Wondering if our Clown Loaches may be trying to spawn?

[Wailua Boy]

I swear I've seen a female of mine who appeared to become gravid a few times and noticed reproductive type behaviors/courting but nothing to report beyond that. I really wanted to record behavior but never thougth it would result in an actual spawn. They were in a species tank with 50+ CLs

 

[wild bill]

I know this discusion has taken place before but is there a chance the loaches are spawning ang the eggs being consumed. In our tank there are a lot of mouth to eat the eggs or small fry. Even in your species tank Walla Boy the other loaches may have consumed your success.
One question that comes to my mind is this if we use hormones to have a successful spawn will it count in a breeder rewards program.

 

[UnstoppableJayD]

I know this discusion has taken place before but is there a chance the loaches are spawning ang the eggs being consumed. In our tank there are a lot of mouth to eat the eggs or small fry. Even in your species tank Walla Boy the other loaches may have consumed your success.
One question that comes to my mind is this if we use hormones to have a successful spawn will it count in a breeder rewards program.

What they are doing is sparring for dominance and it most likely 2 females because female cl get bigger and are dominant in the species... if it was any type of spawning you would see 2 or more smaller males running along the sides of the large dominant female.

 

[RD.]

Thanks Coryloach, I too have read several fairy tales over the years - but a gravid female, even one that drops eggs, does not equal a successful breeding. I have seen gravid females before.

Even Colin Dunlop stated:

Hi, it wasn't a sucessful spawning as no eggs hatched but i am still working on it! The female is pretty fat again...

Colin

http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?p=97447


Lots of good info and links about using hormones to breed CL's in the following past discussion.

https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/...loach-breeding-and-export-study.175030/page-3

 

[RD.]

And this is the thread where the Colin posted his pics of eggs and his tanks.
http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9880&p=90869#p90869

No eggs hatched, just a gravid female dropping eggs.....

edited to add, I agree with Jason et al- more than likely two females having a power struggle. I see it at work all the time.

 

[Wailua Boy]

I know this discusion has taken place before but is there a chance the loaches are spawning ang the eggs being consumed. In our tank there are a lot of mouth to eat the eggs or small fry. Even in your species tank Walla Boy the other loaches may have consumed your success.
One question that comes to my mind is this if we use hormones to have a successful spawn will it count in a breeder rewards program.

I agree with that, even if you got a spawn off loaches are fairly voracious feeders and seem to love eggs but I still think you would have a few accounts with evidence of lone survivors by now. I get the feeling the eggs are being reabsorbed. It is ridiculous that these fish seem to live long healthy lives in aquarium but refuse to spawn but thats what it seems.

 

[wild bill]

That does seem hard to believe doesn't it not many fish seem happier than CL's in an aquarium.
Gotta ask RD were you at the PC convention in Red DEEr a few months back. Your last comment leads me to believe you could have been. Also thanks for the links gives me some more reading and hopefully new info.

 

[RD.]

LOL, No Bill - no time for conventions.

 

[Coryloach]

I know this discusion has taken place before but is there a chance the loaches are spawning ang the eggs being consumed. In our tank there are a lot of mouth to eat the eggs or small fry. Even in your species tank Walla Boy the other loaches may have consumed your success.
One question that comes to my mind is this if we use hormones to have a successful spawn will it count in a breeder rewards program.

For years, up until half a year ago my clown loaches lived with a large school of corydoras. The corydoras spawned all the time. I've seen corydoras eggs around quite often(I raised a bunch of corys too)...never have I seen clown loaches eggs...You'd see the eggs at least if loaches spawn...whatever about surviving fry...But clown loaches are voracious eaters of eggs of other species...They used to follow the spawning cory females around almost trying to snatch the eggs from the female cory's fins where she held them just before being deposited. The corydoras ate their own eggs too...but you'd see the corys pre spawning behaviour, the spawn, and then you'd see the eggs....So you know they've spawned successfully...

So my guess is there's no mistake...and we have not seen clown loaches spawn naturally...Whatever we've seen is questionable until one sees the spawn from start to finish and has fry to account for, at least surviving for a few weeks...

 

[convict360]

By the way, to follow up on my above comment and quoted text, having read the first paragraphs of Colin Dunlop's description of the spawning again....after I have kept my loaches for long enough, it sounds quite right to what I saw...only mine never laid eggs...Plus no proof of either encounters. Until clown loaches produce recorded fry in a tank....its going to be a myth for years to come....By the way...I have hard water..ph 7.4... TDS 275ppm....I never fiddle with it...

If you want to read more about clown loach breeding attempts...unsuccessful scientific study...

Here:...I posted this somewhere else too...in case some wonder....

https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:916235/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Some interesting quotes.....some may not know about clown loaches...


PH:

Quote: The pH was monitored throughout the study, although not altered to a desirable level since it
was already within the values of the previously proven window. The values 6.86-8.00 are
similar to the values in Legendre et al. 2012

Temperature:

Quote: It has been shown in a previous study were
clown loaches have been monitored over several years that a higher proportion of individuals
were sexually mature at 26-27ºC than 30-31ºC (Legendre et al. 2012), something to consider
in future studies. This fact is strengthened by the discovery of 26ºC as the optimum
temperature for clown loach egg incubation (Baras et al. 2012b), maybe this would also be
the optimum temperature for spawning since this could reveal that throughout the evolution of
this species this has been the most consistent measurement value.

Hey, that guy lives an hour from me lol; I asked him for some betta's recently lol