new with problems already

[lef22]

hi aquarists
i'm leff and have just started with a 200 litre aquarium.
i 've put together a nice rock formation and planted tree vallisneria in the background.On the second week i added my first six fish, a bette sp. , three clown loaches and two small catfish.The gay at the store told me to start off feeding them only once every tow days and so i did.In the morning of the third day though i found a terrible sight.The loaches were eating me bettas fins off!Now i have moved the betta in a bowl and will take hi m back for treatment.He has lost all his fins except for his small side ones.I am really troubled about the loaches and thinking about taking them back.The guy at the store said that there is probably one agressive loach and is instigating the other two.Don't know what to do
pls help

[Paw Broon]

A rogue loach? My tetra did the same and i was told the only way to sort it was to find out which one the rogue was and to get it out but these are not tetra and so the problem may be different. Hope you get it sorted and sorry about your betta that sounds quite a nasty one.

[robflanker]

Hey welcome to the AC!

Couple of quick pointers;
1) Clown Loaches get to be 36inches long, and will need a tank of above 560L in the long run. I dont know how big they are now, and a lot of keep them when they are little, but just so you know they shouldnt be in their long term.

2) What are the cat-fish? if they are corys, you might want to get another 4 - they are better in schools

3) 200L is a nice big tank so you have a lot of options! You might just need to adjust the stocking a bit

[Sharon]

A 36inch Clown Loach!!! What???!!!:hmm3grin2orange:Most will get below 12inches if you're lucky...they'll be fine in your tank for quite some time.

It is unusual for a Clown to do that...did you actually see him attacking the Betta...

[Lady Hobbs]

I was cracking up over the 36 inch loach. LOLOLOL More like, 8 to 12 inches in home tanks and those would be huge tanks and after many, many years.

I assume the "catfish" would be the common pleco. Those are generally simply referred to as catfish in petstores and corys are generally referred to as corys. Lef22, pleco are not the greatest fish to have, either. They get around a foot and are very dirty. Your loaches may not want to share their bottom space with big ol' catfish.

My loaches have never bothered anything but perhaps that Betta needs his own home. Could be the betta went after the loaches and the loaches defended themselves. Betta's are not a good fish for community tanks and do best in a 5-10 themselves with filter/heater.

I would rethink your entire stocking program and first get some fish in that tank that can cycle it for you.

[Northernguy]

Welcome to the Fabulous AC!:22:
Please check out the free e-book on the left! The thread on cycling in the beginner section will help you a lot too!

[Goodbye]

Welcome to the forum!!!!! :22:

[acbus]

Let to join with our now!

[robflanker]

Yah typo and just being dumb - sorry

[rich311k]

Welcome to AC!

[HorrorShowRot]

Welcome to AC hope you love it here:)