I'm not sure if other loach owners have witnessed this as I was in shock when I witnessed my 4" clown with a rummynose's had in his mouth. I went to turn the tank lights off for the night when I noticed the clown chewing on something. I found this strange as I last fed them 5 hours ago and they had finished all the frozen bloodworms and what he had in his mouth looked huge.
On closer inspection it was a rummynose's head, as can be distinguished by the red head. I counted the school of rummys and 1 had gone missing since today.
Tank details - 360L, tank established for 2.5 years.
Just tested water parameters - No ammonia, No nitrite, Nitrate 20ppm, pH 6.2.
I'm not sure if the rummy had already been dead when the clown was eating him, but it was a pretty disturbing sight as I never pictured clowns eating other fish. I think what caused the death of this rummy as well as the other one I found this morning was either the stress caused by the constant swimming and darting around from the clowns and yoyos, or the yoyos/clowns might have been nipping at the rummies.
As a precaution, (I wanted to post this message first to see what others thought but decided to go ahead in case there are more casualties) - I have moved (10) half the school of rummies to my smaller 90L tank. I was hesitant at the start as I thought the tank was too short (2') to house rummies since they need wide open spaces to swim, but then I thought better be safe than sorry so took a punt.
The 90L tank has been established for 3 years and has 5 neons, 5 black neons and 4 cories. My only concern is the pH shock on the rummys as the 300L tank pH is 6.2, while the 90L tank pH is 7.2. I did adjust the rummys over 1 hour, so hopefully it wont be too bad.
Could someone please advise if what I've done is the right thing or if there is anything I could have / could still do better for the rummynose tetras?
In the worst case scenario, I would have to give away the rummynose tetras and cardinals from my big tank, but I don't get why before I added 8 yoyo loaches last week, the school of rummynoses (24) and cardinals (18 were healthy and fine, yet starting dropping like flies once I added the yoyos.
On closer inspection it was a rummynose's head, as can be distinguished by the red head. I counted the school of rummys and 1 had gone missing since today.
Tank details - 360L, tank established for 2.5 years.
Just tested water parameters - No ammonia, No nitrite, Nitrate 20ppm, pH 6.2.
I'm not sure if the rummy had already been dead when the clown was eating him, but it was a pretty disturbing sight as I never pictured clowns eating other fish. I think what caused the death of this rummy as well as the other one I found this morning was either the stress caused by the constant swimming and darting around from the clowns and yoyos, or the yoyos/clowns might have been nipping at the rummies.
As a precaution, (I wanted to post this message first to see what others thought but decided to go ahead in case there are more casualties) - I have moved (10) half the school of rummies to my smaller 90L tank. I was hesitant at the start as I thought the tank was too short (2') to house rummies since they need wide open spaces to swim, but then I thought better be safe than sorry so took a punt.
The 90L tank has been established for 3 years and has 5 neons, 5 black neons and 4 cories. My only concern is the pH shock on the rummys as the 300L tank pH is 6.2, while the 90L tank pH is 7.2. I did adjust the rummys over 1 hour, so hopefully it wont be too bad.
Could someone please advise if what I've done is the right thing or if there is anything I could have / could still do better for the rummynose tetras?
In the worst case scenario, I would have to give away the rummynose tetras and cardinals from my big tank, but I don't get why before I added 8 yoyo loaches last week, the school of rummynoses (24) and cardinals (18 were healthy and fine, yet starting dropping like flies once I added the yoyos.
