Is there something wrong with my clown loaches

[richard yung]

I noticed some of them have lighter dark patterns.. is there anything wrong? or is this normal

had them for about a week now. I cant get them to eat anything cause the food never make it down there

 

[kno4te]

Get some pvc pipes that only they can fit in and try to place the food in them. Might help to avoid the other gluttons in ur tank. The graying out happens with these guys normally. It can from stress to just plain old feeding time. Some say it's a dominance issue as well but can't completely go with that as it'll happen at other times.

 

[freak78]

Nope. Here's a read for ya.

http://www.loaches.com/articles/clown-loach-coloration-marking-variations

 

[kno4te]

Well thanks for the info.

 

[Stang725]

Yeah, they need places to hide to be happy... But they will change colors pretty often depending on mood and their interactions with other fish/loaches. The biggest (head honcho of the shoal) loach in your tank will normally stay somewhat discolored. You can also feed them cooked mussels, I can't imagine some of it wouldn't fall down there for them. They are norm like $2 a bag, pre-cooked in the frozen section of the seafood... just rinse/defrost under warm water and just pull out the mussel from the shell and toss it in there. Raw/Peeled shrimp is also useful, but a tad more expensive than mussels.

Also consider this food, since its small and sinks and should not cloud water if you slightly overfeed to get food down there to them:
http://www.amazon.com/Life-Spectrum...-1&keywords=New+Life+Spectrum+Thera-A+Formula

Oh and the min # of loaches in tank should be no less than 5, at the bare min. They very much need other loaches around to be happy....