fighting clown loaches

[kangarooooooooo]

is this normal? i've had them for maybe 3, almost 4 years and this is the first sign of agression i've seen them giving to eachother. they are turning all grey and body checking eachother and locking lips and clicking there mouths. does it come with age, territorial behaviour? should i be worried that they will injure one another? my third clown loach seems to just try and stay out of it, then again he's 2 years younger then the first two.

 

[JustOneMore20]

Can you give us a little more info? What size tank are they in? What are the other fish in the tank? Any new additions? Has anything changed in the tank (redecorating, new plants, new ornaments)? How big are they?

Sorry for all the questions, but a little more info can help us better understand and help you out.

 

[coldmachineUK]

Clowns and yoyos are known to be a little feisty, but if you've kept them for so long (congrats on that btw) then I'm sure you are doing everything right in terms of providing them with the right environment inc. water quality and lots of hiding places (more caves than there are loaches) etc.
Usually fighting occurs when something changes, as jom20 says, for example if you moved all the decor or introduced new fish they might get a bit upset. The 'fading' of colour is perfectly normal during disputes between loaches and isn't permanent (again, you probably already know this).

The only other, very random, thing I can think of is that if you have 3+ you might find two have paired off and any males may be bickering. Do any of them look gravid? While no-one, to my knowledge, has successfully bred clowns in the aquarium there's nothing saying it hasn't got as far as egg production even if you don't get as far as baby loaches.

 

[kangarooooooooo]

what does gravid mean?
and i have not changed anything or added anyhingin the aquarium and they had already eaten an hour or 2 b4 they faught. maybe there' fighting over the newest one?

and my aquarium is 60 gallons. and all of my fish are in my profile. they all get along very well. and they seem to mock my other fish and swim beside them like they are schooling and they absolutely adore when i tap the glass.. lol they follow the noise and try and get it.

but yeah i can't unserstand why they would be fighting. maybe the newest one is a female?

oh and my loaches are 5", 4" and 3.5". i originally had two, 4 years ago, then one died, so i got another one a year later, then got the last one last year. so i have 3 now.
my only advice on loaches is, clean the tank b4 you bring them home. the cleaning process is too stressful for them in the first couple weeks
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oh i looked up gravid and yeah the small one seems to have a belly. first time i've really noticed it. and i don't feed them enough to gorge. so MAYBE. i'm getting myself excited now.

 

[toddnbecka]

Don't get too excited, clown loaches very rarely spawn in aquariums, and never successfully, as far as raising fry. I read that they lay thousands of very tiny eggs that absorb water once they're out of the female's body. A volume of water the size of a large pond would be necessary to support the spawn from a single female. Any eggs produced will most likely be eaten, or end up stuck in the filter. They are bred/raised in India, in large ponds along the side of rivers.

 

[coldmachineUK]

Don't get too excited, clown loaches very rarely spawn in aquariums, and never successfully, as far as raising fry. I read that they lay thousands of very tiny eggs that absorb water once they're out of the female's body. A volume of water the size of a large pond would be necessary to support the spawn from a single female. Any eggs produced will most likely be eaten, or end up stuck in the filter. They are bred/raised in India, in large ponds along the side of rivers.

Yes, sadly a friend and I have both been lucky enough to have spawning occur (with myself it was with the schistura I keep, and with her it was with botia lochata) however nothing came of it since the eggs did not hatch and were eaten. You need to mimic spawning conditions (as with most fish) carefully in order to achieve this (with these we both found that imitating the rainy season in our tanks helped along with a moonlighting setup).

It could be that one is holding, and is keeping the others at bay. But, more likely as I said earlier it's that something has changed to cause their relationships to alter as well. I would expect they'll calm down soon enough: let us know what happens!

 

[kangarooooooooo]

haha i wasn't expecting them to have babies. but yeah they havn' faught again yet.

 

[coldmachineUK]

That's really good to hear, glad it seems resolved. Botias (and actually my schisturas too) do tend to 'have a spat' now and then I've seen scarring (from bumps with wood and caves etc.) result from some fights even. Silly things.
Once a dominant individual 'takes over' then things will calm down again!

 

[kangarooooooooo]

ok thank everyone!

 

[kangarooooooooo]

they havn't faught at all anymore. i think they were just hqving a bitchy day like any normal thing.