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| FAQs About Clown Loach
Foods/Feeding/Nutrition
Related Articles: Loaches, Dojos/Weatherfish,
Related FAQs: Clown
Loaches,
Loach Feeding, Clown Loach Identification,
Clown Loach Behavior,
Clown Loach Compatibility,
Clown Loach Selection,
Clown Loach Systems,
Clown Loach Disease, Clown Loach
Reproduction, Loaches 1, Loaches 2,
Loach Identification,
Loach Behavior,
Loach Compatibility,
Loach Selection,
Loach Systems, Loach Disease,
Loach Reproduction, |
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Shrimp pellets. Same sorts of
random questions re clown loach feeding, new alias 12/10/07
Hi, I recently bought shrimp pellets for my clown loaches and they are not
eating it. I'm really worried and I don't want it to starve. Should I put them
in a separate tank and introduce them to the pellets or will they soon learn
that it is food? Thanks for all your help crew.
~McMan
<Greetings. Do remember Clown loaches are primarily nocturnal, and won't eat
during the day. At least initially, put food items in when the lights are out
and leave the room so it is nice and quiet. The loaches will fed then.
Newly-introduced Clowns are very shy, and if you don't have at least 5-6
specimens in your tank, they will always be extremely nervous and shy. They're
schooling fish, and when in a too-small group are terrified of every noise and
shadow. If you want to see them feed (and who doesn't) give the food in the
early morning and late in the evening, when their body clocks say "feed me!". Do
also use a variety of foods. If your fish don't like shrimp pellets, try
something else, such as Hikari algae wafers, tinned peas, wet frozen bloodworms,
or carnivorous catfish pellets. A varied diet is the key to good health. Some
fish simply don't like food item X, and if that's the case here, forget about
them and use something else. Cheers, Neale.>
Loaches and worms... Logan by
any other name... fdg. again 12/5/07
Hi, how do you feed clown loaches worms without other fishes eating it?
Thanks for all your help and advice.
<Christopher, don't bother with the worms. Waste of time. Just go with
good-quality catfish pellets and algae wafers, in equal amounts, at night.
Clowns feed at night, your other fish likely don't. Repeat as required, adding
suitable veggies like tinned peas and Sushi Nori and cucumber to the mix
periodically. Clowns will thrive on this sort of diet. Cheers, Neale.>
... Hi, which worms are
nutritious and cheap? FW fdg.... 12/5/07
<Contradiction in terms. Nutritious, safe food by definition is more
expensive than useless, disease-risky food. If you're talking about all-round
value for money, it's hard to argue with (wet) frozen bloodworms. Most fish love
them. All live foods come with some degree of risk, with the possible exception
of brine shrimp, but essentially they're a gimmick for 95% of the freshwater
fish sold. We use them because it's fun, not because the fish need them. So if
money is an issue, skip live food and concentrate on nutritious frozen and
prepared foods.>
About how much are they?
<Over here in England, around £2-3 per package.>
Also, how many and how often should I feed my fishes?
<I use one block (about a tablespoon of worms, I guess, when thawed out) for a
busy 180 litre community tank PLUS two lightly stocked 30 litre tanks. Per day.
In other words, not much food is required. Far less than inexperienced aquarists
often suppose.>
I have 5 danios, 2 swordtails, 1 platy, 2 balloon platy, 3 loaches, and 1
Bristlenose Pleco that live in a 50 gallon tank.
<None of these fish *need* bloodworms. Flake plus pellets will do for all of
them, and the Platies, Plec, and Loaches will further appreciate (REQUIRE!)
algae-based foods for good health, such as Algae wafers.>
Last, how do I take care of the worms and is it easy to breed them without
having to buy another 50 gallon or so tank?
<Don't bother.>
Thanks for your advice and tips.
<Cheers, Neale.>
Clown loaches and mealworms,
fdg. 11/28/2007
Hi again, I was wondering, how do I feed clown loaches since they are bottom
dwellers? I put some cucumbers in and I do not know how to feed it mealworms.
Since mealworms do sink, will they be able to find it? However, I have like
glass, rock substrates and not sand so will they still be able to find it? Also,
is cucumber and other veggies along with mealworms and perhaps maybe some
crickets a good enough diet for them? And I have snails too, how many snails do
they eat and will they eat big snails or just small ones? Last, can clown
loaches even eat mealworms? Thanks for all your help. Great site....
