I have had this loach in with my slow moving fantails, one female, and one probably female (too young to tell for sure) with no problems whut so ever. My fish bite the loach and chase him and he plays with them or goes off to hide. I got a male shubunkin, and i noticed my loach occasionally biting his side when he swims by. Alot of the time the loach doesnt do anything, but this biting has happened enough for me to become concerned, is he trying to suck his slime coat? He leaves the slower moving fantails alone, and will only go after the shubunkin. Could it be because the shubunkin is male? I dont want t get rid of the little guy, but I dont see why he should be biting my shubie. Any suggestions as to why the loach would be going after him?

Don't worry Hun they wont harm a goldfish. most likely hes just playing with him or cleaning him. Mine will do that with my Oranda's when its feeding time....they cant suck slim coats....

Oh thank god. Its weird that he only does it to the shubunkin tho, i thought that maybe it was because he was a male or becuase he was new to the tank. I have never ever seen the Loach touch the fantails at all. It seemed really weird to me. But at least now i know that hes not doing any harm to my Shubie, other then being an annoyance.

Yeah there funny guys, I have three of them in my 45 gal tank, they like to race with my Orandas and then when its feeding time they try to take it from the goldfish's mouths....

I love the Dojo's

Oh yeah i love my little guy. He takes food from Mopy's (my redNwhite fantail) mouth all the time. Im Glad i dont have to take him out of the tank.

I have 5 in a 75gal.tank.Those guys are like having small children! They love to get into mischief---play"Tag" with the goldies etc.. Your guy may appreciate having a buddy.They enjoy a friend alot,and that may help keep your loach more occupied. Or you'll just end up having two loaches to tease the goldies! All in good fun though!

My one does the same thing. He loves chasing the goldies. I bought him two friends to see if that calmed him down. It hasn't, and the newer ones won't come out when I'm around and are being a bit of a dead loss in the entertainment department. Hrumph.
bw
cupoftea

One of my goldens jumped the tank last night, but hes okay we placed him back in and kept the light off and today hes back to his normal silly self.

Thank goodness you found him soon enough, Koko. Last year, one of my dojos managed to wiggle out between the lid and the filter, the tiniest space you could imagine. Unfortunately, my cat found him first The dojos are now in a tank with an internal filter ... so absolutely no escape holes.

Oh I'm so sorry Hun. I did loose one last month he had gotten out and I found him all crusty....

Hubby now has placed foil over all the openings of my tanks.....So sad I had good aeration too

Im sorry to hear about your fish!

It really makes me wonder why theyd jump out of the tank, youd think theyd rather be in the water.

My tank doesnt have a lid, it never came with one. So im a little scared about my guys.

I looking into the tank earlier, and there was my loach, hanging on to a branch of the plant by his 'arm-pits' with his tail draped out behind him, waving in the current. I swear he had a smile on his face.

Oh no Hun loaches are so active that they forget were the top of the tank is. I have had one hit the top when he was swimming so fast from the bottom of the tank. They are just supper fast swimmers. and if you got a hole in the lid or have it open they will try to jump out

Yeah some times he really gives me a scare, he shoots about 2 thirds the way up the tank then stop dead and floats down to the bottom.

Ive taught myself to wake up at the slightest soud of water. Its reall beyond me why the tank came with a heater and a filter but no cover. I always though covers were standard? Oh well, so far so good <knocks on wood> with my little guy. He see to prefer the bottom, and drapping him self over the plants of course.

my understanding of loaches was that they are a bit like eels, in that they can up their slime coat and then 'walk' out of their present pond to find a better one. They can survive out of water for a couple of days. In some countries (UK?) it's illegal to keep them in outdoor ponds because of this ability. They could end up competing for food with indiginous species with the locals losing out, as they can, in the wild, grow to 30cms. The Chinese used them as a food fish.
bw
cupoftea

He bit my Fantail this morning, and she swam around for about 20second before he let go, he mustve gotten a hold of her fin or something. I was feeding them at the time, but still, this seems a little agressive, and now Mopy is scared of him. I think he hurt her when he bit her, she looked pretty terrified.