do clown loaches mimic patterns?

[dodgefreak8]

hey everyone I have a pair of 4" loaches that I have had for almost a year now. as you can see in the pic these loaches patterns are almost identical except the bottom loach has a very faint spot down by his anal fin and the top one has a very dark spot. Well here is my dilema, the bottom loach didn't use to have a spot at all and now he has an even darker spot than in this pic. its like he is growing a spot so that he perfectly matches the other loach.. has anyone every heard of this? as you can see my loaches aren't the normal striped pattern which makes this even more interesting.What do you guys think?

 

[socalsurfer]

I think your loaches look good, the black sand seems to really bring out their colors.

 

[M|L]

I had a similar looking loach.

It's genetic and rare.

I doubt your theory applies here. As far as I know, no fish "tries" to mimic another fish.

 

[ewurm]

Never heard of it...did you buy them at the same time maybe they are related? Or you cloned a loach to plot the destruction of the entire universe?

 

[ae2359]

I have no clue but they look really nice, and I think ewurm might be right

 

[cabouta1]

there are different patterns of clown loaches,

i used to have a link showing the 3 or 4 different patterns.

 

[dodgefreak8]

I did buy them at the same time so that is probably the explination. I am going to have a hard time telling them apart soon though

 

[ewurm]

I would like one with a spot.

 

[dodgefreak8]

this is probably the page you were looking for but my loaches don't match any of these. Kind of strange
http://www.loaches.com/markings.html

 

[Waldo]

The idea in a colony or school is that preditors will not be able to differenciate which is which. Zebras use this same technique. They used it in WWII on warships, It's hard to tell direction, speed and if it's one or two or 3k