Escape Artist Clown Loach and Eating Habits - 12/20/2005
Seasons Greetings to the Crew!
<And to you, Steve!>
I discovered a small problem this evening that may require me to tear up my tank to rectify.  So before I dig in, I thought I'd check to see if anyone has any experience with the problem at hand.
<Alrighty, sounds like a plan.>
I have two large freshwater aquariums (650 gallons and 200 gallons) plumbed to a common 150 gallon sump filled with bio-balls.  
<Wow, can I move in?>
The sump feeds a Sequence pond pump that pushes the return through a Hayward pleated pool filter and UV filters before dividing the flow back to the two aquariums.  The large aquarium is home to a number of medium sized gold Severums, rose line barbs, rosy barbs, moonlight Gouramis, Juraparoids, and large Congo tetras.  The smaller aquarium is home to an assortment of small tetras - cardinals, rummy nose, red minors, harlequin, and penguins, as well as three large flower shrimp.  
<Sounds excellent.>
On Friday I added three large 5 inch clown loaches to the big aquarium.  
<You'll get a better effect with a few more - these schoolers put on great antics in groups.  And in your 650 gallon tank, I'd have no qualms recommending a few more!  Do please remember to quarantine, though, as ALL clown loaches are collected wild, and often bring parasites with them.>
Today I was shocked to find one of these loaches swimming in the smaller tetra tank.  
<Yikes!>
After thinking through the possibilities, it became obvious that the clown loach swam upstream through a return in the large aquarium until it found the divide leading to the smaller aquarium and followed the current through the 1.5" plumbing into the smaller aquarium.  
<Wow, what a trip....>
I understand that clown loaches enjoy eating snails and crustaceans and so am wondering how quickly I can expect them to make a meal of my three 3" flower shrimps.  
<Mm, I doubt the loach will harass the shrimp.  As long as they're not bite-sized, they should be okay, I think.>
The smaller aquarium is filled with large landscaping rock and numerous plastic plants and would represent a not-so-fun filled evening of tearing everything thing out of the tank to catch the crafty clown loach.  I would be happy to leave the clown loach in the smaller tank if the shrimp had a chance of surviving.
<For the loaches' schooling desires, better to get this fellow back into his school, and prevent a reoccurrence of his plumbing escapades.>
Who wins - clown loach or flower shrimp?
<For now, likely a draw.  I doubt the loach will have any interest at all.>
Thanks for your advice and continued contributions to the hobby.  You guys and gals are the best.
<And thank you for these kind words!>
Sincerely,  Steve in Minneapolis (current temp: 4 below zero)
<Yee-IKES!  I thought it was chilly at 40 in the Santa Cruz Mountains!  If you get snow, shovel a little extra for me, okay?  I sure do miss it.  Wishing you well,  -Sabrina>

Loaches and rams
Hello guys,
<And gal...Ananda here answering the freshwater questions tonight...>
I'm currently running a 46 gallon bow front freshwater aquarium.  A month ago, I developed a snail problem.  Snails had always been present, but not at a high level.  The snail population seemed to be growing exponentially.  I purchased a Yo-Yo loach to help control the population.  He's done exactly that.  There is a very small number of snails left in the tank.  I'm concerned he may not be getting enough to eat.  He doesn't seem to actively feed.  He's shown no indications of any problems, I would just like to know if I should buy any special foods to make sure he getting enough food.  
<Nope, these guys will eat just about anything, even coming up to the surface to eat. If he hasn't done that, he still has enough snails.>
I also have always been fascinated by gold rams.  I have a tank with small schools of Danios, platies, & Cory cats.  Assuming overstocking is not a problem, could gold rams (male/female) be an acceptable addition to my community set up? I know cichlids are very different fish with very different needs.  
<Platies prefer hard, alkaline water, with a pH of 7.2-7.8 (and possibly even higher in some cases.) Danios and Cory cats do well with neutral and slightly acidic water. Gold rams need soft, very acidic water, with a pH in the 5-6 range.>
Thanks for your advise.
Jeremy
<You're quite welcome. --Ananda>

