going to try breeding clown loaches

[Clown House]

It's by no means common knowledge (highly guarded trade secret) but CL are being bred commercially in Asia using hormone injection. U-Miami also has done a lot of work and figured it out, but you have to be a registered Florida farmer to get any info. There are also people in Eastern Europe. They're all actively keeping these prices high.


A

Andy, There is much talk about this but also comments about it being non viable cost wise. do you happen to know if they are actually 'breeding' or just stripping the eggs and milt ? If they are actually 'breeding' then I dont really see why the hormone injections are important, getting a female ripe shouldn't be that difficult. If they are 'stripping' then it is obvious that they haven't cracked it either

 

[Andyroo]

Sorry, don't know. I'd assume it's the latter (stripping) as that's what they do with Koi- I suppose that isn't breeding, per se and should have specified. I expect they're keeping the method under wraps to keep the costs up, thus commercial viability.
Either way, it's factory production to a) provide constant stocks to the likes of us and b) reduce stress from wild stocks, and keeps the species off CITES. It's nice to hear (above) that >4" is protected from pet-harvest- that'll go a long way.
Apparently many natural stocks were suffering, though not as severely as Bala sharks- also saved by captive production. Theoretically wild-capture rivers are a great motive to protect watersheds (great examples out of Guyana), particularly from deforestation & industrial agriculture (palm oil, for example) but for whatever reason the (pets) industry just doesn't have or doesn't use their political pull very often.
A

 

[wild bill]

I think it is alot of a guarded secret not unlike the formula for the blood parrot This way only a few have a monopoly. That is done alot in everything look at the price of gas always a shortage and price raise on the long weekends but like a miracle everything back to normal on tuesday. Therefore if we study how to safely strip fish of eggs and milt we are off. Then again the challenge of the natural way is fun too. It sounded like getting the female ripe maybe in the food and maybe gradually warming the tank to around 85 degrees.

 

[Gage Zamrzla]

Good luck.. you gotta share the secret if you find it out though.

 

[skiptomyzoo]

Also I forgot to throw in that clown loaches should be dripped extra slowly, and they are sensitive to sudden shifts in tds more so than most fish. I lost an almost 7 incher due to me not being home (theres pics of it here somewhere) and the fish getting dumped quickly by people who were. Keep this in mind when you switch tanks.

 

[Crispy]

someone on another forum who breeds yo-yo loaches reports they spawn in the roots of anubias which are attached to the driftwood the loaches live in. The eggs are adhesive and stick to the roots. very well established planted tank with very few other tankmates if that helps any.

 

[Clown House]

There is an old thread on 'loaches Online' that Andyroo took part in where a Russian breeder describes how he strip bred them and even names the hormones used. He has done this several times with increasing success each time.

Unfortunatly he then went on to say that he was also trying to produce clown loach hybrids and the rest of the foeum ripped him to pieces so it rather degenerated from there.

It is a pity really, I do not agree with hybridisation and agreed with the sentiments expressed but that was not the time or place to do it and I suspectany further information from that source has been lost.

Strip breeding for fish farming is fine. They are trying to make money and it helps protect the specis. but it is cheating as far as the hobbiest is concerned, ( well, me at any rate ) I want to find out how to do it naturally.

 

[wild bill]

It seems to me I read somewhere too that the cl's like a heavly planted tank. To bad they were so hard on that Russian fellow his info would be useful. Hybridzing is everywhere it is how many spciese of domestic animals came to be but has a time and place. It has been used in some cases to save some nearly extinct creatures. They would cross the animal with something close to it to strengthen the line from line breeding. Then you always run the risk of a oddball here and there.

 

[Andyroo]

ClownHouse, I wasn't one of the flat-earther hybrid-haters, was I?
I'd buy a clown-modesta cross with orange and purple stripes.... very groovy.
So long as such crosses don't end up in the wild and don't end up somehow suffering (three heads would probably be uncomfortable) then where's the harm? If you can't call it immoral or irresponsible then it's just taste.
A

 

[Clown House]

ClownHouse, I wasn't one of the flat-earther hybrid-haters, was I?
I'd buy a clown-modesta cross with orange and purple stripes.... very groovy.
So long as such crosses don't end up in the wild and don't end up somehow suffering (three heads would probably be uncomfortable) then where's the harm? If you can't call it immoral or irresponsible then it's just taste.
A

No, its just taste . Its called gilding the lily, beautiful enough as it is, why mess with it. I get really annoyed with all the fancy Discus I see, the wilds were much better looking.

My point was that alienating the guy on the other forum was counter productive. Why should he come back with new information that might be helpful if he feels he may just be attacked again.

Personally though, I doubt that this is where the answer to natural breeding will come from. Maybe somewhere, sometime,it will happen by accident to someone with the sense/ability to record it......

or..... more likely, a clue will come from some totally random comment about something completely different by someone on a forum like this that will ring bells with someone else and provide the incentive we all need to try something different. (that was a mouthful )

These things have been breeding in the wild for millions of years. How difficult can it be ? It will be something simple.