wrote:

Hi - I'm a VERY amateur aquariast. My wife & I bought a house with a
tank built into the wall, and the past six months have been a crash
course. We've got two angels, two clown loaches, a couple black
mollys, a host of tetras, and an algea-eater I've only seen a handful
of times.

The clown loaches are by far my favorite fish in the tank. When we
first moved in, we didn't see much of them - that was for like the
first couple of weeks only. Then they were always out, chasing each
other around, exploring, etc. Always front and center.

The other night, my wife pointed out that she hand't seen the loaches
in awhile. As I thought about it, I hadn't either. The past couple of
days I've been watching closely - they don't come out even for
feeding. For awhile, I feared they were dead inside one of their caves
(a large log with openings). But today, I was using a flashlight to
see inside the caves, and I could see one of their tails. It was
moving, so I know that at least one is alive.

Why would their behavior change so drastically and suddenly? We
recently had a high-PH event (ran out of PH- and the store we use was
on back order), but that's long past and thing have been back to
normal for awhile. That's the only factor I can think of that could
have impacted their behavior (all of the other fish seem unaffected -
it only got to about 7.5).

Any help for this blooming newbie?

Matt


Hi Matt,
I too am a newbie. Keeping fish gets easier as time goes and one
learns. I've been keeping community fish since 2002. You have gotten
some good feed back so far. I'll add what worked for my clowns and me.

The following Is info I got from discussions here on the groups. This
info worked for my setup, things may be different for your setup.

General Tropical fish keeping; Unless you are breading fish,
Tropical fish, in general, will adjust to the pH that comes from your
tap (unless you have something "really" weird). Tropical fish do better
in a stable pH, rather than a pH that is spot-on occasionally. My clowns
live at 7.6. The trick here is "regular water changes", with gravel vac
of course. Water changes weekly or every other week, depending on the
fish load, seems typical, every other week works for me. I do buffer my
water with a bag of crushed corral.

On how to get Clown Loaches to come out; They need to feel
comfortable. The recommendation I got was, lots of active fish in the
tank. I think someone referred to them a dither fish. Yup, for me it
worked. The Loaches, that are in my trust, are out all the time. I think
they may hide and sleep while I'm at work (they really do like to sleep
and hide). But when I'm home, they are out and about. Though it was 2
years before things really settled in.

This is my setup; 75 gal US tank. 5 clown loaches, the largest is 5
inches ("standard length" (SL), doesn't count the tail fin). The
smallest is now 3 inches SL. The other inhabitancy of the tank include,
3 adult rainbow fish, 8 black skirt tetra, 12 Rummy nosed Tetra, 3 Zebra
danios, 2 SAE, 3 Oto's, 1 Rubber nosed Pl*co. No live plants.

Yes my tank bio load is over maxed, So I built a sump filter. But, a
75 gal tank is good for 76 inches of adult fish if the filter you have
is rated for it, and you do your regular water changes. So 3 to 5
clowns and enough dither fish should be doable with a sufficiently rated
hangon filter.

Your tank will get easier, more fun and enjoyable, as time goes on.

Here is a web page that used to get recommended here all the time for
general tropical fish keeping, and I still visit there frequently.

http://www.thekrib.com/

And a great web page dedicated to loaches.

http://www.loaches.com/

Too, If you google back through all the fish related groups, there is
a wealth of info, from very knowledgeable folks, for fish keepers "from
beginner to staunch breeder"

What does your setup consist of? Tank size? Plants? fish? Filter?
local water?


HTH, and All the Best of luck to you!!!

Paul