Clown Loaches And Guppies

Hi all I have a 6 foot fish tank that has been set up for about 3 years. In the tank I have 5 clown loaches that are about 10 cm to 12 cm and a bunch of breeding guppies. There was roughly 15 full grown guppies and not sure how many medium and baby guppies there was but it was a lot. I got up this morning and noticed I couldn’t see many guppies. When I looked closer I found a whole heap dead they looked slashed to bits. I get the point now not to keep loaches with guppies but was wondering if this was normal. I only have 4 grown guppies and about half dozen small ones left.

 

Hi & welcome to Fishlore, I've never heard of clowns being that aggressive that they'll actually attack & kill guppies & yours aren't even fully grown yet, is there anything else in the tank which could have taken down your guppies? I certainly don't think that's normal behaviour for clowns.

 

Hi thank you for your reply. The only other fish I have in there is a bristle nose that is about 4 cm. They have all been in there for some time and this happened over night. Some had no fins or tails and some had slash looking things across their bodies. Do you think it could be the bristle nose?

 

I know Plecs can be brutal to their own kind I once had two bulldog plecs in a tank & the smaller of the two killed the other one day totally out of the blue, they were in a 4 foot tank & each had its own bit of tank as territory but there was still a show down eventually & I ended up with just one plec.
I found this story on another fish site so looks like BN's can become very aggressive so that may be your problem fish:

'That first night I saw the pleco chasing the large adult goldfish. I was concerned, but assumed it was territory, as I had carefully researched bristlenoses before taking him in, and knew they were peaceful and had had no problems with this guy.
When I woke up in the morning and went to the tank to check on the goldies, it was absolute horror. The three large goldfish all had stripes of ripped-off scales and flesh. Looking for the little guy, I found him with the pleco wrapped around him down on the bottom.
The pleco had stripped off ALL of his fins, scales, and a bunch of the meat from his tail area, and was happily flipping him around and eating him'.

 

Do you have any pictures of the dead guppies?