Aggressive loach

[lf11casey]

My male yoyo has started to be a little jerk to the female. He chases her around the tank for no reason that I can see. He does not bother the other loach just the female. This has just started in the past week. I changed the decor around in the tank to see if that would help, but it has not. I don't know what else to try to calm him down. Any suggestions.
The female is gravid, but has been for a while, so I doubt it is a courting situation. Unless it has taken my male this long to get in the mood lol. I still think it's just aggression though. Thoughts anyone.

[oilhands]

Twitterpated perhaps?

[newshound]

give us tank info pls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Emma Turner]

Hi Casey,

How many Yo-yo loaches do you have? What size are they, and what size is the tank?

Emma

[lf11casey]

Hey Emma I wasn't thinking clearly enough to post facts last night, I was distracted with home affairs.
The male is about 5'' the female 4'' and the other loach I would say about 3''. Got them at different times. My tank I'm sad to say is only 30x12. I know it is way to small and I swear to god I am working on getting a larger tank. I have lots of hiding places for them. Two coconut caves, three pieces of driftwood they can hide under and several plants. Only the male seems to like the coconut caves though, the female and smaller loach pretty much hang out in the open.
My tank parameters are as follows. I now know my liquid nitrate test went bad so I used one of those test strips. Yes I plan on getting all new kits. My fish are to important to play the guessing game. I'll post both readings from both the strip and API tests.

API
PH-6.4
Ammonia-0
NitrIte-0
NitrAte- Over 160, really really red, like I said didn't realize out of date till now.
GH-3 (if you go by drops after first one, never know how to post these results)
KH- first drop turned liquid yellow, so if test still good under ten I guess.

Test Strip
PH-6.6
Ammonia-0
NitrIte-0
NitrAte-20
GH-70 or so, somewhere between 60 and 80
KH-80

The tank temp is 78 degrees, I have two 20/40 Aquatech filters w/ sponges on the intakes. I do 30% water changes every week, sometimes twice a week.
Like I said the male does not show much aggression towards the smaller loach. He doesn't seem to bother the female much during feeding either. He just gets it in his head sometimes to be a brat. He will follow her around the tank, usually not in an aggressive nature. When she stops, he will stop also and cozzy up next to her and nudge her, sometimes they will swim in tight circles together or he'll go balistic and start getting aggressive.
I know the tank being to small is an issue and I have seen some normal aggression in the past becouse of this. But only recently has his aggression gone over the top when it comes to her.
I took some pics just fot the heck of it. Unfortunetly I didn't catch any bad behavior to show you. Not that I'm complaining about there not being any aggressive behavior.

Here are the three loaches together. Please excuse any pooh or algae.


Male and female in question. Couldn't get her all in pic though.


Male


As you can see in the pics the males pectoral fins are starting to take on a very pink hue. I don't now if this means anything or not. Also the females barbels are pink too. I didn't think the females got any color in the barbels. And don't ask me why the male is not very reticulated, I don't have a clue. He's even older then the female by almost a year.
I'm at my wits end, don't know what's going on. Any insight is much appreciated.
Thanks

[Diana]

Interesting markings on the male!

Sounds like the test strip is more accurate for the nitrate reading, with frequent water changes as you describe something like the 20 ppm is more likely to be right than the 'off the chart' AP test kit reading.
AP boxes or bottles are stamped with a code number, and the last part of that can be translated as a date. Nitrate tests are usually OK for about 2 years, most of the others for about 5 years. More details at the AP web site.

I am not sure what the fish are doing, but she looks gravid, perhaps he is interested in breeding and her eggs are not quite ready yet.

[Emma Turner]

Hi Casey,

I would think that this is partly due to the size of the tank (which I know you are working on upgrading) and partly to do with the fact that you only have 3 of the same kind of loach in there. With the female being so close in size to the large male (who I presume is the Alpha - correct me if I am wrong), he may feel she is a threat to his position. I see this a lot with Marge & Stripes, my two largest clowns. Stripes is less than an inch shorter than Marge, but does not have her sheer height, so he never wins. But that doesn't stop him trying to usurp her now and then.
When you have the new tank up and running and it has been stable for a while, you should think about adding a few more Yo-yos of varying sizes if you can (after quarantining of course) as this will give the largest Yoyo more to concern himself with.
I have to say though, that your loaches look in superb condition, and you never know, this could be some sort of pre-spawning behaviour. It may even be worth you getting this larger tank and moving just the two of them in there for a time to see if anything comes of it. For example you could try a large cool water change and a sudden increase in water movement (switch some additional powerheads on at the time of the water change) and see if anything occurs!

Emma

[lf11casey]

Thanks for not reaming me out about the small size of the tank Emma. I was half afraid you might, but wanted to be honest about the less then ideal size.
I knew that the size of the tank and only having three yoyo's was causing some aggression, but was concerned over how mean he has gotten to the female. Yes, he is the alpha loach.
I'm still currently working towards the 55 and the stand to go with it, and getting more yoyos, but now I'm thinking I'll eventually have to get a 75 if I want a group of about six happy loaches. Good thing my lfs will take my platty babies for credit, hopefully they will take purple brigg juvies and maybe some shrimp when my colony gets going. God I love credit at that store, lol. Also love the stuff my in-laws bring home to me, but alas no 55 yet from them.
I would love to beable to spawn my loaches. I'll keep putting them in the bigger tank, once it's matured and stable of course, by themselves in mind.
I'll keep everyone updated on the little brat and what he does.


Diana- I did read your answer from my age of test kit question on the freshwater forum. It's how I new my nitrate test was out of date. Thanks. Time to get new test kits.

[fish_frenzy]

I have 5 Yo-yos in a 75G tank. I have 2 females and 3 males. All are between 5-6 1/2 inches.

I have one female that is gravid well, seems like ALL the time. When she is so gravid that she can barely swim (kinda bumps along the bottom) the alpha male will agressively keep the other males away from her and will occasionally get aggresive with her.

I have never seen a spawn, but I am assuming they happen because she gets thinner for a few weeks, then she starts to get plumper once again. Maybe she is getting close to her time to spawn, though I have never seen the males fins change color...something to watch for.

Tammy

[helen nightingale]

i was in a similar situation to you. i was missold loaches and ened up with too few fish in a tank that was way too small. its a horrible situation to be in - where you know you are wrong and are struggling to put it right.

i was very luck, a friend found me 2 larger tanks at the local street acution one day. they were very cheap as nobody wanted them, so my friend bought them for me. that tided me over till i could afford to buy a new tank.

i completely agree with what Emma says. once you can get that bigger tank, hopefully the agression will dissapear