Clown Loaches in Shock!

[robertwdc]

Hello!
I had a quick question.... I have a couple of clown loaches, who were thriving and happy with no problem in a 26 gal. tank I had set up. Well, I upgraded to a 40 gal. tank, and after my fishless cycling was complete, and water matched exactly in both tanks...(pH, water temp...etc), I transferred all my fish from my 26 into my 40. Well ever since that time (3 days ago now) my clown loaches have been in hiding. I always make sure there are a couple of caves and hiding spots for my bottom dwellers. Even at feeding time, when they are usually all over the place and happy as can be....but those two are no shows! I thought and feared at first that they went into hiding and I may have lost them from shock, but this morning early, I did catch a split second peek of one of them, out before making a mad dash back into hiding.

My question is....is this normal? They didn't seem to go through this much shock when I first brought them home. I'm confussed. I'm worried about them not eating. Maybe they are coming out in the middle of the night to scrounge around...I don't know.

My water is fine... pH is perfect, temp is good, all of the other tests are good as well, and as mentioned, I tried to match the water in both tanks exactly prior to moving. I also put some stress coat in the water before hand as well, along with cutting out the lights the first 4 hours they were in the new tank.

By the way...all my other fish seem just fine, and loving life in their new home....

Can anyone offer some advice?

Thanks!
Robert

[Sprite42]

I think you just need to give them a few days. THey were 'at home' in the other tank and now everything is different. THey do not know what might be lurking around the corner in this new big place. I think they will be back to their old selves shortly.

[fishfreaks]

Sounds to me also that they are just getting used to their new home

[pureplecs]

IMO this is normal. Give it a few more days and feed their favorite food and they will be back out in no time. Also, you may if you like add a few more to have a nice shoaling group of 4-6 and they tend to come out more as well when there is more of them... unless you do not want to upgrade your tank in the future because these fish will get big.

[Georgia Peach]

yeah, they will be back to clowning around in a few days.. LOL

[meyerhaus]

When I moved my stock, all of my Asian Algae eaters appeared to have died within 2 hours. I just assumed that I had missed some heavy metal concentraion or something. I buried 2 of them. When I went back to get the 3rd, he was fine. I feel bad that I buried the 2 fish, but apparently they can appear dead if there is too sudden of a change in temperature. I didn't think that there was one, but the other one is now fine.

[MaryPa]

Clown Loaches are very shy and will hide alot during the day. The need lots of hiding places at both ends of the tank. Clowns need soft acid water at about 82f. They`re very sensitive to water conditions.What are you water stats? You said normal,what is normal to you? You do know they`ll eventually need at least a 100 gal tank as adults and prefer to be in a group of 5 or more.