<Greetings. Don't bother with the mealworms. Clowns do just fine on a mix of
vegetable foods plus good quality pellets. Yesterday I happened to visit the
home of Marge, a rather famous Clown Loach who lives with 50 of her kind in a
gigantic aquarium. Her diet is almost entirely pelleted foods of various types,
and she's doing great! So just get a nice mix of algae, catfish and carnivore
pellets and use these alongside the vegetables. Cheers, Neale.>
Loaches, clowns, fdg.
11/29/07
Hey guys, I was wondering, can clown loaches eat mealworms and koi pellets?
Also, will they eat at night or day? And will they go to the surface to eat or
will they eat at the bottom when their food drops? Thanks for all your help.
Logan
<Hello Logan. Clown Loaches will eat just about anything. But your question
should really be "are mealworms and koi pellets a proper diet for my fish" and
the answer here is definitely a "maybe". Neither of these foods is a good idea
as anything other than an occasional treat. The healthiest diet for Clown
Loaches is a mix of green foods (like tinned peas and Sushi Nori, neither of
which cost much at all) and good quality catfish pellets. Clowns adore shelled
invertebrates of all types, including small shrimps and snails. So a bag of
mixed frozen seafood can be picked up on your next grocery trip and chopped up
as required to provide tasty treats once or twice a week. A mixed diet like this
will be healthful, inexpensive, and convenient. As for your other questions.
Clowns are somewhat nocturnal, but in aquaria seem happy to feed early in the
morning and also in the evening. They tend to be dozy during the daytime and are
best left to snooze then. They feed almost entirely from the substrate. Ideally,
the tank will have sand not gravel, and they will happily plough through the
sand finding particles of food with their little whiskers. Because they are
bottom feeders, it's easiest to keep them only with midwater fish, so that
anything that falls to the bottom is left to the Clowns; hence the usual
recommendation to mix them with things like Barbs, Silver Dollars and Australian
Rainbowfish rather than cichlids or catfish that might compete with them.
Cheers, Neale.>
Re:... LOACHES!!!... more
eating... the very accommodating Neale 11/30/07
Hiya, I just wanted to make sure that clown loaches could eat mealworms,
crickets, carrots, and cucumber. Also, do you have a really good care sheet for
clown loaches that is really informative? Thanks for all your help.
Logan
<Greetings. Clowns will eat the things mentioned, but none of them should be
anything other than a treat, and definitely not a staple diet. Clown Loaches
feed primarily on worms, crustaceans and soft plant material in the wild. Things
like bloodworms, earthworms, shrimps, prawns, tinned peas, Sushi Nori, and
cooked spinach all make better food items than any of the things you have
listed. In addition, Clowns will do extremely well on a mix of good-quality
catfish pellets plus algae wafers of the sort fed to Plecs. We have a whole
section on Clown Loaches which I hope you've read. Start here --
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/cobitids.htm
-- and follow the various links. But, in brief, Clown Loaches are easy to keep
provided you [a] have a tank measured in the hundreds of gallons and [b] are
keeping them in groups of at least 3 and ideally 6+. If you can't answer YES to
both of those statements, then you probably (almost certainly) shouldn't be
keeping Clown Loaches. Adult Clown Loaches easily get to 20-30 cm in captivity.
They are also intensely social, and for that reason you need a massive amount of
space as well as filtration if you want to keep them properly. Probably 95% of
the Clown Loaches sold in aquarium stores are taken home by people who really
have no business keeping them. Being hardy, these loaches often survive for
quite a few years, but they are never happy and mostly skulk about never
reaching their full potential in terms of size or colouration. I hope this
helps, Neale.>
Clown loaches... fdg./nutr.
11/26/07
Hi, I was wondering, can clown loaches feed on snails and turtle pellets and
koi pellets for their lives or not? Also, I have many snails, will he eat them
all in one day or will there be a cycle where there are uneaten snails that
reproduce and have a "life time" supply of food for the clown loach. Thanks for
all your help.
<No, you can't feed Clown Loaches on just that diet. While they are
opportunists, and snails do indeed form part of their diet, they are somewhat
herbivorous in the wild. So on top of the foods listed, you'd need to add a
significant amount of algae- and plant-based foods. Plec foods (algae wafers and
pellets) are a good start, but also use things like tinned peas, Sushi Nori,
etc. Please see our article on Clown Loach feeding, here
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/clnlchfdg.htm . As for the snails in
the tank, Clown Loaches using eat them all. Burrowing snails like Malayan
Livebearing Snails might survive, but otherwise they'll all be gone. Please also
remember Clowns are *schooling* fish and it is very cruel to keep them singly as
you seem to be doing. Three is the minimum number any responsible aquarists will
keep them in. If you don't have space for three Clown Loaches, you don't have
space for Clown Loaches at all. Cheers, Neale.>
Rail-thin clown loaches
8/24/07
Hi Guys,
Tried to post my question on your forums but got a 'servlet error' I think was
what it said. I think you have a very informative website which I enjoy and I'm
hoping you can shed some light on this problem with my loaches. I can't believe
I've found almost nothing written about this problem. On another website, I
found one other person who had posted the same question and no one had an answer
for her.
