When CL's are jousting or feeling dominant, they turn gray. This color shift can be instant, or last for days. I dont know about all this Northern & Southern variety stuff, but if there is 2 species, this is not the way to identify the difference.
Clown loach growth / power feeding
- Thread starter Mudfrog
- Start date
most of my loaches are grey in color. They were all dark when I got them, but have changed over the last year. The larger ones were acquired after the original 15. I do have ones that have just the red pectoral fins and the ones that have the black spotch on them. Other than those two differences, I just see the ones that don't sleep in the wood as much, getting much more food. Sometimes I take the decor out for a week or two and let them all shoal together and get food together. Once the wood goes back in, I tend to find them inside sleeping and its like they never move.
mamapuff;3778632; said:
I would suggest not taking the decor out of your loach tank, that might be part of the reason your loaches are grey... loaches are shy and love to hide - if they dont have somewhere to hide and feel safe, they stress out - which leads to lack of color, sicknesses, etc....
justin guest;3777308; said:
Found a new method of feeding my clowns a high protein diet recently... So if you're looking for one:
1. In the canned food section (at grocery store), pickup a can of fancy baby clams and small shrimp
2. Empty both cans in a food blender, this will chop it up small so the fish can easily eat it and it mixs it up as well
3. Take that mix out, put it in a freezer bag, seal bag and flatten as best you can (like you do when you freeze ground beef)
4. Put that bag in the freezer, lay flat until it freezes
5. When its time to feed the fish, break off a piece of the mix and drop it in a dish w/ some hot water to de-thaw (just like you do w/ frozen blood worms, shrimp, etc.) - dump in tank
For extra effect, mix some garlic in with the mix before you dump it in the tank (i do that twice a week) - loaches are going so crazy over the meat they just eat the garlic right up (good way to squeeze the garlic in if you have issues getting them to eat it)
I also feed my loaches 2 slices of cuccumber each morning
I put them on this diet because one of my loaches contracted some form of skinny disease, so after being unable to find any levamisole hydrochloride, and having no succes with the anti-parasidic foods, etc. I decided to try feeding a high protein diet as suggested by another member of this site - its looking promising, loach is starting to fill in so, I am hopeful.
Em
Good idea. Garlic is a good natural anti-parasitic, but I've never had a problem getting mine to eat it. They loooooooooove them some garlic!
justin guest;3783566; said:
The only big ones I have are between 5-6 inches and there are I think 3. The others are all the same size at 3-4 inches and theres about 15 of them. Some hide, most don't. Usually they are all under the wood as shown, so I see them all the time. But there are 5 or so that never come out are inside the wood and I never see them. I have had one big one get stuck inside that piece and couldn't get out. I had to remove a large chunk of the side of it and he finally plopped out .When I do my weekly WC's I move some decor around, and I sometimes I take out the large piece and make sure no one is stuck in there and if all is well, sometimes I will take that out for a while (1-2 wks) and put something else in. I only started removing that wood after the big guy got stuck this summer. Their colors, as mentioned in my last post, have developed and stayed this way even when I am too lazy to pull the wood out and nothing changes. I truly don't think they are stressed out. Even when playing in their jet stream and doing their dances, they are still the same color. I have only seen once quarrel between two smaller ones over a new hideout I put in, but other than that, they are all happy campers. They eat well, play a lot, and adore their current . They will spend hours swimming upstream, and playing with each other.
They do sound happy and healthy - so if its not stress, my other guess would be the types of food they are eating... I have noticed my loaches colors change/fade depending on what food I have them on. I used to (about 3ish yrs ago) feed them only one kind of food really (frozen bloodworms) and they started to grey out... after reading/learning more (about fish in general), I put them on varied diet, (live blackworms, cuccumbers, bloodworms, myces shrimp, formula 1&2) - their colors improved and became more vibrant and solid again.
Another food I feed, about twice a month (I probably dont feed it enough in truth) is New Life Spectrum. Its supposed to help enhance colors.
Em
Another food I feed, about twice a month (I probably dont feed it enough in truth) is New Life Spectrum. Its supposed to help enhance colors.
Em
