16 Year Old Clown Loaches Part II

[USMCSS]

As many of you read the post I made last week regarding the stunted of the CL's I came across at my LFS, I was back there today and took some pics. As stated before, they are only 5-6" and the owner, who is not the type to BS anyone, states he has had them since they were small juvies which was 16 years ago. They are kept in the custom built tank as pictured below and are kept with some plecos (not sure what kind but maybe someone can tell from the pics) that he states are 22 and 26 years old. Filtration is great and he says they are VERY well taken care of as far as water quality and high grade foods. This guy is VERY knowledgeable and their lack of growth over the years in that tank where they have always lived for 16 years has even him scratching his head.

Anywho, here they are, healthy and very happy looking.

 

[Wailua Boy]

They look healthy despite not growing as much as you would expect....

 

[USMCSS]

They look healthy despite not growing as much as you would expect....

Oh they are VERY healthy. Nice deep dark solid black stripes, not very skiddish, and still very playful at 16. Owner says they've never been sick one day in 16 years. If anybody is in Arizona, go check then out at Aquarium Arts in Mesa. Everybody there is very knowleagable, extremely friendly, and professional. The store is very clean and well organized, AWESOME inventory of salt and FW has alot of good stuff too beyond the standard bread and butter fish you can find anywhere. They're also fairly negotiable on their prices which aren't bad to begin with in the first place. The thing I liked about the place was the fact they have no problem refusing to sell you fish if they have even the slightest feeling the fish is not 100% healthy. I went to buy some juvi cl's a couple weeks ago and the manager wouldn't sell them to me because he said they had lost 2 within a few days time and weren't sure what the cause was and didn't want me to bring them home only to lose them a few days later when he knew something wasn't right. Stores like that are hard to find these days.

 

[Wailua Boy]

That's good to hear and good advice.