Clown Loaches And Their Step Brothers!

[lozronz]

Ah! About two months ago I bought three clown loaches to go in the big tank, when they initially went in they swam around with the Filament Barbs, I figured it was a temporary thing while they ajusted to the new tank but two months on they are still there shoaling together.

Their markings are quite similar I wonder if they think they are family? The Clown loaches sometimes look like they are struggling to keep up because the Filament barbs are always active and don't have the lazing around time that the Clowns should be having! The Filaments are on the change to mature colouring (one spot and two orange stripes on the tail rather than black and orangey silver stripes down the body) I hope this won't mean the end of shoaling together.

I have a Talking Cat that shoals with the Cories at meal times aswell.

Anyone else have any interfamily shoaling going on in their tanks?

 

[Callum]

i have a platy who thinks he's a harlequin

 

[Betta5]

i have a male betta who thinks hes a female guppie

 

[my fat fish]

i have a mollie that thinks he is a mob boss

also my blue dwarf gourmies and rainbow fish are always together

 

[The-Wolf]

Filament Barbs, ....
Their markings are quite similar I wonder if they think they are family?.....The Filaments are on the change to mature colouring (one spot and two orange stripes on the tail rather than black and orangey silver stripes down the body) I hope this won't mean the end of shoaling together.

are you sure you have barbus filamentosa filament barbs?
the one spot should be on the anterior of the body, not on the tail.
here are some pics of my barbus filamentosa
(click thumbnails)
male

female

 

[lozronz]

Yer, I just didn't know 'anterior' was the name! I have three Juveniles and one in adult colouring, they are lush fish, really full of energy and their feeding frenzies are awsome, like Tuna darting up and circling!

 

[xxBarneyxx]

My sister used to have a clown loach which would always swim around with her tiger barbs.

I once accidently got a scissor tail in with some other fish from a LFS and he used to swim with my cardinal tetras (was quite cool actually having 1 bright silver fish in a group of blue and red).

 

[vic]

I am assuming that the "sucking loach" in the 4ft. are the clowns. Clowns are very social critters and like a tribe of at least 5. The 4ft tank should support 2 or 3 more with no trouble. They also like a little cucumber or zucchini now and again. Just blanch and present. Don't leave in for more that 24 hours. The rest of the menagerie will also be delighted.
Cheers;

 

[wendywc]

My fish are normal. But my friend's clown loaches swim with his silver dollars.

 

[lozronz]

I really need to update my sig, The Sucking Loach is a 6" Chinese Algae Eater (apparently an aggressive fish but I have seen no evidence so far) , I have three Clown Loach, one 6.5" and two tiny 1" ones but only the two little ones hang out, the large one sits by himself behind the bog wood and looks sulky. should I get another large one?

 

[geezer]

I have a platy who thinks he is a black skirt tetra. He never leaves the tetras side. But my loaches are prety normal even if all six of them like to jam into the smallest tube in the tank. (and the clowns are between 6-8 inches)

 

[groovylime]

Clown loaches will sit and "sulk" if they are not happy. Perhaps he needs another one his size (although I've seen clown loaches of different sizes interacting fine), or perhaps he is freaked out by the knifefish in there. Maybe the knifefish has acted agressivley to the cl, seeing it as a threat? I don't know.

 

[lozronz]

I will try to find him a couple of buddies nearer to his own size (before anyone says the size of the tank thing its fine I have other tanks to hand that are not on the signature). I don't think the knife fish is aggresive towards him they come out at the same times and lean on each other behind the bogwood when hiding.

Do Clown Loaches become less active and hide more as they get older or do I definately have a problem?

 

[lilfishie]

my clown loach hangs out with my 4 BN plecos its quite funny to see them all together

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

i had a platy that swam with a huge group of tiger barbs once. didn't look too good tho lol
i did have 3 neons that swam with white clouds and that looked really nice.

my clown loaches hide alot and i have nothing in there they should be scared of so maybe they're just hiding from you? x