Now THAT'S an expensive meal! Anyhow, I do not think that aquarists would rush over to the local fish market to buy all the loaches as they wouldn't be very healthy. Here in Toronto for instance, there are several Asian markets, and the one closest to my house has live lobster, live crayfish, live oysters, live carp, live catfish, live striped bass, live green (largemouth?) bass, live tilapia, and live eels. I have fortunately only bought live crayfish/lobsters from there, as most are alive. The fish are also fresh, and lively enough to be selling in tanks. That said, I bet if I bought some bass/tilapia and properly accumulated them to a pristine tank, they probably would not live 3 days because they are not in good health. I suspect if Asian markets were selling live clown loaches, they'd have skinny disease or parasites - fine to eat but not as pets.
This is why dead loaches smell so bad
- Thread starter ChocolateCake123
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Now THAT'S an expensive meal! Anyhow, I do not think that aquarists would rush over to the local fish market to buy all the loaches as they wouldn't be very healthy. Here in Toronto for instance, there are several Asian markets, and the one closest to my house has live lobster, live crayfish, live oysters, live carp, live catfish, live striped bass, live green (largemouth?) bass, live tilapia, and live eels. I have fortunately only bought live crayfish/lobsters from there, as most are alive. The fish are also fresh, and lively enough to be selling in tanks. That said, I bet if I bought some bass/tilapia and properly accumulated them to a pristine tank, they probably would not live 3 days because they are not in good health. I suspect if Asian markets were selling live clown loaches, they'd have skinny disease or parasites - fine to eat but not as pets.
I feel like aquarists would pool their money together to get an importer to buy as many of the 12 inches as he could before they could be sold to resturants and such.
Nope, 12 inch clown loaches are very rare and they sell out quickly when they're for sale. How did we even get onto the topic of them being used as a food fish?
I was just extrapolating. Anyway, they DO eat them in Indonesia, so if you go there you may have a chance to taste clown loach.
Err, just a small error. Anyway, good point Matteus. Well technically you're not supposed to store oily fish directly on ice, you need enough ice for storage but not enough for freezing, and you have to be careful because oily fish spoil very easily. That said, if I worked at a fish processing plant, I would probably just treat clown loach fillets as oversized herring or lighter colored trout fillets - it's not impossible to ship oily fish and not have them spoil. Shipping full grown live clowns, on the other hand, means you will need to pay for 1 container per loach, be extra-extra-extra careful because clown loaches need good water and water changes can't be done during shipping, and that you will have a bit of a hard time because the Indonesian government has treacherous laws regarding export of big clowns. Even with factoring in the potentially low selling price of the loach fillets, it makes more economical sense. Plus, clown loach fillets could be the mackerel of their day - a relatively obscure oily fish that is still relatively affordable but is rising in price and popularity, and will eventually be in the same league with sea bass, grouper, and tuna steak. But back to the main topic about this thread: It does not just refer to kuhli or clown loaches, but potentially to any loach. I do believe other Botias (such as yoyo or polka dot loaches) would be oily, as would larger kuhli loach relatives, such as the weather loach.
