Reunited with my Clowns after 5 years!

[Bigtdotcom]

So yesterday i finally got my 6 clown loaches back after 5 years. I had to give them up as i was shutting my tank down and moving overseas, though i was only going for a year but ended up being gone for almost 5 years. The original friend who took my fish to care for while i was a way managed to kill all other fish (oscar, sev, chocholate, bgk) with in 6 months. Another friend took my clown and kept them for me. Now living about 1000km away from where I used to my friend shipped the 6 clowns to me yesterday. Im so happy to have them back. 3 with normal stripes and 3 oddballs ranging form 15-18cm. The 3 normal one i had for about 3 years and the oddballs for about a year so they are 6 to 8 years old. Only prob is they are pretty skinny, some skinnier then others. Hopefully after a couple of weeks of good feeding the will be nice and fat. Currently only in a 55 but getting my 140gal set up in a month or 2. They will be getting a mix of hakari pellets - cichlid gold, sinking wafer, agale wafer, cichild excel along with blood worms and brine shrimp and zuchinni and cucumber.

Any other food you guys and recommend to fatten them up fast?? and does there size seem about right for their age??

I recently came to my attention that hikari is not as good as it once was so i soon will be adding some NLS and dainchi to their diet

 

[tlindsey]

So yesterday i finally got my 6 clown loaches back after 5 years. I had to give them up as i was shutting my tank down and moving overseas, though i was only going for a year but ended up being gone for almost 5 years. The original friend who took my fish to care for while i was a way managed to kill all other fish (oscar, sev, chocholate, bgk) with in 6 months. Another friend took my clown and kept them for me. Now living about 1000km away from where I used to my friend shipped the 6 clowns to me yesterday. Im so happy to have them back. 3 with normal stripes and 3 oddballs ranging form 15-18cm. The 3 normal one i had for about 3 years and the oddballs for about a year so they are 6 to 8 years old. Only prob is they are pretty skinny, some skinnier then others. HopefullyView attachment 1250310 View attachment 1250311 View attachment 1250312 View attachment 1250313 View attachment 1250314 View attachment 1250315 View attachment 1250316 after a couple of weeks of good feeding the will be nice and fat. Currently only in a 55 but getting my 140gal set up in a month or 2. They will be getting a mix of hakari pellets - cichlid gold, sinking wafer, agale wafer, cichild excel along with blood worms and brine shrimp and zuchinni and cucumber.

Any other food you guys and recommend to fatten them up fast?? and does there size seem about right for their age??

I recently came to my attention that hikari is not as good as it once was so i soon will be adding some NLS and dainchi to their diet

Great to know you got them back. The food items you mentioned should fatten them back up especially the pellets.

 

[Bigtdotcom]

I was thinking of moving them to my 3 foot so i can really spoil them with food....bad idea? to small? I didnt realize they were so skinny untill i had them acclimatized to my bigger tank, Wtouldnt move them for a few days, been a pretty rough few days for them. left my mates 6x2x2 and stayed at the shop for a few days, got flowen up to me, now in my tank

 

[fishnatics]

You could also try live blackworms plus everything you've mentioned. I give my loaches them once a week and they go crazy over it.

 

[BIG-G]

I feed mine some snails every other day or so they go insane for them. If you have access to any.
I have several planted tanks and I have a constant supply of pond snails so its a simple thing of throwing a few in their tank.

 

[smjack]

You are not a beginner. Ha ha. Good luck.

 

[Bigtdotcom]

So happy to have these guys back. They have settled in fine and already know when feeding time is... I've added some nls to their diet. I'm over feeding my tank for sure but I will be adding extra water change, I just wanna see these guy fatten up and get some nice color back. These guys have no interest in veggies, prob haven't been offered any in years. Still thinking of moving these guys in to my 3 foot with my other clowns. The others are so fatty and colourful in comparison, only about 2.5 inches though. I love clowns

 

[Coryloach]

Wow, it must feel great getting them back after such a long time Congratulations and happy clown keeping again. I feed mine NLS pellets and some frozen stuff here and there and I've never seen them get that skinny so the foods you've got will be more than plenty to fatten them up.

I can't quite measure by eye their length on the pictures but they do look a bit skinny for their age but healthy enough. If it were me, I'd leave them in this tank, just make sure you sink the food down so it falls on the substrate for them. Good food and clean water will fix them up fairly quickly.

 

[Bigtdotcom]

They finally started eating veggies!

 

[johnny potatoes]

Good luck fattening them up. What's this by the way