Loaches Online Forum

As a keeper of six Clown Loaches over 20 years old I was happy to find a new poster on Fishlore who has a couple of old Clowns, one 22 years old, the other 15 years old.

http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/clown ... setup.html

This is the first time I found somebody else who could confirm their living loaches were over 20 years old so I am very pleased indeed.

Are there any more?

Hey Redshark. I think I mentioned before that I came across a video on youtube with an old loach. The owner says its 32 years old. The video is posted in German but you can read the comments in English. Here are a couple of links. The first one is not so good but the comments are in English

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZQzvSBm ... s53G-k9zrQ

And a better one of the loach.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYqCSgP6 ... s53G-k9zrQ

Wow, that first video gave me a shock when the Clown Loach entered the scene!

I'm was amazed when he says this Clown Loach is 32 years old but I don't wish to doubt it. He also said the big Clown Loach lived for many years in a 200 litre but has lived in the 500 litre aquarium since 1987.

Many thanks Loachloach for posting this again, I definitely have missed it the first time.

Its phenomenal to see this video, but sadly so rare to find Clown Loaches reaching their potential of both size and age.

Looks like I still have much work to do!

Will my Clowns outlast me? - not the first question you ask yourself when deciding to keep fish!

Your welcome redshark. I hope we find more owners but I've watched plenty of videos and read lots of clown loach sections in forums and never came across anything older than yours and that one.

The first time I saw the video I was appalled at the comments because the owner said he/she does water changes when the fish don't seem hungry anymore But then it happened to me once when I skipped a couple of water changes

Fair play to the owner if its 32 years of age. That loach is just a few years younger than me

You know, what's ridiculous is that despite all the banter online people and their large clown loaches, this thread has had 3 comments only. It's been posted on a loach forum and no one that has kept loaches for a long time has come across it, or maybe there's no one that has kept loaches for a long period of time, having proof of it.

Have you tried in monsterfishkeeping.com? They've got a very entertaining clown loach dedicated section and it seemed to me a lot had large clowns one way or another.

If it's against the policies here to suggest another forum I apologise. But I am curious who can match redsharks loaches in age with proof.

I don't think many of the longtime LOL members check this forum regularly anymore, but a few others might have clowns in the 20 year range. I forget where it was posted, but years ago at Capitol Aquarium, some people claimed that they had clown loaches that were 40+ years old. Over at AquariaCentral, there was somebody with a 25+ year old clown, but it had passed away a several years ago.

My oldest might be around 20 years old, but it's difficult to say. I've had her about 10 years, but she looked about 10 years old when I got her. Gracie is probably around 15 years old, who I've had for about 12 years. So maybe give me 10 more years, and I'll have lots of 20+ year old clowns as most of mine are about 10 - 14 years old right now, but then you'll be asking if anyone has 30 year old clowns

Each year that goes by they become more valuable to me .

It's nice to know they live a long live, lol, 40+ years is way too long considering how hard it is to keep up with fish tanks long term, taking into account life is not easy. Although I've done my bit.
But it just changes perspectives about the amount of care one should anticipate, looking after fish which may outlive you, depending on what stage in your life you get them of course. I am actually a bit terrified about mine right now. It means I may have to live till I am 80-90 and be capable of moving around by myself.
When I got my dog, I thought, ok, hopefully I'll be alive for 16 years And I don't have to change her air every week either, and her air is for free too, yet...

Nice story about the old clowns and the Fishlore poster's account on how her oldest clown is 22 years old.

I've joined Fishlore and I've gotten more response from the members there concerning general freshwater tropicals issues. I wish the freshwater forum here were more active.

Loachloach wrote:It's nice to know they live a long live, lol, 40+ years is way too long considering how hard it is to keep up with fish tanks long term, taking into account life is not easy. Although I've done my bit.
But it just changes perspectives about the amount of care one should anticipate, looking after fish which may outlive you, depending on what stage in your life you get them of course. I am actually a bit terrified about mine right now. It means I may have to live till I am 80-90 and be capable of moving around by myself.
When I got my dog, I thought, ok, hopefully I'll be alive for 16 years And I don't have to change her air every week either, and her air is for free too, yet...

I got 2 Platydoras costatus catfish I got in November 1989, that is almost 27 years back. Although I do hope they will live for a long time, and they are by no means to be considered as ancient - I will have to admit they will most likely not have another 10 years.

I'm 48 now, and therefore in 27 years I will be 75 - if alife. I don't think I should get new Platydoras, especially not if they would have naother 5 years or more, as I'm afraid I won't be able to care for them when 80 or so.

Still, it's not nice to have to admit I'm most likely over my healthy half

Nice stuff Mr Pels. It's hard looking after ourselves 27 years

Congratulations Bas Pels, it's good to hear about your fish and it doesn't matter that they are not Loaches as it is a remarkable achievement.

My Clown Loaches are now 21 years old of course and still doing very well.

Sadly the poster on fishlore declined to assert the age of his Clown Loach by describing how he knew its age and giving the background information I asked for. Despite being active on the forum and receiving private messages from myself he would not respond.

I can only conclude that he gave me inaccurate information and didn't expect my level of interest. He was unwilling to confirm his initial claims. Maybe he hadn't realised how unusual it is to have Clown Loaches over 20 years of age.

There will of course be people out there who like me have provided quite routine care to their fish for a long time and ended up with very old specimens.

Mine are 23 years old now and the fish themselves are very healthy. However, as if to show their age, their colours are fading and some of the stripes are breaking up.