Botia almorhae, yo-yo loaches and Spawning dance?

[LVKSLoachlady]

I Currently have 4 yo yo's, atleast I belive all 4 of them to be Botia almorhae. They are in a 29 Natural Planted Tank, with an albino kribis. I think I have 2 females and 2 males, now. The last time I let this happened I only had 2 females and one male in this tank, I had to add another one that was bulling all the fish in his tank, he turned out to be male...anyways...

Sometimes I get lazy and don't do a water change when I should, I think the longest it's ever went was 4 months, I stilled toped off the tank bi-weekly. For those who dont know in a NPT you don't have to do WC's as offten as you would in a high-tech planted tank or a fish only set-up. And then the filter cloges up and slow down and the bottem gets really dirty, literally. and then the whole front would get covered with a rambow of alge. I know it sounds really bad but the nirtaes always tested 0 ppm when it got like this! So it just looks/sounds bad! Some how I found the time to test it to make sure everything was indeed ok, where as I could not find the time to clean it! LOL, my Krib loved all the alge salad too! I feed them trumpit and ramshorn snails, bloodworms, brine shrimp, shrimp pellets. I have to fast them for a day to get them to flakes but they will if I put them in the way of the filter out take.

Anyways when all these things happen, my loaches went nuts. The male, ogos, that's what his left side says, would chase the females around Relentlessly! The only time he would stop chasing one was to go chase the other one! Then after a few days of chasing the male and a female swam to the top making a spiral with thier tummies together... then the other female joined in, and then they saw me and scatered! LOL! They are so funny! Once the coast was clear they started again, I only watch from a far at this point... they did this for a few more days... Not all day long for about 10 mins every hour or so... I'm pretty sure they were doing some sort of spawning dance. Can anyone second this?

BTW I got disgusted with myself, not to mention my boyfriend started to disapprove of my tank looking so bad, so I had to clean it, and the only thought I gave to the possible spawning was "Where would I put all the babies, I dont have room for this!" And Vacumed the gravel... so no babies!

Also I'm New on here Hello everyone!

[LVKSLoachlady]

1st no one has ever seen thier yo-yo's do this?

And 2nd

I SAID I WAS NEW AND HELLO AND NO ONE SAYS "HI" BACK? HOW UNFRIENDLY!

[eastofthesun46]

Heehee, hello!
I'm sorry, but I don't have any useful advice to give, except that, when challenged regarding the algae content of your tank, you can defend it by saying that it more closely approximates the natural habitat of your loaches, thereby making them feel more at home. Works for me!
Also, I enjoyed how appropriate the shortening of water change to WC was. Small minds...

[bookpage]

LVKSLoachlady, please forgive us if you feel that we have ignored you after only one day. The forum has been very slow the past few weeks. Not many people are posting. Guess most are caught up in living their lives.

We do welcome you to the forum and do hope that you will be a regular poster. And, I'm sure we all would like to see some pictures of your loaches.

With that said, I do want to pass on to you what has been said several times in posts that I have read. Your tank is too small for the 4 yo-yos that you have. They will be bigger and need at least a 48" tank to live in.

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/botia-almorhae

[LVKSLoachlady]

That's just what they are in for now, it does seem crowded... I have a 90 gal I would love to set up tommrrow but we don't have room for it or the money to get things i dont have... like a stand, gravel, top soil, another light fixture, more caves and rocks driftwood, lots and lots of plants.... oh and a FILTER! Pretty much everything but the tanks... as soon as we move I'm going to take a small loan so I can get this thing set up!!!

[LVKSLoachlady]

NO comments?? anyone??

[Marcos Mataratzis]

Hi Loachlady,

Maybe the spinning movements you´re talking about is this:



It´s called Ghosting. First, the fish swims side by side with other, like a clown imitating movements of another guy. Then, they spin each other in a frenetic dance. Looks like it´s more a pecking other fight then breeding dance.

[LVKSLoachlady]

yup that's what they are/were doing...And I did have a change in top loach not too long ago...This must have had something to do with it...thanks you for the quick response...also sometimes they do this dance with the Kribis that lives with them...but he's still king of the tank fish!