Loaches Online Forum

In your experience,

At what age/size do the clowns develop their 'stretch marks' where the black bands start to develop a light patch towards the centre. (A la 'Marge', 'Basil', 'Stripes' etc)

Just asking out of curiosity really, not because I've got any that are getting that big. Have to wait for a bigger house and a bigger tank first.

Many Thanks

TC

I have one (believed to be female) who has started to develop her pale bits in her stripes since early last year. Shes approx 6/7 inches and from what I know of her background, 7/8years (might be older). She is also the alpha in the group.

I have a male that is slightly larger than the above and he has no sign of his pale bits yet, hes as dark as ever
Pic's just for the sake of it






Ashleigh

My biggest female is around the same size and age of Ashleighs and she to has the pale marks

This is Mr. Big Botia, about 7" and 12 years old:

This picture was taken the day he arrived here:


And this is a recent one:


He is sometimes bright colored, sometimes pale but mostly paler then other Loaches.

My largest two are about 7". The one I've had from the start doesn't show any signs of stripes developing after about four years. The other does have stripes but was a present last Christmas so I'm not sure of its age. None of the other four (5-6") have stripes.

I have a 5" TL clown that has been with me for 14-15 years and never grown any larger. Despite it's growth pattern (or lack of), it shows the beginnings of stripe splitting, on the dorsal surface of the black stripes. Will have to see if I can find a pic. I have several 6-7" fish that show quite a bit of stripe splitting, yet I have seen pics of 10"+ specimens without this.

Emma

Here's an old pic of the 5" loach I mentioned above. She's always been this pale colour, as have 2 of her friends which were bought at the same time when they were all 2". One is really little and has never grown past 3.5", then there's her at 5" and the other one (who was the Alpha loach until Marge came along) is at 9". You can see in the picture below that on the dorsal surface of this fish, where the dark stripes are, there are white patches forming in the centre. I have seen this happen on other fish, which as they have grown larger, has spread down the dark stripes on the flanks of the fish.



Emma

As Emma just posted, my Mr. Big Botia also has same white patches best seen here:

TeeCeeJay wrote:In your experience,

At what age/size do the clowns develop their 'stretch marks' where the black bands start to develop a light patch towards the centre. (A la 'Marge', 'Basil', 'Stripes' etc)

Just asking out of curiosity really, not because I've got any that are getting that big. Have to wait for a bigger house and a bigger tank first.

Many Thanks

TC

Ah.......you forgot about mine!

Anyway, here is something to ponder about..both same size, both wild caught at this size.




Both are at 11 inches TL

Something to be noted about.many people percieve that as the clown grows larger, the colour gets pale and starts to fade..However, large clowns seem to have reddish dorsal fins as compared to young ones..

Emma Turner wrote: stripe splitting,
Emma

Is that the technical word? I could only think of stretch marks

Thanks for your answers people. Like I said, I thibk I'll have to wait a while longer before any of mine get that far

TC