What to feed clown loaches

[Shawn]

I bought 3 clown loaches about 9 months ago when I had a snail problem.
They did a number on them and now they've been eating the reguluar pellet
and flake food I feed my other fish (mainly tetras, platy's etc). I also
notice they like to chew to the algae wafers I throw in occasionally for my
plecos.

However, last night when I was doing my bi-weekly cleaning, I was looking
down from above in the tank while vacuuming with my water python and I
noticed one of the clown loaches was literally paper thin side to side.
There's no meat on his bones at all. The other 2 look fine.

Is it that they're not getting the proper nutrition after all from the other
stuff and it's just showing on one more than the others ? Or maybe this one
has a parasite or something.

Any ideas ?

[Victor Martinez]

Shawn wrote:
> There's no meat on his bones at all. The other 2 look fine.

He might have "skinny disease", which I'm afraid is fatal. My CL love
bloodworms, give those a try.

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam here:
Email me here:

[Mary Burns]

My 3 clowns are in with 2 angels,12 platies,2 cories/ottos in 65g. They eat
frozen (thawed first)bloodworm,brineshrimp,tubeflex,krill,daphnia ,flake all
rotated. They adore interpret tablet food which I can break into small
pieces and put on the gravel. I find it's hard to get food past hungry
platies/angels. My clowns will swim up and get food as it arrives, but
appear to prefer eating lower down. I find adding food one side, high up and
my clowns know to come to the other and I add food lower down for them. It
took a while for me to get it right for them. There is a good loach site,
which recommends you feed clowns 3 times a day as they get bigger. It even
shows a tube being used to get food lower down for clowns.
"Shawn" > wrote in message
...
>I bought 3 clown loaches about 9 months ago when I had a snail problem.
>They did a number on them and now they've been eating the reguluar pellet
>and flake food I feed my other fish (mainly tetras, platy's etc). I also
>notice they like to chew to the algae wafers I throw in occasionally for my
>plecos.
>
> However, last night when I was doing my bi-weekly cleaning, I was looking
> down from above in the tank while vacuuming with my water python and I
> noticed one of the clown loaches was literally paper thin side to side.
> There's no meat on his bones at all. The other 2 look fine.
>
> Is it that they're not getting the proper nutrition after all from the
> other stuff and it's just showing on one more than the others ? Or maybe
> this one has a parasite or something.
>
> Any ideas ?
>

[blank]

algae tablets and cooked zucchini are favourites of my three chubby clown
loaches

[TYNK 7]

>Subject: Re: What to feed clown loaches
>From: Victor Martinez
>Date: 1/26/2005 5:45 P.M. Central Standard Time
>Message-id: >
>
>Shawn wrote:
>> There's no meat on his bones at all. The other 2 look fine.
>
>He might have "skinny disease", which I'm afraid is fatal. My CL love
>bloodworms, give those a try.
>
>--
>Victor M. Martinez

Ok..explain this "skinny disease" and what it really is.
Tanks. = )

[Victor Martinez]

TYNK 7 wrote:
> Ok..explain this "skinny disease" and what it really is.

In the loaches.com website they call it either skinny disease or wasting
disease. I think it's a bacterial infection that is pretty much
impossible to recover from. I haven't heard of any clown loach that had
it and survived. The only sign of it is that your loach starts getting
skinny and then dies.

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam here:
Email me here:

[Sarah Navarro]

Do you have the web address for the good loach site?


"Mary Burns" > wrote in message
...
> My 3 clowns are in with 2 angels,12 platies,2 cories/ottos in 65g. They
> eat frozen (thawed
> first)bloodworm,brineshrimp,tubeflex,krill,daphnia ,flake all rotated. They
> adore interpret tablet food which I can break into small pieces and put on
> the gravel. I find it's hard to get food past hungry platies/angels. My
> clowns will swim up and get food as it arrives, but appear to prefer
> eating lower down. I find adding food one side, high up and my clowns know
> to come to the other and I add food lower down for them. It took a while
> for me to get it right for them. There is a good loach site, which
> recommends you feed clowns 3 times a day as they get bigger. It even shows
> a tube being used to get food lower down for clowns.

