I'm going to need a bigger boat.

Thankfully not for a little while anyhow.

Coming back from Big Al's I called the guys at the fish farm, to pester them some and see about picking up some of the buffet that runs away. I got the guy I know on and he told me I had to stop by and see something amazing but wouldn't tell me what but that I had to see it.

I got there, and he took me down into one of the tropical fish rooms, not one that I remember being in before and (I wish I had my camera with me) shows me mama and papa clown loach, and 3 other gigantic ones, one tank full of eggs, and another tank full of the tiniest clown loaches I've ever seen ever.

One of the other guys there managed to breed clown loaches. I didn't know previously that this was something insanely difficult, but I got told all about it by the guy that did the breeding. Crazy stuff, cool water changes, ramdom diet changes, it was impressive stuff.

Anyway, the breeder offered me some of the older fry. They're almost a 1/4 of an inch, maybe and about 3 weeks old. I decided to take three. Figuring I can start them in a 30 I have free and keep moving up as need be. Though right now, seems that the 30 is extreme over kill for these 3 little guys.

It is extreme overkill for now but they do get huge.

Sounds awesome. I've heard it is extremely difficult to breed clowns and I thought it had never been done in captivity before. I wish you brought you camera too...but at least you can try to get some pics of your little guys.

The guy who did it was saying that there were a few case so far of Clowns breeding in captivity, and that was where he got all his tips from.

Yea. The 30 is a bit overkill. I have a 20ish hex with some small cranky tropicals that I may move to the 30 and put them into the hex. Supposedly the clowns put on an inch a year, so I definitely got some time with them.

hmmm.... crazy

Thats Awesome! They get to be around 12" I had 2 once but they died 2 months later, I think it was because the LFS didnt take great care of them.

Cant wait to see the pics of your babies!!!

Very nice...they are very slow growers!

I've only read of a couple accounts of captive breeding .

Your guy should post on a forum or blog what and how he did it for future breeders. Preferably on this site.

I'd have to get him to tell me what exactly he did and then I could post it, these guys are a bunch of really oldies. Their order tracking system consists of an old fax machine and a Pentium 75.