My Dojo is hungry!
  Hello, I recently purchased what I know them as is Dojos, Long snake like with an otter personality, I believe the person at the fish store called them
Dojo Loaches?
    I need to know to know what to feed them.
Thanks
Bob
<One of my favorite fishes! The Dojo, or Weatherfish... please see here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/dojousepds.htm
They will gladly consume all types of fish foods. 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>

Dojo Loach resuscitation/Heimlich on a fish?? 7/12/05
Hi all at WWM,
<Howdy Ter>
The strangest thing happened to me yesterday with my Gold Dojo loach, and I just wanted to share it with you guys, and see if you had come across
anything like it before! He is my absolute favorite fish, such a character, so yesterday was a total fiasco.
<Oh?>
I was feeding my small tank (consisting of a female Betta, 2 silvertip tetras, and a Gold Dojo loach, and an Oto) as normal yesterday, when I
noticed my Gold Dojo was going after a large broken off chunk of Sinking wafer. He usually nibbles on these things, but today he seems to try to
swallow the whole thing.
<I get the same way around pizzas>
Anyways, as soon as the too big-piece-of-food fit into his mouth, it seemed like trouble. He was chomping wildly at first, and then I noticed his body
started convulsing a bit, like I'd never seen him before. I thought he might be choking, but then he swam away fine, like nothing happened.
All of a sudden, 2 minutes later, he started darting madly across and up and down the tank, faster and crazier than I had ever seen. He was spiraling
out of control, never stopping, unless he hit a rock or the substrate, and then he would land on his back, belly up. He did this a few times, and then
went still, belly up on the bottom of the tank, rapidly losing his color. Now I've heard that they go nuts before the weather changes, but this didn't
seem like the case, he was doing the same thing as my guppy when he died. So, by now my girlfriend and I are in panic, we reach in to the tank and
pull him out by hand, and place him in a cut off Arrowhead jug that I had just filled with tap water and I threw some Bio-Coat in a hurry in hopes of
conditioning it. By now he is pretty much unresponsive, limp, but occasionally twitching in my hand. I start doing everything I learned in CPR
class, but for a fish!: rubbing his belly back and forth, trying to open up his gills, pinching his throat lightly in hopes I can maybe expel the food.
I even tried blowing in to his mouth getting it to open up!!! All this time, he is getting more and more limp, taking maybe one or two breaths.
This goes on for maybe about 5 minutes (in my panic I really don't know though) when I had basically given up hope and thought he was dead. He was
laying belly up in my hand, totally limp. Then, my girlfriend yells at me to try putting him in the water, so not knowing a better alternative, I put my
hand in the jug, and suddenly, I noticed he turned on his side, and he starts breathing!!! Totally to our surprise and unconfirmed relief, he
gradually gets upright by himself and keeps on breathing in our quarantine jug.
<Yay!>
So we keep watch over him for the next hour, and he just lays there still, continually breathing, just resting on the bottom. Little bubbles even
occasionally pop out of his gills. We are so ecstatic by now that we cut the bottom out of another jug, poke holes in it and stick it in our main tank as
a temporary makeshift sanctuary for him. By the time we put him back in the tank, he has started squirming a bit more. Now, its the next morning, and I
see him making his way around the sanctuary jug, swimming up to the surface, and hobbling around.
Anyways, I know this is probably just the beginning of the battle, because he must have endured an amazing amount of stress from the whole ordeal and
possibly some internal damage from me rubbing his stomach and gills. He seems to be getting more and more energetic, but I put a dose of Melafix
into the tank after this happened to stave off any strange infections, and I also had a dose of Bio-Coat and Amquel+ that I put in the day before doing a
regular 25% water change. Is there anything else I can do for him during this time??
<Mmm, nothing more I would do>
Would aquarium salt be a good addition to help the healing process???
<Actually no... the Tetras and Oto don't "like it">
(and would this be ok for a tank with Tetras, a female Betta, live plants, an Oto, and a couple ghost shrimp??)  
This is definitely one of the weirdest things to happen to my fish, so I just wanted to share this experience with you guys and see if you had come
across anything like it before! Also if you had any advice as to what else I can do for him, and when I can put him back along with his fellow tankmates.
Ill definitely keep a close eye on him for the next couple days.
Take care,
Terry
<I'd return the fish to the main tank... likely better water quality there. Bob Fenner>