Clown questions

[halibut]

Hello all,

I've been keeping clowns for a number of years now, but I was wondering if any of you had answers to some questions...

1. How good is clown loach eyesight??? I've noticed that my clowns seem to be pretty short sighted, relying on other fish to find food first, before they close in. There's lots of checking each fish over while food is in the tank, too, in an attempt to find it, whereas other fish in the tank go straight to it. Has anyone else observed this?

2. How exactly do clowns make the clicking sound? Is it created by pharyngeal teeth (do they have pharyngeal teeth?), or is some other mechanism involved?

3. How quickly can clowns gain weight? If a new clown looks a little under-weight, but is eating, how long before I should be worrying about 'skinny disease?' Also, does anyone know of any commercially available treatments in the UK that have worked with skinny? I recall using algae wafers soaked in something (possibly interpet anti internal bacteria) years ago with some success on an underweight clown, but the return to health could have been a coincidence.

Any answers would be gratefully received.

Hali.

[shari2]

Hi Hali, and welcome to LOL.

1. Mine don't seem to have any trouble finding the food, though they do get over excited sometimes and end up scooting around all over. Almost like they're saying, "Oooh! Look at that one! No, wait! This one's better!..." and then they are always squabbling over who gets the food, too.

2. As for the clicking sound, I think Martin is likely best equipped to answer that one, so I'll leave it to him.

3. They should start to 'fill out' nearly right away. Remember, young animals need to eat more often than adults. Smaller feedings a few times a day are better than one big one. If the young clowns are not filling out, but are not losing weight either, try feeding them up a bit more and see if it helps.

As for the commercially available skinny treatments in the UK, I believe Levamisole HCL is available only by Rx over there. You'd need to contact a veterinarian.

[Martin Thoene]

Well.........I can't specifically tell you how they make the noise, but I have suspicions about why it's so loud.

I'm not going to go into too much detail because we describe this quite fully in the Loach Book that will be published this Fall by TFH, but Botiine loaches have extremely sensitive hearing due to internal modifications of the swim bladder and skeletal parts. These basically create an amplification of incoming sounds.

I think that this system may also act in reverse as an internally produced sound amplification system. Loaches use these noises for various purposes. Some of these are again covered in the book.

http://www.loaches.com/loaches-in-books ... ng-loaches

Martin.

[Vancmann]

Hali, for question #1. I have noticed that mine spot me coming into the room from about 15 feed away. If I stay still or move slowly, they react little so it seems that they more sensetive to movement at that distance. Although they have no problem recognizing other fish in their tank from 4 feed to 1 inch, loaches rely more on smell to find their food, especialy when they are around and over it. Because of the location of their eyes, it would be hard for them to look at food close around them. Mine usually come out from their caves for food after the others ditter fishes because of the commotion, but they have no trouble finding any food even if it is buried over 1 inch in the gravel.

Vision at night is incredible and I am temped to believe that they use smell or some other sense. I have notice that my loach recognize each other and know the pecking order at close distances in almost zero light conditions using night vision infer red.

[Hell Fire]

Hey there.
I had a Clown with bad skinny which a mate gave me. Long story!! Me being me felt sorry for him and offerd to take him. I was told by someone on this forum they sold FLUBENOL 15 WORMER and it worked on loaches. I was skeptical but gave it ago. Within a week hed gained weight and in a month was as fat as ever and had caught up to my other young clowns.
As for the clicking people dont really know, lots of arguments over it lol.
As for weight depends what you feed them really.
Vision in clowns hmmm. Mine seem to see very well but then again may go more on noise etc and the other fish.
As vancmann says and ill quote also that their night sites brill as they are nocternal, even in the dark after i turn off the moon light they wizz about! maybe they use some sense like the bats do?

[halibut]

Thanks Hell fire. I'll give the Fluebenol a whirl.

According to the manufacturer, it sounds very fish-safe, and even if it doesn't help with my slightly-skinny clown, A general worming isn't a bad idea, seeing as how I've been feeding frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp, etc, to the tank for years. If the clown gains weight after dosing, I'll report back to this thread.

As for clowns seeing you comming, mine know I'm home when I open the front door, come down the stairs, etc, and even know when I've opened the freezer door (I'm reliably informed they go nuts, though I've never seen this as I'm in another room at the time). I suspect they pick up on specific patterns of vibration from footfalls, rather than 'see you' come in. I'll add to that further, by saying they virtually ignore my wifes movements, as she doesn't feed them. Damned smart fish.

I'd encourage others to watch them at feeding time, though. I still stand by the idea that they are pretty short-sighted. Often swimming past large algae wafers, until another fish finds it for them. Mind you, how many watts to the litre do you folks have, just in case I'm blinding them? I'm at 0.25 Watts per litre, so it doesn't seem overly bright.

Cheers for your answers,

Halibut.

[Emma Turner]

My gang of 40 find food very quickly. The smaller ones are the fastest to it, some of which is because the larger ones usually seem more concerned with fighting off intruders into their territory. This sometimes means that they spend more time trying to drive the invaders away and miss out on some of the food. But the odd missed bit of food doesn't do 'the Giants' any harm.

Emma

[halibut]

Hi folks,

I said I'd report back after giving the Flubenol a go.

I dosed the tank with Flubenol 15. Everything seemed to go ok. No signs of fish stress with either the clowns or the other fish (or my coldwater tank either, as it happens).

Within a week the skinny loach has gained weight and is looking well. It could be a coincidence, but he wasn't gaining any weight until I used the Flubenol.

Cheers,

H.
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