Loaches Online Forum

Sorry to hear they didn't hatch- that's bad luck. There's always next time, and the more reliable information there is on clown loach breeding the better.

sorry to hear the eggs were dud, Colin. i think congratulations should still go to you though for the condidtion of the fish and getting the eggs in the first place.

that is certainly some shed you have there. wow!

Hey, found your article colin
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/p ... ?news=1429

Hi, yeah Matt from PFK emailed me with a list of questions and made it into a kind of article.

All 4 loaches now doing well and back to their old selves in the main tank.

One observation is that the female has scratches on her flanks which i'd say was consistent with the male's eye spines???

Colin wrote:One observation is that the female has scratches on her flanks which i'd say was consistent with the male's eye spines???

That's possible, Colin. Even clown loaches that clash against each other end up getting scratch marks on their flanks.

Was out and about today and managed to get 4 new clowns to double my shoal. They are only slightly smaller at about 12cm or so and I can easily tell them apart as these clowns have thinner black bands... Id say about a 1/3 smaller.

The big female is totally un-impressed and just lying in a pipe but two of the males are being totally 'idolised' by the new ones and they are sticking to them like glue!

Will be interesting to see how the shoal politics pans out.

Whilst a larger group is excellent news for the clowns, you may find that this upsets the balance with regards to potential spawning behaviour. Although if all the new ones are smaller, the pecking order may not change. Keep us informed if anything interesting happens!

Emma

Hi Emma,

yeah they are all smaller, much skinnier too, so I was betting on them not being a 'threat' of any kind and upsetting the balance. I read about what you said earlier and how that stopped certain behaviour. I'd say it had perked up my other 4 since all the upheaval last week.

I just sent you an email, hope you get it ok?

Are there any documented reports or spawning accounts of species like striata etc?

Hi Colin,

Yes the email has just come through. Unfortunately, I may not have much time to respond tonight as I am in the middle of getting our Lincoln branch onto the TropicalFishFinder site (just taking a quick break), but will definitely do so over the weekend.

There are no documented natural spawnings of other Botiid species as far as I am aware.

Emma

Lately, I've been reading up on how changes in atmospheric pressure may trigger many fish species to spawn. That pressure drops in particular can induce spawning, regardless of other water parameter changes. Then I was wondering if pressure drops had anything to do with this clown loach spawning.

Well, I found a website that has weather records of Stirling, Scotland-
http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~kjt/wx/displayer/

According to data I collected, pressure decreases coincided with the clown loach spawning activities. What a coincidence.

I would think pressure changes could be simulated by raising or lowering the water level in the tank.

chefkeith, you constantly amaze me.

In an aquarium changing the water level might work. It takes 33.9 ft of water to = 1 atmosphere or 14.7 psi, which is about 1 bar or 1000 mBars. (The scale of the chart in my previous post is in mBars). 2 ft water = .867 psi. An atmospheric pressure trigger would probably be a drop of about 25 -30 mBars or 0.441 psi over 2 or 3 days span . The water level would need to be decreased to .426 psi or 1 ft of water in a 2 ft tank over 2 or 3 day period. But that depends on if the actual atmospheric pressure is steady. If the atmospheric pressure is going up, you’d need to decrease the water level even more.

It would be challenging work keeping tabs on the atmospheric pressure and adjusting the water level in the aquarium to find where the fish will be induced to spawn.

Very interesting! And very observant of you, chefkeith.

Emma

That might be 1 piece to riddle. The other factors of ph, tds, oxygen content, water flow, temperature, feeding, and lighting shouldn't be dismissed either.
Obviously for clown loaches, many things have to be just right.