Loaches Online Forum

So, my hulking 5" histy starting swimming back and forth, up & down the tank around noon (the usual Botia thing). It's now 1AM and he's still going at it. I don't think he stopped the whole time.

The 2 other histy joined him/her once in a while but gave up long ago.

It's a joy to see them swim since most of the time they hide and only come out to eat... Is this guy trying to migrate?

the night before, I did a 25% Water change and increase the wattage in my lights by 20watts.

Hi mistergreen,

My parents Histies always do this following a good sized water change. Just keep an eye on him/her, but I don't think you have anything to worry about. Sometimes it is exhausting just to watch them!

Emma

heh.. It was exhausting to watch him.. He was swimming way into the night in the dark.. Today, he's back to normal and is hiding out.

Funny how they react to change.

I think you may have pulled the trigger but shot a blank.

What I mean by that is in my opinion one of the reasons loaches are more difficult to spawn is they require more specific triggers to breed than say corydoras catfish. That said, the night before you did a 25% water change and changed your lighting. Perhaps that combination of change started your loach, and, or loaches to commence initial spawning behavior. They didn't spawn so you didn't make all the right moves to initiate it, but it's possible you are on to something. Of course, then again, it might not have meant a thing.

Just for the heck of it you might want to try changing your bulbs back, feeding them a LOT of fish eggs and then replacing your bulb again while doing a water change. It would be interesting if the excessive swimming behaviour again happened and maybe more cool stuff might follow. Then again, it might be a complete waste of your time and you might curse me out for being a nutcase.