Here's what I'm experiencing: I'm losing about 1 clown loach every 2 months.
They get VERY skinny and bony. I'll probably lose my 3rd one tomorrow and he is
paper thin all the way up to the back of his head! Until today, he's acted
perfectly normal except for the skinniness, now he is laying on his side moving
infrequently just as the other two I lost had done.
I've always had 3 loaches at a time and whenever I've lost one, the other two
had looked perfectly healthy. There doesn't seem to be any pattern with length
of time in my tank before they get paper thin and die. It seems to strike
randomly.
One thing I've noticed is that within a couple weeks introduction into my tank,
my loaches seem to darken and maybe lose just a little fullness in their body.
They seem to go from the typical dark gray stripes you see in pet stores to jet
black stripes.
55 gallon tank
20 community fish
Temp: 77
ph usually about 7.2
I do 15% water changes every two weeks and my water has been perfect (0 ammonia,
0 nitrites and nitrates) every time I test it.
I have a variety of 15 live plants and I feed once/day - usually a combination
of flake food and frozen blood worms.
I'd appreciate any ideas you may have! Unless I can correct this, I don't think
I'll buy anymore loaches and will just wait for the 2 remaining healthy ones to
die.
Paul
<Hello Paul. Clown loaches aren't hardy fish and don't prosper many retailers'
tank, and my guess is that they have what hobbyists call "wasting disease". This
is caused either by an internal bacterial infection or else gut parasites of
some sort, such as worms or flukes. Either way, it won't get better by itself.
The problem for you is that Clown loaches respond rather badly to medications,
so you need to approach treatment somewhat gingerly, keeping an eye out for
unusual behaviours such as gasping at the surface and if required acting
accordingly. Ideally, confirm with the manufacturer that whatever drug you are
using is Clown loach safe. Antibiotics should be fine, but things with copper
and formalin tend to be tricky. Anyway, in this instance I'd treat first for
internal bacteria, and once that's done, treat for worms (on the rationale that
bacterial infections tend to be more immediately life threatening than
parasites). Make sure you remove carbon from the filter while treating the fish.
Also, step up your water changes (once the courses of medications are done). 50%
weekly is about right for Clown loaches. More broadly, keep in mind all the
basic things about Clowns: they're schooling fish, they like water a bit on the
warm side (25-30C). They're substantially herbivorous, and so you need to
provide things like tinned peas, spinach, algae wafers, Sushi Nori and so on
rather than just meaty foods. Like all loaches, lots of oxygen is essential. One
last thing: if you find the Clown loaches from one retailer keep dying on you,
it might be a "bad batch". Buy them from another retailer next time. Not all
retailers are equal when it comes to caring for their livestock. Cheers, Neale.>
Clown loaches won't eat 8/9/05
Help!
<Hey Jeff! I did see you called...>
I have a 30 gal tank with three large clown loaches, about 6 yrs old. The tank
also had a Kissing Gourami but this fish died a couple of weeks ago. It died
slowly, it stopped eating and grew thin. Tried treating in in another tank with
Maracyn II but this did not help. Now the loaches have stopped eating and they
hide most of the day. What can I do?
Regards,
Jeff Hulett
<Start a series (daily) of a few gallon water changes... and try not to worry...
these fish can go a very long time w/o eating... I recall your message said your
Corydoras had spawned again (a good sign that your overall water quality is not
off)... Likely the loaches are "going through some changes" with the warmer
weather... will be fine in a week or two. Bob Fenner>
Growing Clown Loaches
Hi Bob!
<Hello Mohammad>
This is Ahmed from Pakistan. I have 3 clown loaches in my 5 feet tank. 7 Bala
sharks, 1 rainbow shark, 1 paradise Gourami are the tank mates of my clown
loaches. I have 2 questions from u concerned with my loaches. Firstly what food
should I offer to my loaches to attain maximum size in the minimum time n how
many times in a day should I feed my fish?