[Mary Burns]

www.loaches.com Mary
"Sarah Navarro" > wrote in message
.net...
> Do you have the web address for the good loach site?
>
>
> "Mary Burns" > wrote in message
> ...
>> My 3 clowns are in with 2 angels,12 platies,2 cories/ottos in 65g. They
>> eat frozen (thawed
>> first)bloodworm,brineshrimp,tubeflex,krill,daphnia ,flake all rotated.
>> They adore interpret tablet food which I can break into small pieces and
>> put on the gravel. I find it's hard to get food past hungry
>> platies/angels. My clowns will swim up and get food as it arrives, but
>> appear to prefer eating lower down. I find adding food one side, high up
>> and my clowns know to come to the other and I add food lower down for
>> them. It took a while for me to get it right for them. There is a good
>> loach site, which recommends you feed clowns 3 times a day as they get
>> bigger. It even shows a tube being used to get food lower down for
>> clowns.
>
>

[TYNK 7]

>Subject: Re: What to feed clown loaches
>From: Victor Martinez
>Date: 1/27/2005 8:23 A.M. Central Standard Time
>Message-id: >
>
>TYNK 7 wrote:
>> Ok..explain this "skinny disease" and what it really is.
>
>In the loaches.com website they call it either skinny disease or wasting
>disease. I think it's a bacterial infection that is pretty much
>impossible to recover from. I haven't heard of any clown loach that had
>it and survived. The only sign of it is that your loach starts getting
>skinny and then dies.

What about feeding antibiotic flake?
I ask because it appears my lovely Claude may have this.
I've had Claude and Joaques for a while now. J. has always been more colorful
and robust. He's actually kind of a chub.
C. has always been not so colorful..not pale, just not as vivid as J.
Within the past 2 weeks Claude has become thin...where Joaques is still robust
looking.
I'm left wondering is this going to spread to J? Does it spread by predation or
just contact?
I have another large Clown on hold at my LFS because with this situation if
it's catchy then I would buy more than just the one and keep them all in
another tank (after quarantine), until Claude is either fine or gone. Same goes
for Joaques.
I am so upset about this. They were do healthy and robust for so long. They
came in the shop clean and have been for many months. They're best set Clowns
I've had. So friendly and are always begging for food with their heads right
out of the water.
I'd really hate to lose them both, but losing Joaques would hurt a little more,
as I am very attached to him. He's the big ham. As bad as the Angels and
Bettas..always has to have to his body right in front of my face when I'm
looking into the tank.
As of now, I am treating with antibiotic flake because I had no idea what I was
dealing with.
Oh...I had always though "wasting away" disease was a TB thing.
I know TB symptoms mimic several other diseases....so I guess I'm now off to do
some researching.
= p <---- Tynk pouting for my Claude.

[Dick]

On Wed, 26 Jan 2005 18:18:50 -0500, "Shawn"
> wrote:

>I bought 3 clown loaches about 9 months ago when I had a snail problem.
>They did a number on them and now they've been eating the reguluar pellet
>and flake food I feed my other fish (mainly tetras, platy's etc). I also
>notice they like to chew to the algae wafers I throw in occasionally for my
>plecos.
>
>However, last night when I was doing my bi-weekly cleaning, I was looking
>down from above in the tank while vacuuming with my water python and I
>noticed one of the clown loaches was literally paper thin side to side.
>There's no meat on his bones at all. The other 2 look fine.

I would consider that the "2 look fine" as encouraging. If it was a
tank condition problem or feeding problem, I would expect all 3 to
suffer.

Fish do get sick. Like people, they can live in the same home and
have different health. I got a shipment of 7 Clowns that all had Ich.
At the time I only had a 75 gallon community tank. I had no
medications. It took close to 2 weeks to get Ich medication. By that
time 5 of the 7 were really looking weak. I did the medication cycle,
but the 5 didn't look any better. I finally disposed of the 5. The
other 2 responded to the ich treatment so I kept them even though they
still had a few white spots. I now had some experience and with hind
sight, I realized none of the other 60 fish in the tank got the ich.
So I quit the medication and did some aggressive water changes. The 2
Clowns are with me today and there has never been another problem.

By the way, the dealer was very sorry. He confirmed he had a shipment
that had Ich and asked me to be patient. He had a new shipment, but
wanted to observe them rather than take the chance of sending any more
sick Clowns.
>
>Is it that they're not getting the proper nutrition after all from the other
>stuff and it's just showing on one more than the others ? Or maybe this one
>has a parasite or something.
>
>Any ideas ?
>

Can you isolate the one in a "hopital" tank?

dick

[Dick]

On 29 Jan 2005 15:13:01 GMT, (TYNK 7) wrote:

