Why Is One Of My Clown Loaches A Different Colour?

[snazy]

I have 5 clown loaches but one of them is a different colour than the other 4. He/she is shiny yellow with black stripes but the rest four are more orange tinted with black stripes. They've gotten even more orange since I got them and the difference is clearly noticeable. The interesting thing is that he/she never changes the black stripes to grey as the rest of the clowns do sometimes when stressed. When I first bought them all clown loaches bar this one were very pale and this one had full jet black stripes. I didn't pick them myself because the store couldn't get them out of the decorations so I was just presented with a bag of 5 clown loaches when they rang me back.

Here is a picture I took of them today. You can see the yellow clown in the middle and the rest orange ones around him and the difference in reallity is as great as in the picture. Are they different species?

 

[Tizer]

http/www.loaches.com/articles/clown-loach-coloration-marking-variations

Read about "Graying Out"

What you have is nothing abnormal.

 

[snazy]

http/www.loaches.com/articles/clown-loach-coloration-marking-variations

Read about "Graying Out"

What you have is nothing abnormal.

I've read this already but it doesn't say anything about the yellow/orange colour between the stripes. I know they grey out when they are stressed or even old. 4 of them were very pale when I got them at first, you couldn't see the stripes properly. I haven't seen them so pale since and they'd normally just slightly go not so jet black now from time to time. The 5th one never greys out but. I guess it's never stressed but it's irrelevant to my question. Why when all of them have their solid black stripes which is now most of the time, one of them is yellow in between the rest are orange tinted? I know it's not unusual. I was just wondering if it is a colour morph or are they different type and what type?

 

[Tizer]

Probably just a diet / protein / age / pecking order thing, but if it were me, i'd just accept him as a mongrel fish, point and laugh at him lots and call him names.

He's like that and that's the way it is. Your want for a technical answer on here will be a bit of a challenge as there are very few Clown Loach owners on here due to their tank size requirements, thus knowledge is minimal at best. I'd asked on the loaches.com forum if it were me. I've got 24 of them in my tank, none of them are yellow/orange, but i have seen some very bright young ones in shop stock tanks before. Maybes hes had too much sun.

 

[snazy]

Thanks Tizer.

I found this article explaining the difference and the pictures really match the difference between my clowns.

http/albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=29019

So it appears that my yellow could be a Sumatran loach or a mongrel , my other 4 are Kalimantan/Borneo loaches(which apparently is the same thing).

 

[snazy]

I couldn't catch them right but here is a picture of the yellow and orange clown close up:

Left clown is yellow, right one is orange:

 

[Tizer]

ooooh excellent find, will have a good read myself