Loaches Online Forum

Just wanted to tell about some strange loach behavior I saw last night:

One of my Schistura coricas was crazily darting around the tank and diving into the sand. He would stay completely buried for a while with just his eyes sticking out, and then he'd shoot out and do it all again.

Then a very fat (gravid?) corica appeared and they swam around at the front of the tank for a while - it didn't seem like one was chasing the other, but more like they were just swimming along together.

Then a Homaloptera smithi started following them. They would all rest at the front of the tank, then swim off and rest together again.

Then the two coricas seemed to be rubbing their back ends together for a bit, but it didn't really look like spawning.

Then the H smithi interrupted, and they started swimming again. I lost track of them in the tank, but a short while later saw the H smithi and the male (?) corica facing off. The H smithi lunged, and the corica swam off.

I'm not sure what to make of any of it, but it sure was entertaining to watch! I didn't know schisturas burrowed, and I'd never before seen any interaction between these species except over food.

That's interesting.
I have seen coricas, beavani and other small schisturas burrow like that, but not the other behavior you mentioned.
Its also hard to visualize a smithi being the aggressor in any situation. They are always so laid back.
I wonder if this was spawning behavior and the smithi just got caught up in it. Having seen your tanks I can certainly believe you could get some species spawning.
I have had some other fish get very active when P. cheni or L. disparis were spawning. I wonder if the release of hormones in the water gets other fish juiced up like that.
Did you ever see the fat corica after that? I just wondered if it was slimmer.

I wondered if it was some sort of prespawning behavior too. I thought maybe the H smithi was waiting to pounce on the eggs. I was surprised at how bold he was too! They've all been so passive, even with each other.

Yesterday I saw one fat corica, but there were two originally and I can't tell them apart. I was so busy yesterday that I didn't have time to stick around and see if another fat one would emerge, but tonight I'll be home and will watch more closely.