Why Is My Clown Loach Attaching Itself To Other Fish?

[benjay]

Hi Guys,

I have 2 Clown Loaches and recently the larger of the two has been trying to attatch itself to the side of one of my Silver Dollar's. What makes it really wierd is that its allways the same Dollar and always on its right hand side!!

Does anybody know whats happening here?

It really frustrates the Dollar and he tends to start chasing other fish after...

 

[Die_Grinder]

i have seen pleco's and sucking loach do that but never even heard of a clown loach doing it, strange

 

[The-Wolf]

Why Is My Clown Loach Attaching Itself To Other Fish?

I have 2 Clown Loaches

asked and answered.
clowns need to be in bigger groups than 2

 

[andy334]

Whilst not an expert on Clowns I have a few details that may help:

Clown Loaches are primarily community fish and, as the other post stated, they prefer to be in small groups rather then singularly or pairs. I have observed the "attaching" problem once before and an old friend (sadly long gone) suggested this was a bit of a physcological problem as the fish was missing the "community" environment (particularly evident in juveniles). I never had the chance to test this by adding more but it agrees with everything else I know about them.

When there are not enough Clowns they will seek out other fish to provide the community.

 

[Trance2006]

I had a problem like this once. The clown loach ios trying to consume the slime coat of the other fish; Just like how the siamese chine easer does