About clown color changes

[janger]

These clown loaches are really interesting creatures. Wondering if anyone has experience with their color changes and domination etc.

I have three now. Got two then found they'd be happier with one more. But the largest from the first two has been "grayed out" pretty much since I got him. He is also more of a loner than the others, and is the largest. I think he might be the Alpha but not exactly sure. The other day they fed together for the first time. A little squabble ensued, nothing major, then the darker one changed to having dark black bars around the edges of the markings, and the rest gray. Does that mean he is inferior? Or what else does that mean? He does this little "spasm swim" thing when the grayer one comes near while feeding. Hard to explain. Shagmsater do you know?

 

[cohazard]

You're right about the largest loach with gray stripes being the dominant individual.

The squabbles you noticed at feeding time is a normal when you have similar sized loaches who compete for the dominant position.

The partial graying out of the sub-dominant loach is just him/her testing the largest one.

I don't know why the dominant one seems to be a loner (same with my group), but that just sort of happens.

 

[smillermom]

yo yo loaches

I was just going to post a concern also about color changes. My 2 large yo yo loaches were squabbling like crazy today and went from a beautiful yellow/black to almost a solid grey color. Is this what they do when they are under stress or being dominant with each other?

 

[janger]

The partial graying out of the sub-dominant loach is just him/her testing the largest one.

Ok, that is what I thought was happening. This morning the dominant one was getting chased by the partially gray loach. Looks like he wants the top job.

Just watching them now, 20 minutes or so after lights-on, and the smaller one is black again. Seems he lost the battle for now.

 

[cohazard]

Something else I've noticed is that when purchased at the same size, they'll test each other until one becomes the dominant member of the group, and as far as my experience goes, it will stay dominant because it seems to grow faster than the others, and their growth rate seems to be affected by rank.

 

[azadehm1]

My larger loach is also reclusive (I've had him for five years)and only comes out to boss everyone and take their food. My yoyos also do a neat pinkish blue hue when fighting or during feeding. You can visibly see when they are happy