Clown Loach breeding and export study
- Thread starter ewurm
- Start date
Sorry about that. Anyways, I found out that they were using Clown Loaches anywhere from 6-8" in length (age is more important that size of course....anywhere from 3-5+ years old). A decent female can produce 15,000+ eggs at a time (eggs are 0.3mm in diameter). It is all done by hormone injection, followed by hand stripping the eggs/milt when fish are ready (that alone takes a lot of practice and know-how). Unfortunetly, I cant you what hormone they use as that final piece of the info is still privy to the FL fish farmers and it must be kept that way. To put it bluntly, it is something only a very few can get.
-Ryan
-Ryan
Well it doesn't appear that one is going to have to wait years to see tank bred specimens, one of our chain stores here just got some in from Florida last week. At best they are 3/4", by far the smallest loaches that I have ever seen. At close to $11.00 each (if you buy 3 or more) I doubt they will be moving very fast. The fish in the tank next to them (barbs) are approx 1 1/2", and they look like giants next to the loaches. If you look closely you can see the tiny loach down below the cherry barb. The plant in the first pic is just your average fake plant, so use the stem as a guide to their size.
ewurm;2768347; said:
No, they have been done with that project for many years now (they couldnt sell them anyways due to legal issues). There are only 2 farms which I know of that are breeding them. One of which is having problems with their broodstock (havent sold any fry yet). The other farm I am pretty sure they havent quite gotten full scale production rolling just yet (maybe a few fry sales at most). I do know that the FL farmers do plan to start selling them once they reach 1-1.5" in length. They would grow them out more but they grow very slow and it isnt economical to hold onto them for additional growout. I agree though, those are very tiny even by FL standards.
Oh, and to answer your previous statement/question...yes it is a Luteinizing type hormone.
-Ryan
wow great read any more info as of present date? most links now are "an error has orcuered" or at least for my pc
I'm wondering if Ryan or anyone else has any updates on this topic? I haven't seen or heard anything regarding farm bred loaches since I posted those pics back in 2009. Lots of rumours regarding loaches being produced on farms, especially out of the EU but nothing concrete that I know of. I'm guessing that it's turned out to be a lot cheaper to import wild 2-4" clowns, than attempt to breed them with hormones & grow them out to market size.
i feel the same way. Each generation of clown loaches have been turning out more and more weird. Such as bars turning into circular markings instead of straight 3 bars. Mines have 4 bars but 2 circle like marks in the middle. I dont know could be me but they have been changing in my area
