Bioaquatix and video by Aquarium Coop and oddball tank raised clown Loaches

[Cardeater]

Cory posted a video showing Bioaquatix clown Loaches. The video just has the farm owner (I assume) showing off some of his tank bred and raised clown Loaches.

The video doesn't show the process and the guy doesn't really talk about the process. He mentions some things about the.process like he conditions the fish at 82 degrees but he doesn't go into the details.

I've heard of this place as RD linked them in a thread years ago about clown Loach breading using hormones. I assume that is what they are still doing here, but again the video doesn't get into details.

Oddballs:
The thing that immediately stood out to me is that I noticed a bunch of oddball pattern ones in the fish shown in the video.

Looking at their website, I guess they sell those separately with a significant markup:
$14.99 for their 1" regular tank raised clown Loaches vs $49.99 for their oddballs at 1":

Clown Loaches Oddball Pattern For Sell, FREE USPS shipping on all orders over $149.99

Clown Loaches Oddball Pattern for sell, purchase beautiful rare fish, uncommon freshwater fish for sale, unique tank born fish for sell, unusual patterns Loaches, unusual looking loach, playful fish, very active fish,

bioaquatix.com

I'm still trying to figure out how I feel.about these now. I liked oddball Loaches that just happened to show up from wild caught specimens but being able to buy them like this makes me like them less for some reason. I might still get them like this in the future though, haven't ruled that out.

I just wonder if these tank raised ones have the possible life span that wild ones can (20+ years). Only reason I can think of that they wouldn't is the hormone process could affect them maybe? I'm just guessing. We won't know for a few decades if these can live that long though

 

[Cardeater]

I'm watching the full tour video now:

At around the 7:25 mark he mentions stuff and clown Loach breeding that's not in the shorter video above. He can says something about their being a ten day window to breed them. He also mentioned that he's been working on clown Loach breeding for 12 years.

 

[Cardeater]

Kept pausing video to surf forums.

More clowns in longer video at 19:55 mark.

He says they are 3 months old here.

 

[Belly up]

I watched the loach video as well. I think you can read between the lines on what they are doing. My best guess is they are treat the loaches like salmon in that they express the eggs from the females and milt from the males. I suppose they could be conditioned without hormones then artificially "spawned" in this way.

As far as paying more for oddballs-never! It takes away the luck aspect and there really isn`t anything special about them if you have to pay extra. I see oddballs regularly in both my LFS and at Meijer, so much so I wonder why people make a big deal of them at all.

 

[RD.]

I think you can read between the lines on what they are doing. My best guess is they are treat the loaches like salmon in that they express the eggs from the females and milt from the males. I suppose they could be conditioned without hormones then artificially "spawned" in this way.

I agree. This is a small farm, and whatever they are doing they are doing it on a very small scale.

I posted the following in another thread in this section back in 2009, the pics are now gone so I'll repost them here. The loaches below were purchased from a wholesale vendor in Florida, and I believe that they came from Bioaquatix.

Well it doesn't appear that one is going to have to wait years to see tank bred specimens, one of our chain stores here just got some in from Florida last week. At best they are 3/4", by far the smallest loaches that I have ever seen. At close to $11.00 each (if you buy 3 or more) I doubt they will be moving very fast. The fish in the tank next to them (barbs) are approx 1 1/2", and they look like giants next to the loaches. If you look closely you can see the tiny loach down below the cherry barb. The plant in the second pic is just your average fake plant, so use the stem as a guide to their size.

The loaches in the following pics turned out to be very unstable at that size, and most died before being sold.
They were imported by a guy who I knew that at that time oversaw the Petland chain in my province. I have never seen any this small before, or since. Cheaper for stores to buy wild stock at 2".

 

[Cardeater]

As far as paying more for oddballs-never! It takes away the luck aspect and there really isn`t anything special about them if you have to pay extra. I see oddballs regularly in both my LFS and at Meijer, so much so I wonder why people make a big deal of them at all.

That's interesting. I won't be in the market for clown Loaches until I get a new tank but I think it would be fun for me to stop at the LFS just to see if oddball ones pop up.by chance. When I was looking around last year, I never did see any but I was just store hopping for about a month. I was checking out all the local stores and I still say there are only three in the Chicago area that I would buy fish from.

I never did look at fish at Meijer as I figured I'd just get mad at poorly cared for fish but that's interesting that you've seen oddballs there.

 

[RD.]

I currently have 4 oddballs, but honestly I don't care one way or the other what their pattern is. I only have the oddballs as they were given to me by a friend, not because I went looking for them. In my world size & health dictates price.

 

[Cardeater]

I happened to go by Meijer so I did a quick pass By the pet section.

So my Meijer has no fish now. Looks like they recently drained the tanks as the gravel is still wet.

 

[Cardeater]

Off topic Meijer:

Meijer got me back in bc app gave me a $5 off coupon that I needed to use the next day.

This thread is only reason I'm looking at their fish. I actually forgot that they even had fish. This other location has tanks.

I didn't see any obvious signs of ich but I also Didn't scrutinize every tank l like I used to when evaluating local stores where I actually wanna buy.

I did see a dead fish getting eaten. It actually wasn't as bad as I expected as I've seen more dead fish in LFS that have more people in the store that are supposed to be taking care if the tanks. No one was in pet area here.