<Clown loaches will eat most any type of foods that make their way down to the
bottom of the tank, but should be offered some high/er protein rations daily...
worms of all kinds (even chopped up if large), insect larvae, shrimps... sinking
pellets are good if high quality. Best to feed them twice per day... And you
likely know these are very long-lived fishes. I know of some in captivity for
more than thirty years>
I serve floating pellets to my fish. Though I know that they (clown loaches)
grow pretty slow. Secondly when I see my loaches from a greater distance they
don't hide but when I reach near to aquarium they float just like a bullet n
hide in a drift wood like a flash. Are these fishes shy in nature? Thanks Bob.
<Do look into and use some sinking foods as well... keep your tank covered (to
prevent jumping), keep up regular water changes (weekly) and you'll be surprised
how quickly your loaches will grow. Bob Fenner>
This Clown's Not Joking
Hey Crew, <Hello! Ryan with you>
I recently had to shut down my 75gall saltwater tank because it is too big/heavy
for my new apartment. <Sorry to hear> To ease the pain of this loss, I
purchased a small 5 gallon Hex. Eclipse system for my dresser. Cycled the tank
for 3 weeks w a platy. The plan was/is to plant the tank nicely and put a nice
Betta in there (of course got a show quality fish from Canada to be shipped next
week!). Also wanted to get one Corydoras cat to keep the bottom
clean. Here is the problem/mistake I made ALREADY. I hadn't dealt
with freshwater fish for a long long time and thought I knew "enough"
to do this w/out reading. If I had stuck to my 2 fish/plant plan I think I would
have been ok. But when I went to get my Corydoras 2 days ago.....I came home w/ a
Clown Loach instead. I thought "they're nicer and serve the same
purpose." Wrong....<At least you didn't make me tell you!>...I
decided to read AFTER the fact and see that it won't fit in my tank for long and
needs to be in groups of 3 or more. <I have seen this fish well over 8
inches> And I'm starting to wonder....do they even scavenge??? <Not in the
way a true scavenger does> I've fed him 2x and while he gets excited, he
doesn't seem to find the food as it sinks to the bottom. Will he find the food
at night on the bottom?? <Yes> Secondly, will this guy be ok by himself or
does he NEED to be in groups. <he needs to be returned, he will die in your
setup within a few months.> Thirdly...should I just bring him back
or give him away?? <Bring him back, stick you your initial plan! It
was a good one. See ya, Ryan>
Clown Loach with Distended Stomach (05/29/03)
<Hi! Ananda here this morning...>
One of my clown loaches, "he's" only about 2.5" so still young,
suddenly developed a heavily distended belly. The fish is otherwise
healthy and has been, swimming around, eating voraciously. I did drop
a pea in the tank earlier in the day.
<One of my clown loaches got rather bloated-looking once. I tried peas, but
they weren't interested. I did some reading and found that it might have been
their diet of mostly dry (and freeze-dried) foods. I took my bloated clown loach
and put him in a hospital tank with one teaspoon of Epsom salts per five gallons
of tank water. The next two days, I added another teaspoon each day, so I had a
tablespoon of the Epsom salts per five gallons of tank water. I then fed the
clown loach treats like frozen/thawed bloodworms, live blackworms, and even a
few Mysis shrimp. In about a week, my clown loach looked like his more slender
self. I did do a daily 5%-10% water change, adding back enough Epsom salt to
keep the level up.>
But I also removed another clown loach from the tank that hadn't eaten in at
least a week or two, and was "wasting away".
<What are you feeding them?>
All other parameters in the 30G tank are fine: ammo, nitrite, nitrate all at 0. UV
sterilizer running fine. Other mates are 3 male rainbows not quite
full grown, 6 cardinal tetras, 3 albino pristellas, a Rubbernose pleco and two
baby dwarf Bristlenose (both under 2").
<Hmmmm. Depending on what kind of rainbows you have, I think you are either
pushing the limits or passing them on stocking this tank.>
Any idea what is with my clown loach's tummy and if I should be worried?
<If it isn't just bloat, it may be parasites. If that's the case, I'd suggest
Metronidazole, at half dosage for double the duration.>
Or did he just swallow half of the pea (it broke in half upon entering the tank)
and it is showing (seems unlikely to me)?
<If the swelling is visible for more than a few hours, it's not just an
undigested pea... --Ananda >
Re: Clown Loach with Distended Stomach (05/30/03)
<Ananda here again>
Thanks. I think it was something "he" ate! Looks
fine now (and did yesterday too). Probably, he can't believe he ate
the WHOLE THING!
<In other words, "Clown loach go >burp!<" ... Thanks
for following up with the good news... --Ananda>
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