I recently followed advice to get rid of snails and brought two clown loaches. They are about 2.5 - 3 cms long - small little guys yet.

One is in permanent hiding - still after 5 days - I havent found a body or seen a dead fishie, so Im assuming he is still with us. (I pulled the entire 4ft tank apart the second morning and found him hiding, have left him be since).

The other is quite convivial - active and moving around the tank and eating. He is very pale however, almost a pale yellow between his black stipes which are as dark as they should be.

I had thought clown loaches were quite orange. Is his paleness a sign he isnt doing well? Or just that he is young?

The water is in good shape and the only semi agressive fish in with him is a ghost knife - and he is a bit big and too fast for her to munch on, she prefers black neons anyways! :roll:

I've got 2 medium and 1 large clown loaches and my large one is a fairly pale yellow. I was looking at a tank full down at Hollywood Fishfarm and noticed some are quite a bright yellow/orange and dark black and some are a more pale yellowy/orange and black.

I have read somewhere that the more pale ones are females so it is possible that the one you are talking about is a female.

I think my big one is a female to, i hope that's all it is and hope it alleviates any worry.

Where did you bruy them from?

I don't know if clown loaches react the same way as my yoyo loach, but whenever he gets pale and listless I know a water change is overdue. And he always perks up as soon as its done

Cheers

Jude

Don't worry about him/her hiding I have built a rock home for my 3 with lots of nooks and they love hiding and only come out to feed. 2 of the 3 are really big know. They also come out to play and play chasey they are a joy to watch and give us a lot of laughs. If I look in their rock house I can often see them sleeping on their sides 1 storey up in a nook

We had two clown loaches to start with and they both hid for most of the day. Got two more who seemed to be pretty brave and now they all come out and play. One still hides a bit, but still comes out a lot more than when there were just the two of them. They seem to like to have a crew to hang with. Great fun to watch! Like naughty little kids! :lol:

I have 6 small clown loaches and they hide quite abit, but at feeding time they are very active, I wouldn't worry to much if your water temp is good(which I believe is around 28 for clown loaches) and water tests are ok.