World's oldest Clown Loaches reach 30 years of age.
- Thread starter Redshark1
- Start date
I forgot to check on your update but your Dec 2023 YouTube video popped up on my YouTube suggestions. Love the fish and the updates.
How long have you had the Rasbora as dithers? I believe you used to have bosemani rainbows but you said they beat each other up too much. How long ago was that and what made you decide on the Rasbora now?
How long have you had the Rasbora as dithers? I believe you used to have bosemani rainbows but you said they beat each other up too much. How long ago was that and what made you decide on the Rasbora now?
Wow! Congratulations, and Happy Birthday. That's awesome. I'm so jealous. I think CL are such cool fish, and the monster CL are the coolest of all. Yours are tops! Beauties indeed. What do you feed to them? Imagine, 30 yrs! Hot damn!
We started our CL journey all over again in '14, cuz ours made it up to 9" long before a normal weekly water change killed 'em all at once, due to a mysterious county water "fix" (yes, I tested it before WC). You must have a great stable water supply. That's good for you & your babies.
Well done!
We started our CL journey all over again in '14, cuz ours made it up to 9" long before a normal weekly water change killed 'em all at once, due to a mysterious county water "fix" (yes, I tested it before WC). You must have a great stable water supply. That's good for you & your babies.
Well done!
I think that CL and many other loach species can live for many decades.
Well done with your Tang. It's an awesome-looking fish.
You are right it is hard to know the real ages of fish. I have been searching the web for a couple of decades and when people announce that their old Clown Loach has died they have usually been in their early to mid twenties. These are very rare and most will die much earlier or their ages will be unknown. Only one I found lived over 30 it was a single fish that died in Germany at age 32 years. I was in contact with the owner while the fish was alive and he told me it was wasting away.
Thanks for your interest. I have a six foot tank it measures 6' x 18" x 18". It holds roughly 400 litre / 90 uk gallon / 120 US gallon. It seems adequate for six fish. Such large tanks were rare here as houses are small. Most people said I didn't need a tank that size but now we recommend even bigger as a minimum for a small group such as mine.
I have an undergravel filter at each end. These are powered by reliable Aquaclear 50 powerheads.
Here's the full lowdown. You gotta read it all now you asked!
Gem Juwel (Jeff Allam) Aquarium (Classic Gold Anodised finish) and
cabinet - Approx. 400 l/90 UK gal/110 US gal.
Additives: Treated for chlorine/chloramine with Prime
Filtration: 2 x undergravel filter, 2 x Aquaclear 50 powerhead with venturi for aeration (1000 l/h, 250 g/hr and 12W). Total Filtration = 2000 l/h divided by 400 l = 5 times turnover per hour
Water Changes: 66% weekly (2 x 33% water changes, one with gravel cleaning of half the aquarium and ornament / glass cleaning etc. taking 1 hour, one without taking 30 minutes).
Fish: 6 x Clown Loach (all purchased Jan 1995), 1 x Bristlenose Catfish (Gold, female, born in tank 2013), 22 x Harlequin Rasbora (purchased Jan 2021).
Aquadvisor estimated stocking level: 110% with Clown Loaches alone
Heating: Any well regarded 300W economy heater on offer plus heater guard.
Temperature: 27C or 80F
Lighting: 0.75WPG provided by 2 x 5ft 58W Arcadia Original Tropical T8 Lamps plus Arcadia reflectors.
Lighting Duration: On 9am to 6pm (9 hours).
Plants: No
Ornaments: Superfish brand, resin - moulded tree roots (white/grey). Every fortnight the ornaments are treated with Hydrogen Peroxide solution painted on, allowed to soak in for several hours and then rinsed in warm water and returned to the aquarium.
Substrate: Natural rounded aquarium gravel.
Well that is a good question. They stopped growing five years ago. Anthia's stripe pattern broke up at age 17. Tiama's still hasn't. Anthia started losing weight a year ago and I think she will gradually waste away as other owners' have done. But I haven't detected this in the others just yet.
When food is put in Anthia still uses her dominant position in the hierarchy and is usually first to the food. Tiama is second. I have to spread food out so the others can get some. It's a straightforward dominance with no spite or real aggression. She is just top dog and the others know it. The two females Anthia and Tiama still have trials of strength quite often as they have always done. They often lie down on the substrate next to each other afterwards or at any time. The fish are usually fine with each other outside feeding times. They will all zoom out of hiding and scatter the gravel when food is put in but usually at least a couple of them will be out and about foraging at any time of the day. They had a couple of phases earlier when they were annoyingly hiding but haven't done this for the last ten years they are quite confident being out in the middle front of the aquarium.
You can take a look on YouTube
I've had regular breeding behaviour but no eggs have been laid that I have seen. The breeding triggers are not known as far as I know.
I've had many Boeseman's Rainbows (which came from newly hatched fry given to me). You are right that when fully mature the males fought and the females were chased to exhaustion but only over a long period of time.
I just wanted something different and more peaceful so I had Congo Tetras for a long time. But these were not completely without aggression issues though and I felt they did not live long enough with me (I had already had kept Arnold's Red-eyed Characin one of which lived over 15 years).
The Harlequins were not tried earlier because I feared they would be too small and would either be eaten or would be stressed by the much bigger Clown Loaches. However, this certainly is not the case and they are my favourites of the dither species I have tried.
I like the Clown Loaches with a single species shoal of dithers. It looks better than a mix of species to my eyes and there are no compatibility issues.
