Clown loach

[Ja1983]

I currently have 3 clowns - Big Eric, Med Eric and you guessed it, Lickle Eric...

i think they are great fish, and would like to get a shoal going when i get my new big tank... whats the best way to sex them, and what are the best conditions?

..i note ME has longer whiskers, and BE spends a lot of time with ME, although they all shoal up pretty well.

it scared me the first time i saw one sleeping - upside down in a plant pot!

 

[Will Hayward]

Clownloach breeding has not been very successful. Most breedings with them were with horomonal injections if I remember correctly. There is a good few articles about this on Practical Fishkeeping. com

 

[ewurm]

There are no substantiated claims of successful tank breeding without hormonal injections

 

[Austin]

i have 6 and they don't shoal very well either, only on occasion. any reason?

 

[Will Hayward]

They like current and strong flow. Several powerheads lower to the substrate might stimulate them.

 

[Austin]

yeah didn't think about that. my bichir is in there too though, don't know if he'll like the current.

 

[bluehairman]

Clown loaches have been bred in aquariums, however it is very rare. Sexing clown loaches externally is hard, but possible by looking at the tail fin. The tail fin tips on the male are slightly bent inwards, making the fin look a little bit like a claw. The tail fin tips on the females aren't shaped like this. Clown loaches have to be quite old and at least 7 inches / 17 cm before they are sexually mature. In the one good account of clown loaches spawning they spawned under the following conditions:

• Temp: 84F
• pH: 6.5
• Ammonia & Nitrite: 0
• Nitrate: < 25

Four large clown loaches (over 25 cm /10 inches) were kept together in a planted aquarium, and a few weeks before spawning they changed their behaviour and started eating live fish as their only accepted food. The females in the group grew very fast on this diet, and had doubled in girth by the time of spawning. The night during which the spawning took place, two clowns were swimming close beneath the surface entwined in each other and "clicking." The next morning, 450 eggs were found spread about the aquarium. Clown loaches eat their own eggs, so it is recommended moving the parents if you wish to succeed in spawning them.
The fry were fed liquid fry food for the first two weeks, after which they accepted crushed flakes. They grew relatively fast, to 2.5 cm/ 1 inch in 6 weeks. After that the growth rate slowed down.
It's suggested that older fish are essential for breeding since this fish might have to be quite old to be sexually mature. Clown loaches live to be about 50 years, so it is quite feasible that they may spawn later in life than many other species.



source: http://www.fishlore.com/Articles/BreedingLoaches.htm

 

[fishdance]

Hormone induced fish get easier to breed each time they are induced. There have been several occasions where some of my fish have started to spawn naturally after requiring hormone inducement the first several times. Also each successive captive bred generation gets a little easier to spawn since the fish know of no other life and there will be more and more husbandry experience gained with totally tank raised fish. Plecos are a good example of this. Some of the larger plecos like Adonis are being naturally spawned now while their parents required hormone inducement.

This applies to all fish, not just khuli and clown loaches. I can confidently predict it wont be too long before clown loaches are beng captively bred "naturally". Of course many purists will be claiming it had nothing to do with hormone inducement by then.