Strange Behavior From My Pakistani Loach

[Neo8223]

Hey all. I have had a pakistani loach in my tank for about 2 months and the other day added a plec. Since then, it has been trying to burrow into the gravel and jump everywhere it can. At the start i thought it was just eating a few pest snails as i saw it devouring 1 the other day in the same manor. but it does this sooo often now that i have no idea what its doing. (unless its developed a taste for a snail only diet which would be perfect ) Its still a baby, (like 1.5 inches) but it keeps me awake at night seeing that its in my bedroom. Its 1:30 at night and i can hear it now lol. The tank light is on from 9am till about midnightish to allow as much photosynthesis as possible. there have been no deaths in the past 4 months and that was due to old age.

Do you think that it is in danger or that it needs a bigger tank, or is this normal behavior.

I have 5 others in another thank that are about 3 inches. They do not dig themselves into the ground at all!

nitrites and ammonia levels are at 0. Temperature is ALWAYS at a constant 27 C. The tank does not rely on air stones, instead, it relies upon a pretty heavily planted tank with CO2 pumped through. Its pretty small holding 2.7 gallons and being 12*8*8 inches. It will outgrow the tank in 2 months time anyhow and be put in the 72 Gallon tank after.

Any comments on this will be most appreciated. I dont want to be harming a fish if i can help it.


Thanx
neo...

 

[millym]

hi
we've seen lots of mad behaviour over the years from our 2 pakistani loaches from swimming in figure 8's up & down in a corner for literally hours & hours,to nosing gravel into huge piles in the tank, doing a bit of gardening is also a favourite loach passtime & also as you've said nosing around in the gravel - sometimes i see their tails stuck up in the air & their nose is right down to the glass at the bottom of the tank.im sure its normal loach behaviour esp as your tank parameters are normal. loaches can also jump & skip across the top of the water as well, we had a period of not having a tank lid & we could hear them skipping across the top of the water night after night - to the point where both me & husb got up separately several times through one night convinced we'd find a loach on the floor........ we got fed up quickly & rushed off to get some plexiglass to cover the top. loaches will also attempt to swim up/down filter inlet outlet pipes so make sure theyre covered. we lost one of our first pakistani loaches like this, he was teeny & used to swim against the current of the outflow for hours ...........we thought oh he'll never do it!! till he did one night & died (yes we felt terrible ) one of our loaches we have now unknown to us used to hide in the outflow nozzle of our internal fluval filter, i discovered it one day when id turned the filter off for to move a plug & then turned it on...........out shot a little loach like a bullet, i dont know who was more surprised him or me

your lights are on for quite a long time, everyones different but usually 10hrs is more normal also prob more natural for the fish. im surprised you dont have an huge algae problem with lights on for 13 hrs, i know its doesnt really help photosynth but have you thought of getting some moonlights for your tank, can get them cheap on ebay & they look great. our loaches seem a lot more active in the moonlight.

also if you have a loach like the pakistani ones they really need to be in groups best 3+, we only have 2 as dont have the space & are in the process of getting a loach tank set up so will be getting some more. can you get your loach a friend of his own kind?? will make him much happier. im sure a little loach that size will be ok in that tank for the short term only though they grow quite big, our biggest is now about 5 1/2 inches & the other 5 inches in size, they grew to this size quite quickly & now it seems to have slowed down a lot. our loaches are around 3+ yrs old (i think - rusty memory)

we thought about 3 months ago we were going to have to rehome our loaches (sadly) as one of them had become quite aggressive towards our other fish, they always did give a sleeping barb a short chase every now & again but this was sustained especially towards a large female swordtail we had ( she was bigger than the biggest loach ) since our swordie sadly died giving birth ( we'd moved out of the main tank to give her some peace from the loach )the loach has calmed right down, maybe it was a size/dominance issue, & we never see them chasing anything else now apart from eachother. thankfully cos when it came to the crunch we couldnt bear for them to go. great characters.

 

[Neo8223]

Cool. Yea, i do have a bit of an algae problem lol. My tank could happily take a few extra fish even though theoretically it would be WAY overstocked. Its actually overstocked atm but due to the water parameters and use of lots of plants, CO2, O2 from plants and layout of the tank, its capable of supporting a lot more fish. I guess i'll get another 1 2morro (or maybe have a look later at my local pet store)

My loach used to also swim against the glass non-stop for like 1 hour, although he seems to have stopped doing that.

When i last set up my old tank, my clown loaches used to actually live inside the internal filter and became nocternal. When i was cleaning the filter 1 day, i was amazed when i saw 1 in there as i took it apart. It took a very long time to train them to come out of a daytime.

Thanks for the in depth answer you gave me, it was very helpful now that i know its not doing anything harmful to itself or others.

 

[rob newland]

Yup this is perfectly normal behavious for pakistani loaches. Many also "sunbathe" - lying on their side for a while.

 

[millym]

yes i should have mentioned that too..........they lie on their sides loafing around a lot of the time & sometimes ours can be seen lying completely upside down on their spines..........doesnt look very comfy to me