>>Subject: Re: What to feed clown loaches
>>From: Victor Martinez
>>Date: 1/27/2005 8:23 A.M. Central Standard Time
>>Message-id: >
>>
>>TYNK 7 wrote:
>>> Ok..explain this "skinny disease" and what it really is.
>>
>>In the loaches.com website they call it either skinny disease or wasting
>>disease. I think it's a bacterial infection that is pretty much
>>impossible to recover from. I haven't heard of any clown loach that had
>>it and survived. The only sign of it is that your loach starts getting
>>skinny and then dies.
>
>What about feeding antibiotic flake?
>I ask because it appears my lovely Claude may have this.
>I've had Claude and Joaques for a while now. J. has always been more colorful
>and robust. He's actually kind of a chub.
>C. has always been not so colorful..not pale, just not as vivid as J.
>Within the past 2 weeks Claude has become thin...where Joaques is still robust
>looking.
>I'm left wondering is this going to spread to J? Does it spread by predation or
>just contact?
>I have another large Clown on hold at my LFS because with this situation if
>it's catchy then I would buy more than just the one and keep them all in
>another tank (after quarantine), until Claude is either fine or gone. Same goes
>for Joaques.
>I am so upset about this. They were do healthy and robust for so long. They
>came in the shop clean and have been for many months. They're best set Clowns
>I've had. So friendly and are always begging for food with their heads right
>out of the water.
>I'd really hate to lose them both, but losing Joaques would hurt a little more,
>as I am very attached to him. He's the big ham. As bad as the Angels and
>Bettas..always has to have to his body right in front of my face when I'm
>looking into the tank.
>As of now, I am treating with antibiotic flake because I had no idea what I was
>dealing with.
>Oh...I had always though "wasting away" disease was a TB thing.
>I know TB symptoms mimic several other diseases....so I guess I'm now off to do
>some researching.
>= p <---- Tynk pouting for my Claude

How old and how big are your Clowns Tynk?

Please Tynk, keep us informed. I suspect us Clown lovers all worry
about our pets. I know I do.


dick

[Gill Passman]

"Shawn" > wrote in message
...
> I bought 3 clown loaches about 9 months ago when I had a snail problem.
> They did a number on them and now they've been eating the reguluar pellet
> and flake food I feed my other fish (mainly tetras, platy's etc). I also
> notice they like to chew to the algae wafers I throw in occasionally for
my
> plecos.
>
> However, last night when I was doing my bi-weekly cleaning, I was looking
> down from above in the tank while vacuuming with my water python and I
> noticed one of the clown loaches was literally paper thin side to side.
> There's no meat on his bones at all. The other 2 look fine.
>
> Is it that they're not getting the proper nutrition after all from the
other
> stuff and it's just showing on one more than the others ? Or maybe this
one
> has a parasite or something.
>
> Any ideas ?
>
>
I've been following this thread and also observing my Clowns at the same
time. I have 6 Clown loaches all bought from different batches from the 2
LFS's that I use. They are of different sizes - from 4" down to 1". On all
six I can now see the skeletal structure - the smaller ones had started to
"surface feed" as had one of the bigger ones. Since reading this I have now
put them on a diet of "Cat Fish Pellets" and "algae wafers" which they are
eating as if they have never fed before.

I'm hoping that this is a nutrition issue. In which case I only have myself
to blame. Also I hope that this is the case in your instance. I would hate
to lose my Clowns. Anyone who has owned these delightful fish knows how I
feel. At the moment I cannot believe that it is an infection/infestation
that has affected all of my Clowns - like you I hope we can come through
this.

Gill

BTW I lost one of the original batch 5 weeks ago...when I was convinced it
was a parasite case but the symptoms were entirely different - he went grey
and lost his joy of life and stopped feeding.

[Pete]

Dick > wrote in
:

>>I bought 3 clown loaches about 9 months ago when I had a snail
>>problem. They did a number on them and now they've been eating the
>>reguluar pellet and flake food I feed my other fish (mainly tetras,
>>platy's etc). I also notice they like to chew to the algae wafers I
>>throw in occasionally for my plecos.
>>
>>However, last night when I was doing my bi-weekly cleaning, I was
>>looking down from above in the tank while vacuuming with my water
>>python and I noticed one of the clown loaches was literally paper thin
>>side to side. There's no meat on his bones at all. The other 2 look
>>fine.

Hello, just noticed this post... I had the exact same thing with three new
clown loaches I brought. After a while I found one thin as a rail (other
two were fine).

It doesn't necessarily have to be any disease, it can just be a food issue
of what they do and don't like. These guys are hunters, snail eaters and
tend to like the real foods (live snails or frozen other foods) better than
the flake stuff... expecially after the shock of a move. I was feeding a
mix of Tubifix dried worm cubes (which the other two loaches ate) and
flakes and didn't pick up that while two loaches were eating the tubfix
worms one wasn't.

What I did to save the guy is I brought some frozen bloodworms (a genernal
fish fav) and after basically overfeeding the rest of the fish on the
regular good I thawed the blood worms and hand fed the loach. Difficult as
the other fish wanted in on the action (why I did the big feed first to
keep them away) and loaches are shy but with persistance I got him to eat
by moving very slowly and basically putting the blood worms right in his
face. Did this for about a week (one feeding a day) and then stopped hand
feeding but kept up with the bloodworms (would shove a bunch of them into
the loaches hiding area for all of them). After a while the skinny one
fleshed back out and also started to eat the dried tubifix worms like the
other two. It was amazing to watch his recovery

Been 4 years now and I still have all three... but that one is still the
smallest of the three but he's my fav :P

Pete.