may just take time for them to get used to it.> they are great fish to keep.