I'm not sure if i'm seeing things lol but the stripes on one of my clown loaches seems to be fading to almost grey then a few hours later goes back to almost jet black, any ideas? One more thing how quick do these cute little fish grow? Mine are currently around 2-2.5" but they can grow to over 12"! Am i looking at many years before they reach this size?

Hi Blue Fin,

The 'greying out' of clown loaches is quite common and can be down to many many different things. Sometimes it just happens naturally when they're getting a bit aggressive and trying to sort out the pecking order, but sometimes it can be a sign of stress. There's an absolutely brilliant article about it here. I found my clowns became generally much darker when I added some bogwood and decent hiding places to the tank, and fixed a black background to it. I think this is because all these factors made them feel more secure.

As for size, I've had mine nearly a year and they're still only a couple of inches. They do grow extremely slowly, and rarely get bigger than 8-10 inches in captivity. As long as you're feeding them a nice varied diet, with protein (like bloodworm and tubifex worm), and plenty of greenery (like cucumber and frozen peas), and your water conditions are good, and they have plenty of room, then they should thrive.

I have 6 clown loach that are all about 3 inches. Whenever I clean out the tank they fade a bit as with most of the other fish (Red tailed Shark goes almost white!).

As soon as I have finished and things settle down the colour returns. I have also noticed that fading can happen if the temp drops a little??

Nice Platypus

Another thing is alot of fish become a little pale when you turn the light on in the morning or something. They change colors in a couple of minutes.