whetu Posted March 10, 2009 Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 The story so far: I have five clown loaches. Three of them are eight years old and two are five years old (ages are approximate only). I am aware that clown loaches don't breed in captivity unless injected with hormones (although there have been a couple of undocumented claims that they have bred in captivity). The other day Luke* very kindly linked to this article that had been published in Practical Fishkeeping magazine in the UK: http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/p ... ?news=1429 The key part of the article is this: Colin Dunlop from Carluke, Scotland... told Practical Fishkeeping that his four Clown loaches, which are around four or five years old and 14-20cm in length, had started acting strangely and were cruising around the tank in mid-water. The largest fish, a 20cm female, was being followed around the tank by three males in what Dunlop believed might be pre-spawning behaviour... "The rear fish were often at her vent and they were cruising around the tank together quite quickly," Dunlop told Practical Fishkeeping. "They are quite sociable with each other normally but this was a bit different. It stuck out as all four were joining in. They are normally quite active and not shy at all." Colin Dunlop's loaches ended up laying eggs, which all turned out to be infertile in the end. Still pretty remarkable though. Anyway, on Sunday I did a water change in my tank using rain water, and also threw in some mosquito larvae from the rainwater buckets. About 9pm on Sunday my partner called out to me to come and look at what the loaches were doing as he had never seen anything like it. After we'd been watching them for about 15 minutes he got his new phone and started recording what they were doing. I have just loaded the resulting video on YouTube: The video is extremely poor quality, but I think it pretty much shows exactly the behaviour described by Colin Dunlop in the PFK article. So whaddaya reckon then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted March 10, 2009 Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 did she look gravid? does she look thinner now? is there a breeding tube? all these questions! :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jc360 Posted March 10, 2009 Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 Great looking Clowns!!! seen similar behaviour in Clowns and it is to be noted that they are named Clowns because of there bizarre behaviour. However they look so happy and vigorous that i couldn't say they weren't. Question is what are you going to do??? Do you act on your instinct and devote the considerable amount of time and expense into having an 'every avenue exhausted' attempt to breed these (and in turn write yourself into urban legend), or not. IMO: Go for it!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whetu Posted March 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 did she look gravid? She has always been fatter than the others, but no, she didn't look gravid in the sense that other fish might look. She is very greedy and eats as much by herself as the others eat between them all! does she look thinner now? Don't know! I haven't seen her since we took this video on Sunday night is there a breeding tube? Not specifically. There is a pile of rocks in the back left corner of the tank that has been siliconed together to create caves & tunnels. There is also a piece of driftwood with a 'slit' in it that belongs excluseively to HatuPatu and she won't let other fish go in there. all these questions! :bounce: LOL! Keep asking! It's interesting to share! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whetu Posted March 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 Great looking Clowns!!! seen similar behaviour in Clowns and it is to be noted that they are named Clowns because of there bizarre behaviour. However they look so happy and vigorous that i couldn't say they weren't. Question is what are you going to do??? Do you act on your instinct and devote the considerable amount of time and expense into having an 'every avenue exhausted' attempt to breed these (and in turn write yourself into urban legend), or not. IMO: Go for it!!!! I won't be putting any effort into breeding them as I don't have the money or the space for a breeding tank for them. At the moment they are in a community tank, so any eggs would get eaten up pretty fast (even if I could see them). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imsweet Posted March 10, 2009 Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 I'm no expert but they reminded me straight away of what the corydoras do pre-egg depositing. good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whetu Posted March 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 ...seen similar behaviour in Clowns and it is to be noted that they are named Clowns because of there bizarre behaviour.... I think a lot of people would have observed this kind of behaviour in their clowns over the years, but had no reason to think of it as spawning. It's only after Colin Dunlop's article describing similar behaviour then observing them laying eggs that the (potential) significance of this behaviour has come to light. I can't swear that I have never seen them doing this before, but it is certainly different to their normal 'clownish' activities. My partner called me to look because he has never seen them do something like this in the four years he has known them (yes I've had my loaches twice as long as I've had my partner :lol: ) He isn't especially interested in fish, had no idea about clown loaches and breeding, and I had not mentioned Colin Dunlop's article to him. He was just watching television, got distracted by the loaches' vigorous swimming and called me to have a look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted March 10, 2009 Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 I've seen clowns doing stuff like this - particularly when the tank is nice and long, and has a good current... but course that didn't lead to a spawn... interesting to see it caught on film though. ask r32gotmilk (spelling??? ) if he knows of any thing like this cause he has a mere 50 clowns in the same tank! :lol: :lol: (I have a clown called mr.wiggles (i did not name him) and he likes his head being scratched ) so there is definitely a lot of CL's that do weird things. :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neon Posted March 10, 2009 Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 Nice tank Whetu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave+Amy Posted March 11, 2009 Report Share Posted March 11, 2009 my Dwarf Chain loaches were doing that on top of vibrating next to each other but alas no eggs but plenty of gravid looking potential females Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whetu Posted March 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2009 ask r32gotmilk (spelling??? ) if he knows of any thing like this cause he has a mere 50 clowns in the same tank! :lol: :lol: Only 50?! Oh my goodness! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newfisher Posted March 13, 2009 Report Share Posted March 13, 2009 my baby clowns do this frequently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyzoo Posted April 1, 2009 Report Share Posted April 1, 2009 I have 17 clowns in a 600l tankl, and they always race back and forth and up and down like this....especially after feeding time and in the early eveing........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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