Loaches Online Forum

I have 2 clown loaches that I have had for 6 years. When purchased they were abour 2" in length. Now one of them is almost 5 to 6" in length. Within the past month, they have been acting strangely. I keep a hollow log in the tank that they love to hide in. they have dug up the silk plants and a plastic turtle and have managed to cover all the openings in the log. they are very protective of the log and are now always by one of the openings. I have also witnessed them in what you would almost call kissing. The only other fish in tank is an algea eater.

My question of course is, are they spawning? I thought this was not usual in loaches that are in a tank.

clown loaches are ready for sexual maturity till 8 yrs old and have never been documented in an aqurium

I really don't have much idea about sexual maturity of loaches. Maybe
nes999 is right. Thanks for that info nes999.

Hi lillymart3, welcome to Loaches Online.

The behaviour you describe is typical clown loach behaviour when only 2 specimens are present in the aquarium. You really need to up the number to 5 or more (after quarantining new specimens of course) in order that they can develop a soocial hierarchy and interact more naturally.

The 'kissing' is what is known as lip locking. This is one of many ways that clown loaches use to fight for dominance. Sometimes this can get quite out of hand, and develop into body slaps, biting, and the use of the suborbital spines. If your current loaches are the same size, they will be fighting for the Alpha (boss) position. If more clowns are added to the tank, any aggression will be spread amongst the group, the 2 current loaches having more to concern themselves with than just each other.

As clown loaches get bigger, they tend to delight in doing as much damage as they can to the aquascape, be it digging up plants, moving bits of bogwood around, picking up and throwing individual pebbles, shifting vast amounts of substrate about like bulldozers. So the moving of the substrate around your hollow log is not unusual.

Hope this helps,

Emma

Thank you all for your responses. Now I can do my water change. I was afraid to mess with anything in the tank, until i got more info on my wacky fish.