Loaches Online Forum

My largest male clown loach, Stripes, has been arguing a lot over the past couple of weeks, even taking on the mighty Marge. I managed to capture some images a couple of nights ago, of Stripes fighting with one of the next largest males in the tank:











As you can see, they were really going for it. All wounds have healed quickly and barbels are back to normal colour.....until the next time!

Emma

It's a good thing they aren't using their eye spikes-at least in the pictures

As always, spectacular photos Emma, thanks for sharing them with us.
I don't think I would like to get inbetween two loaches when they are fighting. I must miss all the fighting in my tank - or else they are all so sure of their places in the pecking order that no fighting is necessary at the moment.

Rocky, Rocky!

I was wondering, do full grown clowns always get so 'rotund' around the middle, or are yours just VERY well fed. They look like cute little dumplings when they get so chubby and thick.

awsome
you kick ass emma
your picts are out of site

Gee, I didn't see a bunch of flying sand in the pics, Emma, so it couldn't have been that serious

I'm teasing....GREAT pics.

I've seen my mediium sized ones go at it a few times, so I can just imagine the scene you got with those two

Excellent action shots, Emma!

Thank you all. I'll try and capture Stripes and Marge during one of their battles next. Seems to be becoming a rather regular occurence of late.

Emma

Wow

Very impressive

Those are some really nice shots! Do you think that the loaches get more ornery with age? Or do they normally fight like this? I noticed two of my loach doing similar mouth to mouth motions to your pictures. I was worried they were fighting but they stopped very quickly. I didn't see them do it again after that. It was almost like a dance when they did it.

Its amazing when they do this. Sometimes they carry out this behavior for hours. More stamina than any other fish I know.

fishnose wrote:It's a good thing they aren't using their eye spikes-at least in the pictures

In my experience, I have not known loaches to use their spikes unless it is a life threatening (to them atleast) events like being netted, caught, trapped, also if they are in panic mode they may show it. IMO, it is a last resort and pure defensive mechanism. To use it brings a risk of their being stuck and that could be very dangerous.

And I thought this was going to be the new LOL Valentines card! I guess not...

LOL Mark!

They do use their spines during these battles, it's just that they can flex them so quickly that it is very hard to capture on camera. Both fish were quite scratched up by the end of this argument, but these sort of wounds heal very quickly in this tank (tip-top water quality ).

This is a picture I was lucky enough to capture a while back of Stripes with his spines raised. Stripes being the size he is has spines just a bit bigger than a cat's claw:



Emma

Wow. That would hurt. Amazing pictures- no blurriness or reflections.