Advice on Clown Loaches Please???

[Adh]

I have 3 Clown loaches about 7inchs, they do not seem to come out from hiding, they also do not come out when i put food in the tank. Can anyone advise me on anything? are they ok? i am new to keeping fish and the tank was fully set up when i got it

[teach]

They are just being clown loaches. When I had mine they did the same thing, after time mine got more comfortable and came out more.

[Adh]

I have not changed their tank, its the same as the one they were in before, the first couple of nights they came out but they dont seem to bother at all now, also i dont know if they are feeding ok? they dont come out when i put the food in and it seems as though all the other fish are eating it.

[Irish2539]

What size tank are they in?

Try feeding them when the lights are out.... they love cucumber, pear, melon and zuchini.
Clowns can be pretty shy at first... I didnt see one of my clowns for a month, Now they are out all the time.

[promise]

clowns live in areas with low light, when the light is too bright they stay hiding and only come out when its darker, you could try dimming the light by tinting the hood where the light sits or put some floating plants in the tank so that dims out some of the light.
as irish says try feeding when the lights are out, they love love love water melon, cucumber, zuchini, but never leave the food in there for more than 24 hours, it will cause serious defects in the water parameters.
i have 2 smaller ones around 1.5 inches and they never come out! they are always hiding but they are getting braver and coming out for a little bit at a time and for longer periods. when they do come out and become secure and comfortable your going to have some great fish to watch, they are certainly characters to watch.

[Adh]

Thanks for all the advice, I will be trying it, I cant wait for them to start coming out lol maybe im slightly impatient lol. They are in a 170litre tank, they are a good size and look great but I cant show them off as they never come out lol

thumbs2:

[Gisela]

My group of 6 Clowns come out at daytime feedings, too. They are now over one year old and will go soon in a 125 gallon from the 55 gallon the are in now. I have also floating plants in and a lot of hiding places. I feed my fish 3 times a day smaller portions. They go absolutly nuts over Hikari carnivore pellets, which I put in for my south american bumblebee catfish. They also like zucchini and Daphnia.

[Lady Hobbs]

Mine were out and about all the time. But, I had a lot of floating plants, wood and stuff for them to hide in. They aren't into open areas and feel vulnerable in the open. Just make sure their hiding spots are large enough for them to get in and out easily. They tend to wedge themselves into places too small for them.

Start putting some cucumber slices in the tank for them......stick a fork in it so it will sink.

[Gisela]

Don't get the artificial decoratios which are open in the bottom. My clowns got stuck in one. After they didn't show up for 3 feedings I searched the whole tanks with no result. They crammed themselves in that ornament and couldn't get out by themselfs. I shook them out and that piece is now a nice decoration in my garden. They have now a big piece of real bogwood.

[Pleco380]

Loaches in general can get stuck in plastic plants. Before I upgraded to a larger tank and replaced the plastic plants with rocks and driftwood, a yoyo loach kept getting stuck in a plant. My 2 young clowns only came out at feeding time. But ever since I sold the 3 pictus catfish, they both are swimming and dancing up the glass all day. Sometimes they just get stressed. Mine are named Nemo and MacGyver. Macgyver always gets into trouble and finds a way to get out of it. He's a little thin though so I hope he's okay. Nemo is very healthy. Clown loaches get quite large though so you may want to think about getting a larger tank in the future. However, they do grow slowly.

[beast02]

One piece of advice I could give, after seeing it for myself, is maybe to increase your temperature if the other fish can take it. My 55 was set at 77 Fahrenheit, and my 3 loaches would come out and play in the morning when I would feed and then go back and hide for most of the day. Well today after noticing a few white spots on two of them, I decided to start bumping up the heat to nip the ich in the butt, and low and behold they've been out and about ALL day. Playing and giving my tigers a run for their money. My temp is at 82 right now and they seem to love it, they go right up to the heater and go up and down it then take off for other antics.

[Adh]

unfortunatley one of my loaches got stuck in the castle i had and died, i have taken it out now and planted plants, one of the loachs seems very happy and healthy and swims about all the time, but one seems to be hiding all the time still and does not come out at feeding time either. we have just added a baby clownloach now aswell lol :)

[BigMac]

You will find they find comfort in numbers.
The more loaches you have the more you will see them.