Loaches Online Forum

Hi everyone, I'm new at this forum, but I have had several loaches for a while. A few months ago one of my clown loaches turned black, I thought that he was sick and that he was going to die, but this was 6 months ago, and he is just find, he eats well, he plays, he just turned black. Does anyone know why this could possibly hapen? He is about 2 years old, and 3".

Hi, welcome to Loaches Online. Have you got a photo of the clown you can post here?

In my photo below my username, you can see the difference between the two clown loaches, I don't know how to post a photo in the forum, can you please tell me how?

What you saw was you loach graying out. It's perfectly normal loach behavior and something they usually do as an indicator of mood or agression. Usually the alpha loach in a shoal will have somoe degree of graying out most of the time. You'll see this loachy phenomenon most dramatically when two loaches are fighting.

I'm not so sure. Greying out usually involves becoming lighter doesn't it? And it is temporary, this loach has become very dark for 6 months....continuously?

If you load your picture onto a file sharing website such as www.photobucket.com, you copy the IMG code that comes up under the picture and post it in the message window here.

Hi Anne and welcome to the forum

Another member here (ckk125) had a clown turn dark and stay that way. This member attributed the dark coloring to the loach being kept on dark substrate.

Here is a link with some pics
Click Here

[quote="palaeodave"]I'm not so sure. Greying out usually involves becoming lighter doesn't it? And it is temporary, this loach has become very dark for 6 months....continuously?[quote]

Based on her avatar photo I'd say the fish is indeed grayed out and is most likely the dominant clown in the tank.

In the pict you can see that one of the loaches has a normal coloring, I've seen this loach graying out, but the other one just turned black, and he never grays out. I am preety familiar with the graying out stuff, because I have two Yo-Yo loaches that play and fight a lot, and they gray out very often. Although I do have black and dark green gravel, perhaps it is the dark substrate, the wired thing is that only one of the clown has become dark. The other loaches are just find.

Changing from the regular coloration to lighter or darker is governed by the melanophores in the skin. These are controlled by various inputs from the body. I'm purely theorising here but it's possible that the fish suffered some kid of stroke or other disturbance to the nervous system and that's why it has stayed like this.
Clowns will stay discolored for long periods for the reasons others have said, but not for 6 months.

Martin.

This is my clown loach with bright colors, 2 yo-yo loaches and a zebra.


This is the dark clown loach, you can see down below one of the zebras graying out.


Here you can see both of the clown loaches.

Looks like a perfectly healthy chocolate clown...

I agree with Shari that, It looks like a healthy dark clown. I also have one darker clown. He/she has been that way since I adopted him/her. Here is a picture of him/her for you.



Hey, I just looked at the post to compare pictures and they almost look like twins

Thank you all for all your coments, I was just worried that I might be doing something wrong and that caused the clown loach to turn dark. Although I still believe it's wired for a fish to change it's color in such a drastic way, he used to have bright colors like my other clown when I first bought him (he was just a baby about 1"). I've seen fish turn brighter and slightly change it's colors but, I have never seen anything like this.

I've been watching photos of dark clowns and I've noticed that all of them have black or dark substrates. Does anyone have a dark clown with a light substrate? If not I will have to agree with Member ckk125, the dark substrate does make them dark.

Hi Anneluttmann What is the white rock in the tank? What are your water conditions especially the hardness and ph?