Loaches Online Forum

I used dark substrate but none of my clowns are even dark.

any photo?

Is your dark=black?

Dark substrate may make a lot of species dull down in order to blend in, but when one fish is consistantly darker than all the others of the same species then something else must be going on.

Martin.

Recently my alph clown passed away. The smaller clown about 3.5" assumed role as alpha loach. This loach is usually a lighter color, however, this loach recently turned black like that once it assumed alpha loach. The loach is fine and healthy. I think this may be due to the assumption of alpha loach roll. But Im no expert! my .02 cents.

I have a yoyo that lost an eye in a slightly mysterious accident a while back; at the time of the accident all the silver patches went pretty much black, so I had a charcoal-coloured loach with slightly darker reticulated patterns on it. At the time I thought it was probably a stress response; but the loach is still very dark - though no longer black. It's possible that it's still an on-going stress response; being a one-eyed animal with non-binocular vision is probably stressful.

but I shouldn't worry unless your fish looks otherwise sick.

ckk125 wrote:any photo?

Is your dark=black?

Hi ckk125, you can see in page 1 of this topic the photos of my clown loaches, and yes, the dark I mention is almost black.

LoachOrgy wrote:Recently my alph clown passed away. The smaller clown about 3.5" assumed role as alpha loach. This loach is usually a lighter color, however, this loach recently turned black like that once it assumed alpha loach. The loach is fine and healthy. I think this may be due to the assumption of alpha loach roll. But Im no expert! my .02 cents.

What is odd about this, is that it took about a year and a half before the clown turned black. Do you know how long it takes for the loaches to become the alpha loach?

Martin Thoene wrote:Dark substrate may make a lot of species dull down in order to blend in, but when one fish is consistantly darker than all the others of the same species then something else must be going on.

Martin.

So, then I'm back were I started, I have no idea what caused this, the good thing about this is that he is just find, he eats well, he plays, he waves with his cute round almost black fins when he is hungry, so I think there is nothing to worry, I was just very curious about this.

i don't believe there is anything wrong with the loach if it is acting normal. i see pictures of larger older loaches that seem to have a bit of a darker tinge to them as well. but then you see pics emma has of larger loaches very light colored. so far, my new alpha is still this color. when the alpha does grey out it becomes lighter more of the color it was before. but once it goes back its almost black!

I also have one clown that is very very dark identical to the photos already posted here. He/she is in a group of six, all the others are the regular colour and they spar with each other and "grey out" . My dark guy is certainly NOT the alpha, he is smaller and tends to be a bit of a loner. I have never seem him grey out. Also my substrate is quite light so he isn't reacting to that. He has been very dark since I got him about 6 months ago.

sleepygecko wrote:I also have one clown that is very very dark identical to the photos already posted here. He/she is in a group of six, all the others are the regular colour and they spar with each other and "grey out" . My dark guy is certainly NOT the alpha, he is smaller and tends to be a bit of a loner. I have never seem him grey out. Also my substrate is quite light so he isn't reacting to that. He has been very dark since I got him about 6 months ago.

This could be a glandular condition, to be honest. More often, you see the dark colors of a fish seemingly disappear and never return. This is usually caused by the glands that produce color when they stop working. Sometimes clown loaches don't even produce the red coloration you find on the fins. What might be happening here is the over production of color caused by the same glands. This could be a genetic mutation, or it could have been caused by trauma, or even processing nutrients in food differently. I own a rainbow shark, which I know to be a different fish(thankyouverymuch), but he did not produce the color red at all. I researched this and changed his diet to some richer in nutrient foods and I now have red showing brightly on almost all of his fins. I still have some patches to fill, but it's been a huge improvement. There isn't a lot of information on this matter online, but a vet, or even a regular people doctor might be able to give you some help if need be.