The excited clown loaches

[Emma Turner]

3 days ago, we had to take most of the decor out of the clown loach tank so that we could catch out the Puntius filamentosus that we decided to part with. We were a bit sad to see them go - they are beautiful fish and we've had them for some years (the big males were 6" in length) - but they were so very very greedy.
We put all the bogwood back how we wanted it (which was different from before - with that amount, it was impossible to remember exactly where it all went) and added some new Java fern motherplants.
It was left like this for a couple of days (with clowns hiding in protest at the upheaval) and then last night added 20 Puntius narayani, which are about 1.75" at the moment. These do not grow anywhere near as large as the P. filamentosus and I like their subtle beauty.

When settled, our clowns do congregate and dance every night in big groups (which is the most amazing sight), but shortly after the new little barbs were introduced under blue moon lighting yesterday evening, the loaches became REALLY excited! They immediately formed a tight pack and came out of hiding to investigate the newcomers. At times, I think the entire group were out all at once, and although we are used to seeing a lot of them out together, it was a real priveledge to see virtually all the group together. Marge did come out a bit but not as much as the others, as she seems to be defending the left hand corner of the tank which she has decided is hers (nice big shady bogwood caves, navigable by the bigger fish). I didn't manage to capture the entire group shoaling together, but I did get footage of good sized groups.

So without further ado, here are a few short videos of some of this behaviour. Please turn the volume down/off to avoid listening to my camera making its focussing noise. They are quite dark because of the moonlight conditions so it may be a little tricky to see them using the full 28" of height for their loachy dancing in the corner, but when they swim towards the other side it is lighter:

http://s88.photobucket.com/albums/k183/ ... CN8695.flv

http://s88.photobucket.com/albums/k183/ ... CN8701.flv

http://s88.photobucket.com/albums/k183/ ... CN8691.flv

Hope you enjoyed them,

Emma

[brett_fishman]

wowee!! thanks for sharing Emma

do you still have around 50 clowns in there?

[Mark in Vancouver]

Cool. What is that rattling sound?

[brett_fishman]

pretty sure thats the auto-focus she was talking about.. i heard the same thing in the 'battle' movie

[daspricey]

Stunning movies Emma!!!!

I saw some p narayani a while ago, really nice fish!

[Barracuda518]

That was very cool. Its still my goal to have a group of clowns that big. Tell me again how big your tank is?

[Whitey_MacLeod]

Fantastic videos- that many clowns together is a really impressive sight. I had enough trouble today catching my barbs in a 3 foot tank- it must have been a nightmare in a tank that size.

[Keith Wolcott]

Great footage Emma. Thanks for posting this. The clowns are amazing in those numbers!

[jbc223456]

Wow Emma, great video. Makes me want to get a large tank and buy a group of Clown Loaches.

[chefkeith]

I got pretty excited just watching these videos.

[Dutch]

That's just beautiful!

[JAH]

Stunning display,it's great to see so many together

[andre]

Great Emma, post more if you can!!!

[helen nightingale]

that is a beautifull sight

[Emma Turner]

Thanks for all the fantastic comments!

Brett, we've never been entirely sure how many clowns are in the tank (lost count!) but I think 35+.

Jason, the tank is 1000 litres, it measures 84" x 28" high x 27" wide. The other day, there was talk of extending this house in 2 years time. And plans include a 16ft loach hilton to be built on site. So I really really hope that this does happen!

And here are the barbs for anyone who's interested:



They looked a good size at the shop, but in the clown tank, they look tiny!

Emma