Clown Loach Injured Head?

Hello all,

A few months ago I purchased two medium sized clown loaches to help control the snail population in my tank. They've been doing a good job of that but tend to be very skittish and hide 90% of the time in a cave.

Yesterday I startled one and it tore across the tank (30 gallon) and smacked his head with an audible thud. He immediately went belly up so I figured he was dead. A few minutes later he started swishing and was still breathing. This morning he was crammed into a corner and kind of stiff. I plucked him out and was going to euthanize him, but he started wriggling again and wasn't so stiff.

I popped him back into the tank and into one of his hideouts, he's still breathing but isn't moving much.

My gut tells me this is a pretty bad brain injury that he's not likely to recover, but he's one of my wife's favorites and would hate to lose him.

Any recommendations? Should I leave him in the tank until he goes belly up for real? I feel really bad because I had left a lot of his hiding areas out of the tank between cleaning so I'm sure he was stressed out to begin with, then wham, poor guy.

 

HI and welcome.

It doesn't sound good for sure but I think his best chance is to be returned to the store or otherwise rehomed to a more suitable tank. Clown loaches live in groups in the wild and will be extra skittish in small numbers. Unfortunately your tank isn't big enough for even one of these guys because they get to be huge!

I really recommend doing your research and getting a loach species more suited to a small tank or possibly assassin snails.

 

Thank you, any harm in letting him convalesce in the tank and see if he makes it?

I recently got a few Cory cats and am contemplating doing away with the loaches in favor of more of them if they acclimate well.

It's a shame because they are tank favorites, but probably best that they are in a bigger tank.

 

I suppose not if you can keep him quiet and calm.

 

A dark room with low stimulI is good for concussion recovery.

 

I'm sorry to hear of this episode.

I think the Clown Loach is unlikely to recover, but you've got to try because in my experience fish have amazing powers of recovery. A severe head injury may be unrecoverable, however.

I would wait to see what happens.

It may be pretty devastating to the remaining Clown Loach too since they are social animals. It would be best to rehome it or return it to the store and it will quickly find a home, hopefully a suitable one, with someone else.

The sickest or weakest animal in the herd gets weeded out by predators. Therefore animals try and look fit and well if they are able to. If they are unable to pretend to be well then they are in bad shape.

 

Sounds like your loach gave himself a concussion. Not surprising as these guys can be quite strong in short bursts. But fish are pretty remarkable healers. He may yet recover. Try and keep the room the tank is in calm, quiet and dark for a few days and see how he does. If the tank is in a busy place like the living room, try hanging a towel or blanket around the tank to darken it and prevent them from seeing any 'big moving blobs' (that's us) to spook them further.

I would give him a week and see if he survives and is acting more like normal again. If so, great. If not, well I suppose you only have one clown to rehome. Anywho, that said, clown loaches do best in groups of at least three but preferably 5+. It helps make them less skittish when they have company. However clown loaches also get big. I means 10"+ kind of big and they are very heavy bodied fish. So they need a big tank. 125 gallon is usually the minimum recommend for a group of them. So unless you plan on upgrading soon I recommend you start looking for another home for them, or see if your LFS will take them back.

 

Update: Clown Loach #1, unfortunately, died at some point today, his face was bloody and it was pretty clear that it was a hemorrhage and not a concussion. I'll be looking to rehome the remaining one as it's apparent that they have already outgrown my setup.

My wife and I loved these guys, but we will probably replace them with more cory catfish if I can get my current ones acclimated better. Contemplating switching to an all sand bottom and ditching my undergravel filter to make it easier on plants, etc...

Thanks for the guidance

 

If you love Clown Loaches (and I think there is no better tropical fish to own) then you should really purchase a big aquarium and keep them for the next 20+ years.

However, for those unwilling or unable to own a large enough aquarium for Clown Loaches I can speak from experience that there is a cracking little Loach that gives much of the Clown Loach experience in a smaller package. This is the Dwarf Chain Loach Ambastaia sidthimunki.