Feeling fruity?!

[Emma Turner]

I took some photos last week of my Clowns enjoying eating some chunks of honeydew melon. Having only just got round to sorting through them, I thought I'd post some on here for you all to see. At first, the greedy barbs in the tank (Puntius filamentosus) were hogging all the melon, but the Clowns soon realised and got stuck in. The smaller ones ventured out first, followed by the medium-sized ones, then eventually the bigger ones and the monsters. Some of these were taken under blue moon lighting, so apologies if the colours are distorted slightly in some of them. Enjoy!.....

This first one shows a small Clown trying to get through the gang of greedy barbs to the melon:


One of my smaller loaches with irregular markings:




One of my small round-faced Clowns investigating the melon:


Another loach with an irregular 'blotch' pattern having a look:


A group of smaller Clowns tucking in:


A medium-sized Clown finds the melon. Note the empty plant-weight on the sand - that is one piece of melon completely gone (eaten by the smaller laoches and barbs):






One of the big loaches comes out to see what's going on:


Yet another Clown with an unusual pattern, this time in the form of a letter 'H'....


One of the larger Clowns - you can see the texture of his skin quite nicely here:




This one shows one of my older fish extending her mouth out to grab a piece of melon. Note the two pairs of barbels on the upper lip facing upwards (she hasn't got many barbels on the lower part of her mouth as she was rescued from a tank with a gravel substrate 13 years ago). She used to be my Alpha fish until I acquired the two monsters last year.


This is one of my favourite loaches, also around 13 years old, but nowhere near as big.


Not too much melon left now.....










Luckily, Marge decided to come out and get some melon before it was all gone:


She's a big girl!


I hope you enjoyed looking through them all,

Emma

[mikev]

Wow!

I have to admit that in a fair loach beauty competition your Spot may win over my Spot.

[HylaChristine]

Wow! What size tank? How many clowns? How big is the biggest one? What else do you feed them? Do they breed in captavity?
Hyla

[NancyD]

Wonderful, Emma! I've never tried fruit, seemed like it might be messy but it looks like every speck is gone. How long did it take for them eat it all ? What other fruit do they like?
Nancy

[Wendie]

Sigh... aren't they lovely.

[Xirxes]

need the picture links fixed i wanna see!

[notoo7]

Once I found a reliable way of keeping the honey dew underwater (used a suction cup assembly from a disused underwater platform). My clowns and skunks had a field day. Thanks for the info!

[daspricey]

WOW
I MEAN
WOW
WOW
WOW
WOW
WOW
WOW
WOW
WOWTHOSE R EXELANT PIC.
i'm amazed.
i take it that loaches like fruit.
would my weather loach be interested do u think?

[Emma Turner]

Thank you for all your kind comments!

To answer a few questions that have cropped up:

HylaChristine - the tank is 7ft long, but is extra wide and deep, with a total volume of 1000 litres. There are approx 40 Clown Loaches in there, ranging in size from 4" up to 11.5". Some I have had for 13 - 14 years, others I have 'rescued' along the way. I work in the trade, and I have re-homed many when they have outgrown their owners tanks (some owners were totally unaware of their potential adult size, having been given misleading or inadequate information by some unscrupulous stores). They are one big happy family and all socialise together. Much mystery surrounds their breeding habits, and the rare occasion when someone claims to have bred them in their tank, this is never backed up by any photographic evidence etc. Some fish farms in the far east, however, are breeding large quantities in captivity, under some kind of hormone treatment. With regards to feeding, my group get fed a varied diet containing dried foods such as catfish pellets, tetra prima etc, frozen foods such as white mosquito larvae, brineshrimp, krill, chopped cockles etc, plus fresh prawns. They also enjoy greenfoods, such as algae wafers, cucumber, and the big adults also munch through plants that others claim to be 'safe' from them! Spirulina enriched brineshrimp is also taken eagerly too.

Nancy - This is the first time that I tried my Clowns with the honeydew melon, but I have heard of others feeding it before (I think Mark may have done??). I figured that the texture and water content must be similar to the cucumber that they enjoy so much. And as with the cucumber, they seemed to go for the softest bit first (i.e. the bits I cut from the melon that had been closest to the seeds). I haven't tried them with any other fruits, but have heard of bananas and cherry tomatoes being used. I imagine that the banana would cloud the tank somewhat though. It took my Clowns (and barbs!) around 4 hours to polish off the big hunks of melon that I put in. If you try it with yours, let us know how they get on with it, won't you.

daspricey - never tried weather loaches with fruit before. Maybe someone else who keeps them (Sophie?) would be able to comment? I suspect that they prefer the 'meatier' foods such as mosquito larvae though.

Emma

[NancyD]

Good idea on the texture/water content, Emma. I was concerned too about a possible bacterial or algae outbreak from sugar etc. in fruit. Maybe I'll try soaking any I decide to try in a dish to see how fast it falls apart or clouds up the water before I try it in the tank. Maybe right before a water change too.
Nancy

[ey]

Absolutely stunning pics! Judging by the clown loaches in those photos, they must have loved the honeydew!

Emma, do your bigger clowns swim around as much as the medium/smaller clowns or do they spend most of the day sitting on the gravel?

I've seen 6" clowns at a few LFS before, one group from a LFS weren't active and quite shy while another batch from a different LFS were really playful and active. I'm yet to see any clown loach larger than 6" though!

Your clown loaches look gorgeous:)

[HylaChristine]

Wow! 11 1/2! Wow!
Great fish keeping!

[Emma Turner]

Absolutely stunning pics! Judging by the clown loaches in those photos, they must have loved the honeydew!

Emma, do your bigger clowns swim around as much as the medium/smaller clowns or do they spend most of the day sitting on the gravel?

I've seen 6" clowns at a few LFS before, one group from a LFS weren't active and quite shy while another batch from a different LFS were really playful and active. I'm yet to see any clown loach larger than 6" though!

Your clown loaches look gorgeous:)

Thank you!

My aquarium looks pretty empty for most of the day (except for the barbs that is). Some of the smaller Clowns will venture out now and again, but it is not until about 9:30-10pm that the medium-large sized ones come out to play. Once the main lights go off (which are not particularly powerful), leaving just the blue moon lighting on, the large Clowns come out more or less straight away. They can often be seen moving about once all the lights go off too - you can just make out lots of moving stripes in the dark!!!

This is the total opposite to the shoal of Clowns in our 8ft display tank at work. They range in size from 4" - 7" (approx) and are out and about all the time, even with customers continually walking past. Because they were all introduced when they were about 2", I think they have grown up getting used to continual movements outside the tank and are not scared by it now.

Emma

[libingboy]

Extremely nice pics! your tank pics make me want to upgrade to a larger tank and get more loaches! (too bad the building regulations would probably limit me to a 6x2x2 at the most...)

would you have any recommendations for fruits/vegetables that would automatically sink? Except peas, carrots and corn. I've tried it and they dont like it. Using a weight to make an item go down is a bit difficult for me, coz i have a tall tank, and im a bit "vertically challenged".

[Emma Turner]

would you have any recommendations for fruits/vegetables that would automatically sink? Except peas, carrots and corn. I've tried it and they dont like it. Using a weight to make an item go down is a bit difficult for me, coz i have a tall tank, and im a bit "vertically challenged".

Same here! Our tank is 27" tall and stands on a custom-made cabinet too. I find that I have to stand on a chair and use a net to scoop the empty plant-weights out after they've finished! Otherwise I get Steve (my other half) to get them out - he's 6ft tall, so it's not such a problem for him. I've never tried any other fruit/veg with the Clowns other than the melon or cucumber (which they love). Maybe others here have though.

Emma