clown loaches

[wuvmybetta]

I bought 2 clowns who were identical about 6 months ago, one quickly decided it was the boss and constantly "told" the other what to do, such as when to get in the cave etc...it was a very grumpy fish and far larger than the other since it takes all of the food, so I added one more about 2 months ago to take the heat off of the smaller of the original 2, the new clown quickly became the "picked-on" loach and was even banned from the cave when it was time to sleep, he/she would lay on its side outside the doorway of their home alone while the other 2 slept inside and if it tried to go in it was quickly chased right out

so I felt sorry for it & a couple of weeks ago added 3 very small ,barely older than fry clowns and now the change in behavior is incredible...they're all so cute and they play during the day , tonight was the 1st time the dominant loach took in the 3rd of the clowns and one of the newbies, but has yet to accept 2 of them ,at least the 5th & 6th have each other

guess they really DO find comfort in numbers

 

[HawkEye]

I would add more caves for them to hide...just to make sure the fish aren't stressed too much...even though that is the natural pecking order in the fish world, we have the power to make it a little more comfortable for the fish...

 

[impur]

I currently have 3 and will probably add 2 more after i move. But out of mine, i have 2 that are roughly 2" and one is 1". The 1" guy swims with the danios most of the day but does sleep with the other 2. Now my 2 larger ones still fight to determine dominance. I put a zucchini in the other day and as soon as they found it, boom, their black color went grey and the orange brightened up. For about an hour they swam around side by side fighting. Crazy little fish.

 

[wuvmybetta]

the tank is nothing but hiding spots, it's very heavily planted with tons of rocks and driftwood, they just prefer to sleep inside the huge ceramic wizard that sits in the back corner....I guess they like it the two rejects like to sleep in between the leaves of one of my sword plants, I dunno why....there is plenty of little caves and whatnot, but the whole tank belongs to the 6 clowns & 10 kuhlies (plus 2 oddball blue gouramis)

mine go bonkers over zucchini too impur ....but they REALLY go nuts over some stuff I found in the reptile section at Petco, it's called can o' snails and when I give them one, woohoo look~out, it's a feeding/fighting frenzy even if I put in enough little pieces for all to have one they still argue & fight over the food

 

[impur]

Hmmm i'll have to try that stuff. Is it like snails compacted to pellets or something?

 

[wuvmybetta]

actually they're just de-shelled large,whole snails , soft and squishy , you have to refrigerate them after you open the can, they were only 3 bucks and they'll last quite awhile , I'm sure your loaches would go crazy over them , they're made by Zoo-meds, I had originally bought them for the loaches and my daughters turtle but the turtle wouldn't touch em, it would sniff then pull it's head inside it's shell then sniff again, guess it just likes the can o' crickets and worms (won't even eat dry food anymore)