Just clowning around....

[Emma Turner]

Here's a couple of pictures of Stripes (my second biggest clown loach) having a little nap the other night - completely upside down!





Emma

[Ded1]

Give the guy some pillow, cmon! Poor thing.

[Mad Duff]

The question is did you heart miss a beat when you first saw him

I think mine would have

[Steen]

Hhmm... well-fed specimen
They realy understand to relaxe bigtime

Steen

[Jim Powers]

I'm with Mad Duff on this. I would have freaked if I saw the loach in that position.

[lf11casey]

I would have freaked too. In fact I did that the other night when one of my yoyos pulled this stunt.

[tariesindanrie]

LOL- I may have freaked a few months back if I'd found one of mine like that, but not much they do surprises me lately. Cool pic, Emma!

Kate

[Graeme Robson]

Very comical!!

Superb picture!

[Ded1]

Is there something on her left side she is leaning to, or just plain space?

[Tinman]

Mine roll around like dogs sleeping too.....Never startles me in the slightest anymore , floating thats bad ,but napped out is a day as a loach like a dog in the Sun

[Emma Turner]

Heheheh! Stripes and Marge do this sort of thing on a regular basis, so in some ways I was kind of prepared - although this is the first time he has been completely upside down, so I did have to go and check.....and guess what, he turned back over at a leisurely pace and waggled his fins in glee. Then he went back to doing it again once I sat back down.

He was resting in the dark shadows at the back of the tank in between some bogwood, hence the darkness of the pics. However he was in a substantial gap and was not resting against anything. I actually had to wonder if his dorsal fin was erect at the time, anchoring him in the sand?!

Emma

[Diana]

Very interesting! And, yes, it sure scared me the first time I saw the 'dead loach' trick.

I wonder if you could train them to do that on command? I have a dog that will play dead (on her side) on the command "Bang!" A couple of more "Bang! Bang!"s and she rolls over and sticks 4 legs up in the air.

[Martin Thoene]

Great pictures. One of mine in particular kind of does a "play dead" thing, but not to command. The group will be swimming in the current when he will suddenly stop swimming, roll gently onto his left side and drift backwards and down in the current until he ends up on the sand at the front of the aquarium. His belly is facing out, so highly visible and he doesn't move a muscle. He'll lay like that for a while then get up and join the others swimming, then repeat the whole thing again a bit later. It's always the same fish doing this.

Martin.