Loaches Online Forum

I have a question for someone on another forum who has a 4 ft. tank with kuhlis and rainbows and gouramis. They were wondering if they could add yoyos. How bad of an idea would that be? I really don't know how kuhlis would do with yoyos, but my first guess is they might have trouble getting food. What would you tell this person? I thought I'd ask here since I'm curious myself.

My sister inlaw has a 3foot with 2 kuhlies, 2 yoyos and 2 clowns (amongst other fish). She hasnt had a problem with the kuhlies not getting enough food..

Then again, she does put extra food in just to make sure.

I have three large yo yo's in with 7 black kuhlis and trust me, the kuhlis quickly find a way to get the food. They've all been together well over a year now without any problems.

I have yoyos and black kuhlis and don;t have a problem, the kuhlis more than stand up to the yoyos. That being said, the yoyos are still relatively small - 3 - 3 1/2 inches - and there's a lot of hiding places that they have divvied up between them. The kuhlis are much less fussy about territory than the yoyos, as long as they've got something to hide under they're happy. Other people have found exactly the opposite, though.

however, I think there's a fair chance the yoyos would terrorise the gouramis.

Thanks for the responses! It makes me feel tempted to put some kuhlis in my own tank with yoyos .

BTW I have gouramis with yoyos and they respect each others space. My gouramis are the big 3-spot type, though, and this person has smaller gouramis. There is a chance things would be different but I doubt it considering there isn't even a hint of interaction between them in my tank.

TammyLiz wrote:Thanks for the responses! It makes me feel tempted to put some kuhlis in my own tank with yoyos .

Your mileage will vary...

With Black Kuhlis, things should work out fine, since they are more outgoing.

With Striped Kuhlis, in my case, yoyo's definitely suppressed kuhlis, especially when the yoyo's were in their fastest growing interval, until about 3". After 3", yoyo's became a bit slower and less of bother. "Bother" does not mean that yoyo's try to cause harm or that any kuhli would end up dead or unhealthy, it is just that in the presence of fast moving large objects they will hide much more than is normal. One way to alleviate the problem is to make hiding places that are small enough not to allow a yoyo in.

hth

I had to move my extremely terrified female colisa lalia out of the tank with yoyos. she now bullies a smaller tank of neons and cories...