Extra fin on loaches tail????

[midman]

Hello everyone. I have just joined this forum after acquiring a beautiful clown loach that is 7 inches long and had been returned from a previous owner. The shop owner thought that it is maybe 4 or 5 years old. It looks quite a young fish and is not fat, but quite deep in body. His/her tail has an extra point on it. It is just above the central line of the tail fin and makes it look almost shark like. I have never seen this extra point on the tail and just wondered if this was common . I have a jigsaw pattern loach and 3 other normal 3 stripes but this tail shape is new to me.

[Emma Turner]

Hi midman, welcome to Loaches Online!

I work in the trade and have kept Clowns for many years, and I have to say that I've never come across any tail 'mutations'. Would you be able to take a photograph and post it on here for us to see?

Emma

[libingboy]

i have a clown loach wherein the tail was probably bitten, and while the tail grew back, the injured part was transparent, instead of being red... so it looked like the tail was 2-pronged, unless you looked at it closely... could it be the same case with yours?

[midman]

I certainly will take a photo for you. It is definitely an additional prong on the top fin of the tail, just falling short of the top parts extension. He also has what seems to be a natural split in his top fin, though this may be from an injury. To be honest I expected someone to say that this is not so uncommon. I read the post about photo posting so I will have to think about where to upload it to (perhaps someone could help me in this respect?). That's if he will come out for long enough . i have seen a lot of big loaches that have just been overfed and look quite fat. This one is very muscular and has very bright black and orange colours and really is very healthy which makes me think he may be quite young. I just hope that transporting it has not done him any harm. I am waiting to see him eat but I know he had been in shop for 2 months with a tank full of plec's so he must be eating and he loves being with my 4 loaches. I am going to try some small red garden worms that have come from a composter as well as the usual frozen bloodworm. Thanks everyone.

[HylaChristine]

You can upload photos for free at www.photobucket.com , then all you have to do is post the [IMG] address and it will show up for you.
Hyla

[midman]

Here is the link to the photo. Hope this works

[midman]

I don't want to disturb him too much at the moment, but you can clearly see that he has a prominence on his tail. I will take some better photos when I get chance. he is eating bloodworm so this is a good start. Thanks for help re: posting a pic. Chris.

[midman]

This is my greedy jigsaw pattern clown loach feeding on the feeder

[Emma Turner]

To be honest I expected someone to say that this is not so uncommon.

Thank you for posting a photograph . I must say that looks most unusual! I've never seen any type of Botia with a tail 'extension' like that (and over the years I've got to see thousands of various Botiine species).

i have seen a lot of big loaches that have just been overfed and look quite fat. This one is very muscular and has very bright black and orange colours and really is very healthy which makes me think he may be quite young.

Big loaches also fill out in girth, and it is not all fat. When large specimens swim you can see the muscles 'ripple' as they do so. Adults are very powerful fish.

I just hope that transporting it has not done him any harm. I am waiting to see him eat

As long as you made the journey and acclimatisation to your tank as stress-free as possible, there is no reason why this fish will not settle in well, especially as he has other Clowns for company. Larger fish usually take much longer to adjust to new surroundings, so don't be surprised if this fish doesn't venture out or appear to eat for some days. When I acclimatised the two monster Clowns to my tank last year (10.5" and 11.5" fish), the largest one did not come out or eat for 7 weeks (yes 7!!! weeks). Now she is the boss of the tank and has a big appetite!

Good luck, and make sure you post some more pics once your new loach has settled in.

Emma