Feeding big clowns

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C

cypher1024

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 4, 2009
447
0
0
Australia
Hey guys,
a few days ago my brother found some massive clown loaches (at least by Australian standards) for sale in a fish shop about 30 minutes from our place. Apparently their old owner was going overseas and couldn't take them with him.

The bigger one is about 11 inches, tip to tip, and the smaller one is 9 or 10.
There's a picture here: http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/2086/p8210116.jpg
Sorry for the poor quality - I have half of my lighting disabled, and a towel covering the end of the tank so it's nice and dark while they settle in.
That's the big one in the foreground. He likes to sit with his chin on that pot. I assume it's so that his gut can hang down in the gap between the pot and the substrate.

Anyhow, back to my question: Is there something special I should be feeding these monsters? I've tried everything at my disposal - shrimp pellets (that the rest of my clowns go nuts over), 3 sizes of NLS, algae wafers, carnivore pellets, cichlid sinking pellets, vipagran, bloodworm, earthworms and even some chicken breast.

The smaller guy has eaten a few shrimp pellets, but the big one doesn't seem to be interested in any food that I've tried. They've only been in my tank for about 48 hours, so I know he's not full settled in, but all of the other clowns I've introduced have at been eating (albeit cautiously) by this point. There's always a piece of a vegetable in the tank for my plec, so perhaps he's been snacking on that at night when I'm not looking...

Any feeding ideas you guys have would be most appreciated!

Cheers,
-Luke
 
Give it time. Clown loaches in general prefer meaty foods. Nice catch there!
 
Thanks :) I just want them to be happy.

I was lucky to get them. The owner of the fish shop said that in 25 years, he'd never had any this big.
 
If I find one that big I'll buy it in a heart beat.
 
What about frozen brine shrimp? My loaches always took a while to eat when they were new to the tank too. Are you giving them frozen bloodworms?

My loaches also love watermelon and thinly sliced cucumber.
 
The food that you have on hand is more than adequate. Clown loaches in general can get pretty stressed when moved, and IME the larger the clown loach, the longer they take to acclimatize to their new surroundings. The last larger ones that I moved took a good 3-4 weeks before they began to eat again. At this point (only 48 hrs), no worries.
 
Agree with them taking some time to acclimate. I recently obtained a handful of 6-8inchers from a fellow aquarist and you would think that they were tame enough, but it has taken the biggest one almost 3-4 weeks to be out and about and eating with full confidence. So give it time, and definitely dont worry about it, its just how they behave.
 
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