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ive noticed that every now and then my clown loaches go on a psychotic rampage and start chasing around all of the fish in my tank, and sometimes even nipping them! i tried preoccupying them with some bloodworms but not even that worked. they are very peaceful except when they do this. has anyone ever experienced this behavior before?

is it only during feeding? mines go alittle crazy when i add food, but they are in a tank with different kindas of loaches. well just a few notes:
as u may know cl will get large, and if they are small now it would be best to do something with them, either giving them their own tank so they dont harm other fish.

they dont act like this when theyre fed. i only fed them because i was hoping theyd forget about what they were doing. about putting them in another tank: i cant get another tank because my dad hates all pets , so hed kill me (i cant wait until i move out ) but if push comes to shove, ill give my clowns to my friend who already has 2 clowns in his 55g

I think most clown loaches are kinda crazy anyway. mine are only young, around 2 inches max. and they are constantly exploring and amazing me with their antics. This weeks trick is to sit on top of my plec (7 inches) and then just sit there. At one point there were four of them balanced on top of the plec (who didn't seem in the slightest it bothered by all this). Another thing they tend to do is go out in the the middle of the gravel and lie on their sides and go absolutely motionless so when you walk in the room you think they are dead. then as soon as you go near the tank they will shoot off around the tank to cause mischief somewhere else

those annoying little rats just killed off my red-eye tetra! im seriously gonna stick them in the 2g if they keep this up

If they are being detrimental to your other tank inhabitants, perhaps you should try and trade them in at your LFS if your friend can't take them for you.

When they decide they want to eat something they are pretty consistant, i had to seperate them from my zigzag snails because they were constantly trying to eat them even though the snails are 3 times their size.

I wish they'd make such a big effort with my pest burrowing snails!!

the craziness still hasnt ended! theyve chased all of my fish into hiding, but they havent killed anymore of my fish. theyve also been fighting with each other a lot as well, but i think these are the "loach dances". are CLs known for being this aggressive? is there anything that instigates CL aggression?

Clown loaches are considered a fish that lives in shoals, but I would rather say that they live in groups. The fish quarrel between one and other in a way tha fish who live in a "real" shoal seldom do.Under no circumstances should these fish be kept alone, they become very unsure, afraid and sometimes aggressive. They are most suitably kept in groups of 4-5 or more. I have read in several articles that old Clown loaches can become aggressive to other species of fish but I have never noticed this, it could simply be that Loaches have been kept alone or in too small a group.
My clowns(3) havent been bad boys at all and they are with 3 yoyos,10 black phantoms,2 gold rams and a L-001.
Only when feeding they get aggressive and they also steal food,especially from the pleco and then the fight begins

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How many Cl's do you have?

Robby

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I know human beings and fish can co-exist peacefully.

i only have 2 loaches, which might be my problem. at least theyve calmed down a bit, but its just strange that theyve never acted this aggressive. btw ive read that no matter how big of a group theyre in theyll fight for dominance and see whos the "alpha-loach". i just have another question- if i got loaches of a similar species, would the loaches shoal with them? im just asking this because ive heard of this happening before and i dont want to stunt anymore clown loaches in my 35g