Clown loaches being smart

[ReproachfulLoach]

Have you ever noticed your clowns doing some not-so-typically fish things?

I now have three clowns in a tank together with a bunch of barbs, gouramis and corydoras - all pretty assertive folks. So feeding times are always a mess of very active fish grabbing their wafers and pushing each other away. A couple of weeks ago I noticed one of my loaches taking a wafer from under a pile of gouramis, carrying it away, finding a calm spot and then eating. When he was done, he returned to pick up another wafer and repeated the process. He does it every morning now and this is absolutely hilarious to watch, especially gouramis' despair when food just disappears from under their snouts.

Somehow this is not a behavior I would expect from a fish. So, have you ever noticed some more complex or unexpected behavior from your clowns (or actually any other kind of fish)?

 

[DaniosForever]

What can I say fish are smart

 

[86 ssinit]

Yes clowns are smart! But other fish soon pick up on their antics. Mine do grab food and run but most of the other bottom feeders will now chase them down. For a long time I fed my loaches pest snails from my other tanks. Now every fish in the tank eats pest snails!

 

[ReproachfulLoach]

Now every fish in the tank eats pest snails!

Wow, I'll watch my other fish, this is interesting. I also feed pest snails, looks like I may need more soon!

 

[Redshark1]

In my Clown Loach tank I have to spread the food out across the whole 6ft tank. If I put it all in one place the dominant Clown Loach (pictured) excludes the other five and eats it all herself. That is the advantage of being the dominant fish. She gets more food and grows bigger. Presumably she would also lay more eggs in a natural situation and her genes would be better represented in the next generation. I believe she uses cavitation (the clicking sound) like a pistol shrimp to drive the others away and this must be painful as the others are desperate to get away.

I did think I might lose my smallest Clown Loach (pictured) but he found ways to find food that the others miss. He was always out foraging when the others were sleeping. He would visit all four corners of the tank in his search. He also found he could steal food from the pleco when I had one.

I have never de-wormed my Clown Loaches. In fact I have not used any chemicals except Prime since they recovered from whitespot (ich) shortly after I bought them in Jan 1993. Then I used a Malachite Green remedy called King British WS3.

 

[Aquatichobby]

In my Clown Loach tank I have to spread the food out across the whole 6ft tank. If I put it all in one place the dominant Clown Loach (pictured) excludes the other five and eats it all herself. That is the advantage of being the dominant fish. She gets more food and grows bigger. Presumably she would also lay more eggs in a natural situation and her genes would be better represented in the next generation. I believe she uses cavitation (the clicking sound) like a pistol shrimp to drive the others away and this must be painful as the others are desperate to get away.

I did think I might lose my smallest Clown Loach (pictured) but he found ways to find food that the others miss. He was always out foraging when the others were sleeping. He would visit all four corners of the tank in his search. He also found he could steal food from the pleco when I had one.

I have never de-wormed my Clown Loaches. In fact I have not used any chemicals except Prime since they recovered from whitespot (ich) shortly after I bought them in Jan 1993. Then I used a Malachite Green remedy called King British WS3.

View attachment 879043

This clowns are massive
I remember being a newbie and seeing baby clowns at the fish store and wanting to by them for my 30 gallon tank

 

[A201]

I think generally most species of Botia Loaches exhibit very peculiar & interesting behaviors as compared to other species of aquarium fish.
My Modestas, YoYo's & Berdmorei Tiger, are nuts. Lol.

 

[ReproachfulLoach]

In my Clown Loach tank I have to spread the food out across the whole 6ft tank. If I put it all in one place the dominant Clown Loach (pictured) excludes the other five and eats it all herself. That is the advantage of being the dominant fish. She gets more food and grows bigger. Presumably she would also lay more eggs in a natural situation and her genes would be better represented in the next generation. I believe she uses cavitation (the clicking sound) like a pistol shrimp to drive the others away and this must be painful as the others are desperate to get away.

I did think I might lose my smallest Clown Loach (pictured) but he found ways to find food that the others miss. He was always out foraging when the others were sleeping. He would visit all four corners of the tank in his search. He also found he could steal food from the pleco when I had one.

I have never de-wormed my Clown Loaches. In fact I have not used any chemicals except Prime since they recovered from whitespot (ich) shortly after I bought them in Jan 1993. Then I used a Malachite Green remedy called King British WS3.

View attachment 879043

She looks awesome!
I once heard one of my smaller loaches click at the dominant blue gourami male who tried to chase the loach away from the nesting corner (they are same size now, but normally the gourami only chases his females and ignores all other fish). It was not during a feeding time, so the loach clearly was fighting him off with the sound. The gourami came to his senses and turned away.

I have been trying to find some research on clown loach social behavior, but I haven't found anything yet. There is plenty of research on blue gourami social behavior though.