Loaches Online Forum

I love my clown loaches something fierce. I watch them very closely. With them being scaleless, and so sensitive, I use them as an additional barometer for my water quality and stress level in the tank.

I read a while back as clown loaches mature, they gradually lose their stripes and turn into a a more solid color.

My biggest loach (about 6" now) I noticed today has lost a good deal of his black markings. He is turning into almost an orangish-rust color. His tale and fins are the deepest color of red I have ever seen on a loach. It rivals the red of a red tailed shark.

This is normal right? I have seen show loaches far larger than mine that still have more black than this guy has, but I have never seen any loach with as red a tail as this guy either.

I think he is happy. Right?

How about a picture?

Loaches can grey out as a show for dominance, if that's what you are talking about. Otherwise, a healthy clown won't completely lose it's black stripes in just one day. The black stripes can split in the middle, but it takes a great deal of growth, which usually takes several years, for that to happen.

Fish, especially loaches, are not water quality "barometers". A nitrate test kit and a TDS meter would be wiser tools to use to monitor the water quality. By the time the fish are affected by poor water quality the harm is already done.