Ok people... I need confirmation here!

To those people that have clown loaches - Do yours "click" when they're eating? Cause I'm absolutely certain that mine do, I can hear it from the other end of the room! But when I mentioned it to the girl at Hollywoods, all I got was a blank stare...

Mine used to on the odd occasion (don't have any now). It was only when they were eating however. I've got several other types of fish that make clicking noises when eating. The most obvious ones are discus. You can see their gills quickly close at the time the click occurs. It forces a high speed jet of water at the food to break it up. The click in loaches make may be quite different however. I never paid too much notice to the loaches when eating as they had the heads buried up to their eyes in the gravel searching for food most of the time.

Aqua said...

> Do yours "click" when they're eating?

Clown (and some other) loaches are well known for making

noises as they forage. You're not going mad

Andrew.

"Click" is Loache language for "GET AWAY FROM MY FOOD!!!" I have Skunk Loachs (similar to Clowns) who click at each other when they come out of their holes and decide to chase each other around the tank. When it 1st happened I got out of bed and started looking everywhere for the Clicker beetle that was stuck underneath something and bugging me :oops:

Cheers

Shilo

My silver sharks made a loud clicking noise when eating. Probably similar idea to the discus. Most irritating fish sound was from my pictus when I got his whisker caught in a net. I was trying to get him loose and he made a really high pitched ZZZZTT that I could feel because I was touching him. Almost like getting a shock.

sweet - well as long as I'm not going mad! :lol:

What sort of noise do the "talking cats" make? Also, how aggressive/territorial are they?

I've got two types of talking cats - the chocolate stripes and the spotted. They have only ever made noise when removed from water - it was a grating/croaking noise. They do not appear to be aggressive at all - they will bulldoze others fish out of the way to get to food but not maliciously. Mine are extremely nocturnal though, chocolate stripes slightly less so than the spotted, so make sure that there are suitable hiding places for them.

Because they are so nocturnal I worry that they don't get enough food so have taken to putting in sinking food after the tank lights have gone off. If you have a dim room light then you should be able to see them foraging.

They're cool looking fish with all that armour and prodruding body spikes.