gravid clown loach

chefkeith · Post by **chefkeith** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 9:41 pm

I believe one of my female clowns released some eggs yesterday. I didn't see the actual eggs, but I did see the clown loaches around her having a feeding frenzy. For hours after, the other clowns were constantly searching near her vent area for more eggs. I've never seen this behavior with my clowns before, but I have seen the clowns act this way when female Tiger Barbs were releasing eggs. I thought about not posting anything about this until I had pictures of the actual eggs, but I've been getting too excited to wait. I hope this is more than just speculation. I'll be keeping my camera ready in the meantime.

Here's a few pic's that I just took of the female clown-

Keith Wolcott · Post by **Keith Wolcott** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:36 am

This is exciting! Keep us posted.

Bully · Post by **Bully** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:50 am

Beautiful fish!!

Let's hope you see plenty more activity

chefkeith · Post by **chefkeith** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 1:24 am

Thanks.

I didn't see anything special today. I'll check the canister filters for eggs or fry in a few days.

I did get around to shooting a video of my aquarium set-up-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-lbdVYZkgU

Also got a pic of the clown after a long day of heavy eating. She now needs her rest.-

chefkeith · Post by **chefkeith** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 2:09 am

Here's the background of this clown loach-

1stly, her name is Amazing Grace.

I got her about 6 years ago from my LFS.
She was about 3" then.
She is currently about 6" from nose to tail.

From the original 32 clowns I started off with, she is the only one that survived from a devastating ich outbreak 3 years ago.

Another thing that is amazing about her is that she has never been camera shy like many of my other loaches.

This is a picture of her from about 5 years ago.

Emma Turner · Post by **Emma Turner** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 4:17 am

She's a beauty, Keith.

Keep us posted!

Emma

Graeme McKellar · Post by **Graeme McKellar** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 4:24 am

She's a real Stunner Chefkeith. We have all got our fingers crossed for you. Are the boys paying her any more attention than usual???
Cheers Graeme.

Keith Wolcott · Post by **Keith Wolcott** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 11:41 am

That's a really great video! Your setup is very nice. I especially like the palidarium as part of the system.

chefkeith · Post by **chefkeith** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:24 pm

Thanks all.

Graeme-
I didn't see her get the proper attention from the larger males. Most were just searching around her for eggs, following her closely, and checking her vent area.

There was some unusually behavior from some of the smaller clowns. It looked like they were trying to do a spawning ritual. They'd go side by side, eye to eye, and flutter together. These were just normal looking 3" clowns though. Nevertheless, I've never seen them do that before. They were doing the ritual exactly like how my rainbowfish do.

mickthefish · Post by **mickthefish** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:39 pm

i've just watched the vid you made Keith, very impressive mate.

mick

chefkeith · Post by **chefkeith** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 11:15 pm

Thanks Mick. At least I finally found good enough reason to buy some new batteries for my camera. The old batteries were a few years old and could barely hold a charge.

I got another video of the clowns-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8irRdRet3SQ

chefkeith · Post by **chefkeith** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 1:21 am

I have more speculation. I'm seeing some crazy activity tonight. The only reason why I can watch it all is because I put a mirror in the back of the tank so I can view what's happening behind the island. I really wish I could get a video of this, but there is not enough light. When I turned on the light, they all went and hid.

When they go behind the island, they start off swimming together sideways, then they'd go spinning rapidly like a a corkscrew all entwined. They are also swimming laps and laps and laps around the island. This is about 12-18 of the larger clowns, none of the smaller clowns are participating.

I can't believe I never tried watching them behind the island with a mirror before. Like I said it's merely speculation at this point because maybe they always swim like this behind the island. Either way this is really cool to watch.

Boromark · Post by **Boromark** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 2:55 am

Fascinating videos and information - your set-ups have given me much food for thought!.

Thanks very much for keeping us up-to-date with developments.
Mark

chefkeith · Post by **chefkeith** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 9:44 am

Thanks and You're welcome.

Nothing to report this morning. The clowns are swimming normal again.

I'm going out to look for some better mirrors.
If I can get some mirrors set-up just right I'm hoping to shot some videos or at least some pics from behind the scenes.

I'm thinking about getting a webcam too.

chefkeith · Post by **chefkeith** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 6:06 pm

I got the new mirror and a webcam.

Right now I got the webcam mounted in a fixed position behind the island. I can get some rather unique shots back there.

Here's a few samples (much, much more to come)-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g12G1IDspvY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3iT73g7aro

This is going to be really cool if I pull it off. I'm going to try to sync 2 video's using 2 camera's. We'll have a dynamic view from the front and the fixed view from the back. This way we can see almost everything that is going on.

Lighting is the only issue now.

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