http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/show_article.php?article_id=556
Read through the article. Since it's an English article, I won't call it garbage, but in my opinion it is "rubbish". The last line is the real killer:
"So where are the pictures?
The pictures in this article are library images. I know what you are going to say - "If I did something as exciting as breed Clown loaches, why didn't I reach for my camera?".
Well, I did. The pictures came out, too, but they are presently stowed in a chest of drawers deep in a garage in Devon, with several tons of immovable builders' rubble between them and the door. To get them will literally mean raising the roof, but as soon as I am sorted you will see them, that's a promise.
This article was first published in the February 1996 issue of Practical Fishkeeping magazine.
It attracted criticism from readers who claimed the reader's spawning report was unsubstantiated. The author was unable to provide photographic evidence of the spawning. "
That gets the obvious out of the way. No pictures, no way. He might have done better to say he made a diamond the size of George Michael appear on his coffee table but then lost the video and the diamond.
Now how about some more of the BS:
"In the freezer I had some whitebait that was used to feed Red-tailed cats; remembering what had happened to my friend's Giant danios, I decided to try a couple of whitebait. I have never seen such a reaction in "ordinary" tropical fish.
Frenzied feeding would be a complete understatement - the Clowns fought over the whitebait. I hurriedly put some more whitebait in the tank, as the aggression and clicks directed from one fish to another had to be seen to be believed."
Drop in some mussels, krill, fish, pretty much anything with a shoal of loaches, you'll see a feeding frenzy.
I had to add a canister filter to the tank, containing a nitrate-removing resin, as with all this extra feeding, nitrate levels had gone off the scale. The water readings were now pH 6.1 with no ammonia or nitrite; conductivity had risen to 450 microsiemens.
I want some of this nitrate removing resin!
The fish were now prowling up and down the tank as if distressed, but all the water parameters checked out fine - except the temperature, which was a couple of degrees higher than their usual 82�F.
Loaches do not move up and down the tank when distressed. The sit on the bottom and breathe heavily. In fact, I know my loaches are healthiest when they are moving up and down the tank, searching every crevice for food, and even "begging".
Mine were often at 86�F on my Discus system, with no problems. We did a large "cool" water change and everything returned to normal.
Large "cool" water change? Sounds like a recipe for ich disaster
An interesting point regarding the tank-bred fry, which were distributed to many other fishkeepers in many different parts of the county, was their resistance to white spot - even in tanks where other fish had succumbed.
Alright, maybe he didn't have pictures, but he gave away 450 fry, and not one person has come forward and said they received some or that they saw the fry?
This story is completely unsubstantiated. It is referred to often as the "it is too possible!" argument. The simple fact of the matter is that while it is possible, it has never happened in a natural manner. Until the exact conditions can be replicated during breeding in the natural habitat, it probably won't happen. Many fish have a series of "triggers" that lets them know when it is time to spawn. It would most likely be ridiculously and prohibitively expensive to create conditions in an aquarium that would allow for the natural triggers to take place in an aquarium.
DISCLAIMER: All of the info I posted is from the article, and my opinions of the information provided by the person that claims the successful spawning. I don't know the person, so I can't be positive. It's simply my opinion based on the information provided.
Read through the article. Since it's an English article, I won't call it garbage, but in my opinion it is "rubbish". The last line is the real killer:
"So where are the pictures?
The pictures in this article are library images. I know what you are going to say - "If I did something as exciting as breed Clown loaches, why didn't I reach for my camera?".
Well, I did. The pictures came out, too, but they are presently stowed in a chest of drawers deep in a garage in Devon, with several tons of immovable builders' rubble between them and the door. To get them will literally mean raising the roof, but as soon as I am sorted you will see them, that's a promise.
This article was first published in the February 1996 issue of Practical Fishkeeping magazine.
It attracted criticism from readers who claimed the reader's spawning report was unsubstantiated. The author was unable to provide photographic evidence of the spawning. "
That gets the obvious out of the way. No pictures, no way. He might have done better to say he made a diamond the size of George Michael appear on his coffee table but then lost the video and the diamond.
Now how about some more of the BS:
"In the freezer I had some whitebait that was used to feed Red-tailed cats; remembering what had happened to my friend's Giant danios, I decided to try a couple of whitebait. I have never seen such a reaction in "ordinary" tropical fish.
Frenzied feeding would be a complete understatement - the Clowns fought over the whitebait. I hurriedly put some more whitebait in the tank, as the aggression and clicks directed from one fish to another had to be seen to be believed."
Drop in some mussels, krill, fish, pretty much anything with a shoal of loaches, you'll see a feeding frenzy.
I had to add a canister filter to the tank, containing a nitrate-removing resin, as with all this extra feeding, nitrate levels had gone off the scale. The water readings were now pH 6.1 with no ammonia or nitrite; conductivity had risen to 450 microsiemens.
I want some of this nitrate removing resin!
The fish were now prowling up and down the tank as if distressed, but all the water parameters checked out fine - except the temperature, which was a couple of degrees higher than their usual 82�F.
Loaches do not move up and down the tank when distressed. The sit on the bottom and breathe heavily. In fact, I know my loaches are healthiest when they are moving up and down the tank, searching every crevice for food, and even "begging".
Mine were often at 86�F on my Discus system, with no problems. We did a large "cool" water change and everything returned to normal.
Large "cool" water change? Sounds like a recipe for ich disaster
An interesting point regarding the tank-bred fry, which were distributed to many other fishkeepers in many different parts of the county, was their resistance to white spot - even in tanks where other fish had succumbed.
Alright, maybe he didn't have pictures, but he gave away 450 fry, and not one person has come forward and said they received some or that they saw the fry?
This story is completely unsubstantiated. It is referred to often as the "it is too possible!" argument. The simple fact of the matter is that while it is possible, it has never happened in a natural manner. Until the exact conditions can be replicated during breeding in the natural habitat, it probably won't happen. Many fish have a series of "triggers" that lets them know when it is time to spawn. It would most likely be ridiculously and prohibitively expensive to create conditions in an aquarium that would allow for the natural triggers to take place in an aquarium.
DISCLAIMER: All of the info I posted is from the article, and my opinions of the information provided by the person that claims the successful spawning. I don't know the person, so I can't be positive. It's simply my opinion based on the information provided.
