My 7 clown loaches(video) - 1 year old and they haven't grown at all.???!!

[Matteus]

freak78 and johnny potatoes - your tanks are gorgeous !
Matteus - nice impressive size loach ! At what size did you get them and how long till they got this big.?

Hi bill these 2 big loaches that I posted were acquired from friends. Funny enough the first pic roughly 7-8” including tail came from a guy named bill and his wife. If I am correct they had this guy in excess of 10 years, and it was last survivor of a group of 6 in a 240g tank.

the second and third pic are of one that I got from a different friend who had a nice group of them that would come and eat out of the previous owners hand and would sit in his hand. Unfortunately his wolf fish decided that it would supplement its diet on the occasional cl so he had to move them and I had always bugged him that if he ever got rid of them that I “knew a guy”. Lol. But I don’t know how long he had this one

 

[Matteus]

This big loach looks impressive! What's the problem of the live snails? Did they carry parasite?

Yes they must have had something on them. I suspect it was from a bad batch of assassin snails. As I lost a few from what they call skinny disease, which isn’t actually a disease but a parasite. By the time I was able to treat they had gone too far. Then one day I moved a bunch of driftwood and rocks and saw a few more ass snails cruising and thought oh nice more snacks, then a week or two later another loach was skinny and wasn’t able to nurse that one back either.

it wasn’t until RD. raised the flag about the snails until I put the pieces together. Now I won’t let them eat any other ass snails because I’m so jaded from that experience. Even if I see an empty shell in the tank I pull it out. When Neil tells you something it’s for a good reason, not because he’s being an a hole. But some people don’t get common sense. Lol some day I will.

 

[esoxlucius]

Bill - to the best of knowledge there is no definitive way to sex a clown loach, short of manipulating them to express milt or eggs. There has been mention of a difference in their fin shape (caudal/dorsal?), which IMO is not true. No mention of this from the various researchers over the years, either. Typically as they grow out males tend to grow slower, and stay thinner, compared to females. IME males also tend to be more colorful, than their female counterparts. Sex ratio in a group doesn't seem to make a difference one way or the other, females often become so gravid that they look obese, but either drop the eggs and they are eaten, or they reabsorb them over time.

It was only last year that my two fat females started really filling out with eggs, until then the males and females all looked the same. So once I knew which were the males and females I started looking for subtle differences in fins and shape and colour so I could establish what sex my other eight small clown loach were.

Let me tell you, I soon give up, haha. I think the only sure fire way is to let them hit sexual maturity. Then, if they're happy and healthy enough the females will become gravid. All of a sudden they go from being one of the hardest fish to sex, to being the easiest!!

 

[RD.]

Some of you might be interested in reading this past thread on sexing clown loaches.

Sexing clown loaches

So how do you guys sex your clown loaches? I've got 13 clown loaches, 9 of them are of good age and size, the rest are only young. From the first batch of loaches, which I got 5-6 years ago, I think I have only one male and 5 females. Basically, 5 of the loaches are wide in girth, have...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

 

[Cardeater]

I was considering posting about my obviously female alpha Loach looking obese but after reading this thread, I guess she just has eggs. The younger ones and my remaining old male don't look obese so I assume I'm not feeding too much. They even eat more than she does as they like being out all the time so they'll eat more than she does.

I posted a pic in the thread RD linked showing the size difference between a Loach I think will eventually be a huge.female and the other Loaches i got at the same time. They were all of similar size last year, but this one is noticeably bigger. In fact, she's nearly the size of my 20+ year old male that never got very big (I'd say my big alpha is about 3 times his size. )

I also had another old Loach that I lost last year when he accidentally jumped out during a water change and sadly I didnt notice. I'm not sure if it was a male or female but the size was in between that of this male.and the alpha. My alpha used to have dominance interactions with that one, I'm assuming bc he was closer in size than the small male.

I'll see if I can find a pic later showing all three last year

 

[Cardeater]

This is the alpha Loach. Was wondering if she was eggbound or just obese. Usually I can only get side pics but she was facing that way while waiting to get back into her cave. The pleco occasionally steals the cave and that's why she's facing that way.

Below is all of them:
Second from left is the 20 something male. Top right is the one I've had for a year and a half. I suspect she'll grow to be a big female.
Can't really tell from this pic, but she's the one that's almost as big as second one from left. The others are a bit smaller but not that far away from his size either.

Another factor might be that I feed better foods now and I keep nitrates under 30 (usually under 10-20 when I'm not traveling). When the two (previously three) 20 something year olds were growing until about a year ago, I bet nitrates will always in several hundred range as I only did water changes once a month (and only 30-40%). I also fed Tetra food, Wadlrsley shrimp pellets and "algae" wafers.

Sorry for the jittery pic, but somehow it's saved that way.

 

[squint]

Looks gravid to me and this appears to be the time of year. Several of my girls are ridiculously fat now.

I worry that one of these seasons someone might become egg bound and need medical intervention. I suppose if I see all gravid females reabsorb their eggs except one, it's egg bound.

 

[RD.]

Yes, looks gravid.

 

[derunren]

I have a 9" very fat one. It grew only half inch in about 10 years. I also had some 4.5-5" and they are about 6.5-7" today. 8-10 years for this kind of growth is pretty crazy.

 

[Coryloach]

View attachment 1362727

These are a male and a female from my group.

The big question is has anybody ever put a one CL(I cant put 2 or can I?) double the size of their present stock and face problems.?

Yes, that big mama on the front joined my group when the rest were half her size.

How do you sex them? also how do you know they are gravid? This helps me understand some of the same frustration that op has experienced.

Personally, I judge by the development of the shape of the body. After a few years its obvious for fish in the same group. The females grow larger in both length and girth. The males tend to stay elongated and slim, and smaller from the same age group. The older larger males also happen to chase the females from time to time, poking their nose at their anal area for some unknown reason . As for gravid, only my largest females got gravid at first, then my second largest which is much younger but nearly the same size. This year I noticed a couple of more of my smaller females getting gravid but they've also packed quite on size. They are all about 8 years old, except for my largest female who must be around 12 and perhaps why she got gravid first. I can't remember them being gravid before when they were only 5-6 years old. That bulging with eggs belly is quite obvious. In time it gets absorbed in.