Loaches Online Forum

Hi all,

I thought I would share some up-to-date photos of my Clowns with you.

We re-arranged the tank on Sunday evening to make it a bit more navigable for some of our larger residents, adding another £100's worth of giant bogwood pieces and Java Fern motherplants (hopefully they will last a couple of months this time, but my lot are keen plant munchers..).

Sadly most photos that show the whole set-up at a distance came out far too dark <crappy Nikon in-built flash > but the good news is that thanks to JD's great advice I am getting a decent external flash next week, so things should improve!
(JD, I'm getting the Nikon SB-800 plus that expensive cable! ).

Anyway, here they are.......

The fish on the left is Marge, our beautiful 11.5" Clown:


And here she is again:


They're all excited because it's near feeding time:
















You can see a few scratches on Stripes's nose where he and Marge have been fighting:




Some close-ups of Marge & co:








This one is very interesting, as you can see Marge is sifting through the sand looking for any missed particles of food. She's expelling the sand out through the gills, just like, for example, what a goby would do.


And here's one final shot of part of the tank after lights out. Lots of Clowning around going on in the dark:


I hope that you enjoyed looking through them.

Emma

Wow your tank looks amazing.

Firstly, what size tank is tank is that?

Secondly, I know clown loach grow in spurts but what is about the average growth rate for a fish across the year? I have five loaches in a 100 litre tank and four of them have grown about 30 - 40% over the last 7 months but the smallest fish hasn't grown at all. Its probably the most active fish, eats well and is very sociable, but just doesn't seem to grow any ideas?

Yep Emma...your Clowns are definitely a "bundle".

That full tank shot is amazing.

Martin.

ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS, Emma

Absolutely Amazing!

Thanks for sharing your pictures Emma.

Mine are tadpoles in comparison, brilliant stuff.

nice clowns you took some really nice pictures.

AMAZING!!!! i'm also curious about tank size, it's got to be a big one! lol.

Emma Turner wrote:I hope that you enjoyed looking through them

Immensely so, thank you very much for sharing.

Is it a general tendency to lose the orange color with size? -- it appears than none of the CL's above 5"-6" retain orange.

Mikev,

I had the same question re: colour fading...
My biggest is still less then 5cm... so not a problem as yet.
Try feeding cheap little cocktail shrimp. Makes red and orange colours pop in most spp. Certainly works wonders on oscars and my little CLs are vibrant.

Andyroo

Andyroo,

Thanks, but no, I don't have an immediate problem: my largests are around 8cm with bright colors. I was only commenting on Emma's pictures which seem to be a good proof of orange fading.

To make sure: cheap little cocktail shrimp -- you are talking about the shrimp we eat, right? I was very tempted to try it--it seemed like something CL's would enjoy---but was afraid to try.

As usual, another bunch of wonderful pics of the very nice shoal of clowns. Love to see them thanks for sharing.
jerry

outstanding pics of your gang, emma.

Have seen some of those before, and honestly, can't see them often enuff, such an impressive group of clowns, congrats on a great tank and such a cool gang of fish.

Thank you everyone for all your nice comments!

For those of who asked what size the tank is, it is 1000 litres. It's filtered by 3 Eheims, 2 of which are the huge Professionel 3's. There's also two additional large Aquaclear powerheads on the tank for even more water movement. The water is very soft (from our RO unit) with a pH of 5.0. Temp is kept around 82 deg F.

They are a happy bunch, and I feel so priveledged that I get to see all this behaviour from them every night.

Mikev, with regards to the colours fading: yes I do think they lose some of their 'orange-ness' as they get bigger. Some of my big fish were actually paler to start with (suspected regional differences), but others that were brighter have paled down somewhat. But do remember that all the above photos were taken under blue moon lighting, which can distort the colours a little. They are fed a huge variety of foods, of which prawns (shrimps) are their favourite. The bigger loaches take them whole, and we chop them up small for the little 'uns. It is by far and away their preferred food, and they get them at least 5 times a week.

Emma

Emma Turner wrote: Mikev, with regards to the colours fading: yes I do think they lose some of their 'orange-ness' as they get bigger.

I believe so and I think your picture clinches this. The largest two I have started developing a narrow but growing yellow band on the border between orange and black...this may be another way orange is lost (in addition to simply fading).

But do remember that all the above photos were taken under blue moon lighting, which can distort the colours a little.

Right, but since colors of all CL's are distorted the same way, you still have a very conclusive evidence.

As for yellow-orange as a regional variation: it well may be this, or something else (one-gene difference, type of food they were fed at early age, or any combination). This may actually be easier to figure out with khulis first (there is the same yellow-orange distinction).

They are fed a huge variety of foods, of which prawns (shrimps) are their favourite.

Thank you. I tried and failed (almost no interest from loaches, except for fast-growing yoyos who eat everything). I'll try another brand next.