Questions about Botia almorhae and Botia striata

[prometheus]

Hi all,

I am keeping two Yoyo-Loaches for round about 11 years now, and I just started to get more informations about loaches. After reading the new book about loaches written by the authours also acitve in this forum, I decided to redesign my tank (160 L - 42,27 gallons) as a loach tank with barbs and, of course, loaches.

Now my question: I realized that my tank is quite small for more Yoyo-loaches, even if my two loaches aren't that big (~10 cm - 4 in) at all. That's why I'd like to purchase 6 Tiger loaches (botia striata). Will they school together with the Yoyo-Loaches, so that my two guys will finally have some mates? I've read in the book that "different species [of genus Botia] tend to interact with one another to some extent and school together" - has anybody experience with the concrete combination of these two loaches?

Greetings from Germany
Prometheus

[starsplitter7]

Hi all,

I am keeping two Yoyo-Loaches for round about 11 years now, and I just started to get more informations about loaches. After reading the new book about loaches written by the authours also acitve in this forum, I decided to redesign my tank (160 L - 42,27 gallons) as a loach tank with barbs and, of course, loaches.

Now my question: I realized that my tank is quite small for more Yoyo-loaches, even if my two loaches aren't that big (~10 cm - 4 in) at all. That's why I'd like to purchase 6 Tiger loaches (botia striata). Will they school together with the Yoyo-Loaches, so that my two guys will finally have some mates? I've read in the book that "different species [of genus Botia] tend to interact with one another to some extent and school together" - has anybody experience with the concrete combination of these two loaches?

Greetings from Germany
Prometheus

Hi there Prometheus,

Where are you Germany? I am originally from Fulda, and many members of this forum are from Germany. I have kept 6 Yoyos and 4 B. striata together for at least two years with no problems.

Who shares the tank with the yoyos? How do they get along? Usually two will pick on each other, but if you said you have had them for 11 years, they must be good friends. B. striatas can be feisty and take care of themselves.

My B. striata tend to hang out together, and the Yoyos sleep more, so I don't see them as often. They do not really school, but they have no fights either. Do you have dithers (fish that help the loaches feel more comfortable)? How do your yoyos behave?

Welcome to LOL. Tanja.

[helen nightingale]

my yoyos are a bit different from Tanjas. they are very active, and i have 2 pairs that are very close. they shoal together much more than my striata

these fish are great characters, and can vary so much!

botia striata and almorhae (yoyos) dont school together much in my experience.

i would prefer to see more yoyos together. How long is your tank? mine are very fast swimmers, and like lots of room to swim and loach about in, and it gives them plenty of space to hide when one gets grumpy with another, or when they seem to play-chase.

my striata are tough and can stand up for themselves against the yoyos which are quite a bit bigger than them. the alpha loach in my tank is a striata. as long as you have a good group of them, the striata should be fine. the one thing i can think of is that having a school of different botia might bring out the agression in the yoyos as you just have the 2?? just speculation though.

[prometheus]

Hi and thanks for the nice welcome,

I'm from Krefeld in Germany, that's near to Düsseldorf.

Well, my Yoyos get along with each other quite good, even if they have their little fight every evening. At the beginning they always greyed out while fighting, but now they're just swimming one after another for several minutes without really fighting. They are never resting in the same cave, that's why a thought that some more loaches would be good for them.

I would like to buy more Yoyos, but the problem is my tank size: 80X40X50 cm (32X16X20 inch) which is quite short for Yoyos, I suppose. I already mentioned that my Yoyos are quite small, about 10 cm/4 inch but the new Yoyos could get bigger, and I think this would be a problem. That's why I wanted to buy striatas, but when they don't school together, this wouldn't be really helpfull for my Yoyos in a tank of this size.

I'd like to have some loaches that school together with my Yoyos but are small enough for my tank, do you have any ideas?

Greetings from Germany,
Alex

[prometheus]

Hi,

is there nobody else with any experience with this combination? Is there nobody else with an idea how to solve my problem that I just two Yoyos?

Greeting
Prometheus

[starsplitter7]

The best solution is probably to add more Yoyos. Most loaches like a larger group. Are you able to have a larger tank?

[prometheus]

The best solution is probably to add more Yoyos. Most loaches like a larger group. Are you able to have a larger tank?

That's my problem: I don't have a place in my room where I could put a bigger tank, and I don't know anybody who has a bigger tank and would like to keep some loaches - that's why I have to find a solution that works in my tank. Because of that I thought about 4-6 botia striata as mates for my Yoyos, but when they don't swim together or, even worse, fight eacht other, that wouldn't be very useful. But I am interested in all ideas that help to solve the problem, if you know other small loaches that swim together with Yoyos, I would take them. I just thought about striatae because they stay quite small and are not very agressive.

Greetings
Prometheus

[mickthefish]

prometheus, a solution might be to add more filtration or better still a sump system which will enlarge your gallonage, that will enable you to keep your tank at an optimum and to add a few more fish.
i think striata would be a good choice but allowing for the length of your tank i don't think you would see them shoal.
even in my tank i don't see them shoal very often and the tanks 6 ft long.
i would love to have a tank twice as long then i'd imagine i'd see them schooling properly.

hope this helps
mick

[theonetruepath]

I have one yoyo which is several years old and has always been the only yoyo in the tank. About six months ago I added eight striata expecting them to hang together a bit.

They never did, the yoyo hangs out with my ghost knife more than he does the striata.

But the striata themselves only hang out in ones and twos for some reason. You hardly ever see as many as three together.

Not the greatest schooling loaches in my experience, but they are a delight and very non-aggressive.

[prometheus]

I have one yoyo which is several years old and has always been the only yoyo in the tank. About six months ago I added eight striata expecting them to hang together a bit.

They never did, the yoyo hangs out with my ghost knife more than he does the striata.

Oh, that are quite bad news for me But thanks for the answer, now I know that it won't work as I thought with my Yoyos and the striatas.

prometheus, a solution might be to add more filtration or better still a sump system which will enlarge your gallonage, that will enable you to keep your tank at an optimum and to add a few more fish.

I have a quite good filtration, but I am worried that my tank is not big enough for a real school of Yoyos, it's just 32 inches (80cm) long. Or do you think it would work with some more Yoyos? How big is your tank with the striatas?