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Hi, I have 3 Clown Loach's in my Juwel Rekord 120 Fish tank, one is about 12 years old and i moved him from my other fish tank to this one then got two mates for him...

These were only small but one is still about 2 inchs the other ones shot upto about 4inchs so only about .5 of an inch smaller then my older one!!

The prob seems to be occasionaly they fight each other and make clicking noises, and the black strips go grey, anyone else experienced this???

Here is a good resource. Clicking and graying out are common during their squabbles.

Is there anyway to reduce conflicts? what causes them, i thought they were timid fish?

I wouldn't worry about it. Its just what they do. Its apart of their natural dominance behaviour and it causes absolutely no harm to the fish. I personally enjoy watching them do their thing.

If you have enough room, add some more. Thus the "agressiveness" can be divided over all members of the group. As said before, this behaviour is really harmless.
I wouldn't call them timid, but again, when you have more individuals, they feel more confident to explore their tank.
About their noises: sometimes it seems like the glass is cracking. A sound I had to get used to......

Marc van Arc wrote: About their noises: sometimes it seems like the glass is cracking. A sound I had to get used to......

I love the silly squabbles of the clowns! Mine hide in various crannies late in the day, which can make them look timid, I guess, but in the morning they dance till I feed them, then they squabble, click, grey out and generally carry on.

I have four, six would be better. Paul, try feeding snails from aonther tank. THAT is really comical to watch. Wonder why they call them clowns?

troi

A jewel 120 is just a mere 120 liters....

too small even for just 1 Clownloach, let alone a group....

I'd trade them for a small Botia-species (striata or the nice looking dario) or I'd get a BIG tank.

these things reach 1 foot in length.
not often in captivity; but when cared for properly they still reach 15-20 cm at least (6-8").
then add the shoaling behaviour (best way is at least 5, the more the merrier), and you need a 400 liter/100G tank at least.

sidguppy wrote:A jewel 120 is just a mere 120 liters....
these things reach 1 foot in length.
not often in captivity; but when cared for properly they still reach 15-20 cm at least (6-8").
then add the shoaling behaviour (best way is at least 5, the more the merrier), and you need a 400 liter/100G tank at least.

Yes, not a small fish but take a long time to reach max size. Mine current batch are about four inches, body, with tail they might push 6 inches. I have seen them at somewhere between 12 and 14 inches at about 14 years old. Large tank--1000 gal. The S. decorus in there must have been a foot long! Well, not quite, but a heck of a lot larger than my adult decorus.

My loach and catfish tank, BTW, was 100 us gal, now 125 us gal. Uh, a 120 liter tank ain't gonna house too many clown loaches for long!

In shoaling, have you noticed the "odd man out" thing? It seems that every time I have loaches, which is always even nubmers, all but one will tend to hang together. One fish which I dub "wrong way" strays from the pack. Don't know if it is a different fish each time, tho.

troi

ah, check.you DO have a nice sizable tank. the Gallons/liters thingy........

my mistake


heh heh, I'm familiar with the "odd man out" syndrome; that's why I tend to keep social fish in UN-even numbers; except with pairbonding bi-parentals, and solitaires wich I want to breed.

so there's 5 Synodontis polli, 7 S petricola, 7 Corydoras robinae, 3 Amphilius, 3 Mochokiella's, 3 Sturisoma's, 7 ishmaeli's etc in my collection.

but "evens" like 4 Lophiobagrus brevispinis, 2 L cyclurus, 2 Phyllonemus, 2 Ancistrus, 2 Hemichromis, 2 Neolamprologus etc

or with very expensive fish; but then I need a "spare" of both sexes; hence 4 granulosus

my rule-breakers are in bigger groups; once you pass six; even oddballs are "in". the smallest of such groups is 6 Pim pictus, these are constantly on the move and I cannot tell them apart wich is weird, since I know almost all my fish by "face". other "even numbered" groups are much bigger; Danio pathirana, Tropheus spp, Limia spp

before you wonder about this unholy mix; I have a lot of tanks.....

Sid, your mistake is on the latest post. The original post specifies a Juwel Rekord 120, which is a 120 liter tank, which of course means that it's about 90cm long, 30cm high and 30cm wide (give or take some cm on each side).

Which of course is too small for fully grown Clown Loaches.

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Mats