Loaches Online Forum

Having spent a number of my younger years with a tank full of weather loaches, I've come to expect odd behavior from these fish. In fact, that's much of what attracts me to them in the first place. Consequently, when I recently decided to get back into the hobby, loaches were high on my list of fish species.
I currently have 3 juvenile Gold Zebras (Botia histrionica) and 3 juvenile yoyos (Botia almorhae) in my tank, and they all seem to be thriving, happy and active...

...Except for one of the yoyos. In the morning and the evening (and any time I drop food into the tank), he's active and inquisitive. He follows the other loaches around, roots in the sand, pokes around at the rocks, rides the bubble streams, and even chases the corys around; just like the other loaches. Truthfully, I'm not worried about his health, but I think he might need a psychiatrist.
I think he's imitating my synodontis cats a bit too much. He spends most of the day wedged into the crook of his favorite plant, completely upside-down. I know that loaches do strange things, but if any other kind of fish was behaving this way I'd think that they were dying!

I've seen loaches in every imaginable position, but I've never before seen one that was content to spend his day completely upside down. Is this normal, or is my little yoyo a bit of a doofus?

I'd say he is normal, and a bit of a doofus.

I have a striata loach that loves wedging his face into a small gap in some driftwood.... which sounds normal, except that it leaves his entire body sort of just 'hanging' vertically with his tail out in the open. There is no real camoflage for him, but maybe he just likes the snug feeling around his face.

I also have some kuhli loaches in a heavily planted tank, and when they aren't chasing each other and doing 'dances' around the top of the tank, they'll often be seen just 'draped' over leaves or stems, often 30-40cm above the substrate.

Thanks for the reply.
I'm used to seeing longer bodied loaches (such as Kuhlis and dojos) draped across whatever they feel like. I remember watching some of the ones I had in my younger days do a "stop-and-drop" maneuver where they would just stop swimming halfway to wherever they were going and drop onto whatever (or whoever) was below them.
However, I'm new to keeping botiine loaches and I'm a bit rusty at fish keeping in general, so I wanted to make sure I was correct in my assumption that my loach was just acting "loachy" and not actually sick.