Loaches Online Forum

Hi folks,

I wondered if I could ask for some opinions on my current loach behaviour?
I have a 300l community tank, set up in September last year. It has a few tetras and rasboras, four penta barbs, a couple of lizard plecs, a lace gourami and a loach community. Initially I had 5 yoyos and 3 hillstream loaches. Currently, one of the yoyos is being treated in my quarantine tank for skinny.

At Christmas time, my sister wanted to buy me some fish as a present, so we acquired 6 Dwarf Chain Loaches. There were only 6 left in the LFS and I thought it was best to rescue them as a group from their tiny little tank.

All has been fine until a few days ago. The Sids have got bigger (although so have the Yoyos) and the leader of the gang (usually a female?) has started to spend all day chasing the Yoyos about trying to nip them. Initially it was funny, but now I'm starting to worry for them a bit. The Yoyos are not returning any aggression, just trying to get away.

The biggest YoYo is now about 8cms, the smallest 6cms. At least there is 4 of them to break it up a bit. It does seem mainly to be the Sid ringleader, but a couple of the gang will join in now and again.

Normal behaviour, or should I be worried?

Thanks.

Wex

Unfortunately this is common behaviour in sidthimunki, I have had sid's of under 2" harass Syncrossus species over 5". The bigger the group of sid's the better behaved they get and any little skirmish's tend to stay within the group of sids.

How well planted is the tank and how many hiding spots do you have?

slate caves and cobble piles work really well with sid's as they are very inquisitive and will spend lots of time in and around them.

Hi Mad Duff,

Thanks for the reply. The tank is pretty heavily planted, with more plants and a big piece of multi-armed bogwood at one end, then a large cave in the middle and at the other end a big rock pile set over 3 ceramic tunnels, so there are plenty of hiding places.

They really are little tinkers. All the information I had read on them said they were peaceful but very playful, but in actual fact it seems they suffer from Small Loach Syndrome and are fearless little bullies!

So, should I get a couple more? I know 6 is a small group and I have some space left, but it does sound a little like fighting fire with fire. I'm quite fond of the little guys but if they don't knock it off, I might have to take them back The YoYos are the reason I got the tank and set it up like this in the first place.

I'm surprised the YoYos don't fight back, they're happy fighting each other now and again?

Cheers,

Wex

Wexford wrote: it seems they suffer from Small Loach Syndrome and are fearless little bullies!

That sums up sids pretty well

You could give them a little time, they may well calm down a bit. When I first started building my current group I got my first 10 and they were total swines and chasing anything that moved, they did start to calm down after a couple of months and when the next 10 were added they calmed the chasing of other fish totally vanished and they kept any hassle among themselves.

I'll see how things go. I've just realised that this seems to have coincided with me removing the smallest "runt" yoyo to the quarantine tank for treatment. He couldn't outrun or outfight a Sid, but perhaps they now feel the balance of power is shifting in their favour?!

Maybe 2 more Sids might fix it.... or perhaps 4 more, a nice round 10.

"small loach syndrome"
that is classic!