When I started getting interested in fish years ago, the clown
loaches were a lot brighter orange than I'm seeing in stores now.
Is it just in my head, or have others noticed this?

Cindy

Clowns are mostly wild caught, so unless something about their
harvesting is causing the colour shift, I don't think so. Their
colours are faded when stressed (new arrivals, when fighting, when
sick etc) and also when they age. IMO, the best colour really comes
out in smaller specimens (under 4") which have been well acclimated
to a tank (6-12 months) and are being fed a wide variety of quality
foods. Perhaps this is what you were comparing with the stores.

At work, I tried to keep enough display tanks of fish (not for sale)
so that customers could see what more mature and settled specimens
looked like. Some examples of fish which looked unimpressive young
or after transport were Electric Blues, Mooris, Cacatoides,
Appistogramas, Chocolate & Licorice gouramis, Brochis, Kuhli & Clown
loaches and various tetras (Congo, Penquin, Glowlight, Red Phantoms
etc).

That was probably it. I worked at a fish-only store that had quite a few
display tanks and many many selling tanks, and the new stock was always put
in a different tank than the old. The little clowns were beautiful.
The stores I frequent now don't keep that many tanks or many fish in the
tanks, so you don't get to see what they look like once established.

Cindy