Breeding clown loaches

[Linda1234]

I found this video on breeding clown loaches. There were a few notes that i found interesting. First he notes that the loaches expect found food to be the same size (2-3mm) and get very upset when either the size of the food or composition changes. Second he fattens them up at ph 7.2-7.5 temp 82 but they won't breed unless the ph is 6.2 and temp around 78. The most shocking thing is they can start breeding as young as 2-3 years old but he prefers to wait till they are 6ish years to start breeding them. Not sure how accurate these details are as most people seem to indicate they are impossible to breed but he makes it sounds like it is pretty easy:

 

[Redshark1]

I have seen this video several years ago. It all depends what is meant by "breeding". Clown Loaches do not breed in aquaria without human intervention.

Somewhere either in this video or another one he explains that the fish have to be kept indoors and warm for them to produce eggs and sperm so this increases their cost. Sometimes they do produce eggs and sperm and sometimes they don't and he doesn't know how to achieve it on demand. Then he has to hand strip the eggs and sperm from the fish and mix them in order to obtain fertilised eggs.

He did put some Clown Loaches up for sale and they were perfectly formed. However, his young fish were incredibly tiny and also very expensive. He is a knowledgeable guy and has a lot of interesting details to contribute but it is important to understand his limitations. There may be better ways of raising Clown Loaches e.g. by harvesting and rearing planktonic larvae.

Clown Loaches can be produced using injected hormones to achieve guaranteed production of eggs and sperm. A shipment of these was supplied to my LFS. They were deformed in various ways including snub noses and disrupted stripe patterns and my LFS will not purchase them anymore. There may be Clown Loaches produced this way without any deformities as there are several hormones that can be used but the labour involved makes it an expensive operation.

The young fish grow slowly so it is not economical to produce them while they can be obtained cheaply from the wild, though this cannot be guaranteed forever due to overexploitation and environmental degradation. They have been exploited for 40 years and the current rate is 50 million Clown Loaches per year though this is an underestimate as it doesn't include fish illegally collected and exported. Export of Clown Loaches from Indonesia of 4" and over is supposed to be banned to protect wild breeding stocks but I imagine this is difficult to police. I have seen them for sale regularly and know people online who have bought them with little success as they do not adapt well to captivity and commonly die within a year.

 

[Linda1234]

Thank you for the details. That video didn't really discuss that he was artificial harvesting the eggs; hopefully he is not using hormones. I did realize some asia farms used hormones for various fishes.

I esp found the bit about the clowns liking food of a particular size and same diet. Given how my clown behave i would question the truth of it but if it is true maybe i should adjust how i feed them. I tend to put different foods in the tank and the clowns seem to go after different things depending on their mood.

 

[Redshark1]

He doesn't use hormones. Production of eggs and sperm without hormones is hit and miss. My Clown Loaches eat almost everything put in the aquarium. Fussy Clown Loaches are not talked about in Clown Loach forums so probably don't exist.