Clowns

[londreana]

Hi guys!!!

My name is cristina, been keeping tropical fish for over a year, and coldwater fish for a year and a half... but i have made so many mistakes and i cant believe how ignorant i have been during this time, i think however i now have it all under control...

ok thats not to say i'm not an expert but i need your help, so this may look like a bit of an essay, sorry in advance!!!

This is going to my attempt two at keeping clown loaches, the first batch i had, school of three, which were all the same size, and the dominant one killed the other two is a struggle to acheive a pecking order and then i was left with one which got stressed of being by itself , yet killing its tankmates (they were CONSTANTLY fighting, feeding time, night time, daytime, they ever got scares and open wounds i made sure there were lots of hidding spaces but there was nothing i could do...) Then the one clown i had left felt lonely and it caugth really bad ick, which i lost it to.

So i have recently bought 5 Clown loaches, but they are still babies, you just cant find lare or meduim size loaches anymore, i suppose its got to do with the fact they have to be imported and they dont bred well in aquariums. I am determined to get it right this time though! I am aware that clowns love WORMS (everyone to his own) BUT how do you feed them, i mean i noramlly use freeze dried, its a convient way to store them, but mine dont eat from the surface and by the time they sink down, which i dont think they do my other fish (rainbows, neons and dianos eat them all) i dont wanna try live blood worm just of yet, i normally feed brine shrimp as a live food. But i was curious of how people feed frozen blood worm to thier fish, are you suppose to defrost it before putting it in? or dump the cube in? HELP - what are you supposed to do with it.

If i knew what i know now i would have changed the substrate of my aquarium from gravel to sand - easier to clean, but how do you go about vacumming a heavily planted aquarium? i find it almost impossible, is there any tricks?

A question about filtration

Query:

Would having extra filtration in your tank mean less water changes? and a reduced amount of Ammonia, NItrate nitrates and a stabalised pH?

Ok the reason why i ask is because my powerhead is a current deathtrap for my small fishes they keep getiing sucked into it so instead i am going to get two fluvial 2+ filters, which have and in built power head, i also have a fluvial external 304 running as my normal filter (which is supposed to be for a 300L tank, though mine is only 200L) my tank dimesions are 48" 18" 12" and though i dont need it i have put in my old filter from my 100L tank which is an external 104 Fluvial/

So if i get this would it mean less water changes? Does anyone know how it would affect water chemicasl?

I would really appreciate all the feedback i can possibility get, and for those who have gotten down to this part thanks for reading

Londreana

p.s. sorry for any typos that there might be

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Hi Cristina, nice to meet you. I am Dana.

to the forum

About the feeding...

With frozen bloodworm some do just dump it in witout problems. I don;t do that, personally I have a cup which I use only for this ( if it was used by someone by accident) and I add a little tank water to it and drop half a cube in for my biggest tank. I let it defrost and then I used to spoon it a but at atime into the tank but recently I tried handfeeding it and it went really well. My clowns were too shy to take it form my hands but I made sure some got to them at the bottom of the tank.

About the filter...

What size is your tank? Could 2 fluvals 2+s be enough? If so I might worry that your tank is not big enough for 5 clown loaches.

I think water changes are totally necessary no matter what the filter. It is the only way to remove nitrAtes (live plants can help).

HTH

 

[crazie.eddie]

Yes, frozen bloodworms are the best. All fish love them. I also feed my clown loaches frozen brine shrimp and Hikari carnivore pellets. One thing you can feed them, which you can get free at your LFS are snails. I often visit my LFS to collect the snails the infest their tanks and then give them to my loaches.

FYI, loaches don't kill each other for a pecking order. There fights look damaging, but never enough to hurt them. The loaches may have died for some other reason. How often did you perform your tank maintenance at the time? What size tank were the loaches in? What type of filtration did you have?

I would stay away from sand unless you have a Wet/Dry filter. This is becuase you only need a grain or 2 of sand to ruin your filter canister or hang on back filter. It's best to stay with a gravel substrate if you don't have a wet/dry filter.

What type of powerhead are you using? You may be able to find a pref-ilter sponge to fit on the intake of your powerhead. Luckily my Zoomed powersweep come with the pre-filter sponges, which I use.

Regarding a larger filter being less tank maintenance...Well, yes and no. It all depends on your fish stock and how well you position your filters so that waste flow directly into your filter intakes. A larger filter or more filters does mean, less filter maintenance. You can do less tank maintenance with just having one filter, ONLY if you test your water parameters (ammonia, nitrates/nitrites, pH, etc.) regularly. Then if you notice your ammonia or nitrites/nitrates going up, then perform your water changes. You may realise you can go a bit longer without having to change your water, if you have a larger filter or more filters while checking your water parameters. But the key is, if you don't do frequent water changes, then you must check your water parameters.

 

[Nina7777]

Hello there!

I just wanted to offer a bit of advice on feeding your clowns! I have 3 of them in my 29 gallon tank. Their tank mates are 2 HUGE bala sharks (which is why i am upgrading soon) 1 convict cichlid, and 1 red eye tetra.....leaving them not much opportunity to get their share of the food! I feed my fish flakes, plankton, meat tablets, shrimp pellets, and blood worms, and sometimes brine shrimp! Although all my other fish love all this stuff.....my clowns won't touch it! (don't know if they just don't have enough time, or if they don't like it) So what I decided to do, was go out and buy two vegetable clips, sea weed, and tubifex worms. In the morning I put a peice of seaweed in both clips and push them to the bottom where my clown gobble up all the seaweed in one of the clips (and my shark eats the other one) and at night i put two cubes of tubifex in each clip and push themboth down to the bottom. This allows my clowns to have their own clip and my other fish to have their own clip. and my clowns LOVE the tubifex worms to death!!!!!!!

I would try this if you clowns dont seem to wanna eat!