Petco Loaches Dying

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Anubisscott

Anubisscott

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 13, 2009
1,973
5
0
Enid, OK
www.facebook.com
Needless to say I have been stocking my tank with Tiger Barbs and Petco is the only place around eher that has all 3 types. Also, they get in 2-3 Cloawn loaches each time I am there. I loose a tiger barb here and there and clowns so far out of 5 CL's 1 is thriving. Got 3 initially, but he was the only surviver. Got 2 more and lost one today. Just seems very intresting as these showed no signs of poor health. The other two I knew would either make it or not. They were very emaciated, but these two looked ok. I am going to get my money back regardless so I am not too worried. Just a shame as CL's are some of my favorite fish.
 
I've only picked up two clown loaches from petco, but haven't had any problems with mine dying. The real thing i can think of, is usually the loaches they sell are really small and young. I bought the two biggest they had. I've been told you really want to get them around 1.5 inches, petco's seem to be like .5 of an inch. Hopefully I'm onto something, and hopefully you get it figured out and get a nice big clown loach shoal.
 
1) Proper acclimation is a must. That means ignoring other incorrect instructions to just float the bag and then let them loose. You need to drip acclimate them until the TDS are very close. That often takes several hours. Use a TDS meter if you're impatient.

2) Skinny disease. Not parasites but caused by mycobacteria that are ubiquitous in aquaculture. It's best not to buy cachexic fish but even healthy looking fish can start losing mass quickly. Keep water quality high and treat with a combination of kanamycin and TMP sulfa (hospital tank mandatory!).

3) Ich. Get UV.

That's really all there is to it. Your loaches should now be as easy to keep as other fish.
 
Yeah, I have kept them before with little trouble. I agree about Petco getting them too small. So far the surviver is with my other clown and doing fine. Also schoaling with the tiger barbs which I have noticed Clowns like to school with since I once worked at petsmart.
 
I've only had maybe one loach that did well from a whole sale store.. and that was petsmart..

I agree that clown loach are hard to get them to eat and accumulate.. I would try a LFS instead..
 
mean fish;4147876; said:
make sure you QT new fish
I lernt my lesson when I didn't fish from petco or petsmart are IMO at high risk of carring disease or in my case parosites.
Click to expand...

I can relate.. I tried to be a smart ass and attempt to cure a ick infested pleco.. it was a rare pleco and kinda wanted it.. i put it inside a large quartine tank of 60 gallon. next thing i know.. my FH started fighting and i ended up putting the FH in there..

It turned to a 3 weeks battle of ICK with my FH.. they scratching like crazy and that pleco died.. but i got my money back.. (petsmart 14 day live stock return policy).

Needless to say.. after my FHs were cured i stop buying stick fish.. no matter how much i know i can cure them.. you just can't risk it..
 
All the petco loaches I've seen looked kinda unhealthy so I never bought from there. I've seen one petsmart with decent loaches and they were selling 3-4" for 8.99. I bought all the loaches I could that time, lol

But yeah, look for loaches at LFS around you instead. Petco fish tend to suck in my opinion.
 
redinfinity;4152497; said:
All the petco loaches I've seen looked kinda unhealthy so I never bought from there. I've seen one petsmart with decent loaches and they were selling 3-4" for 8.99. I bought all the loaches I could that time, lol

But yeah, look for loaches at LFS around you instead. Petco fish tend to suck in my opinion.
Click to expand...

to be honest.. their services is great, but their stock list suck in general... their always out of food every time i go in.... Although when i do buy something and not food.. they give me a $2 dollar off coupon if I do a survey.. done it about 4-5 times now.. So i'll give them that much..

Actually come to think of it.. i have never seen Clown Loaches in my local petco..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom