Pakistani/Yoyo Loach Questions

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Gavril

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I would just like to know if anyone knows any loach specialists that I could get in contact as I have a few in-depth questions.
 
I was going to ask about there jumping habits, breeding inforamtion, seasonal spawing tropical fish. Things like that
 
Botias don't normally jump unless there is something wrong with the tank water, even then they don't normally get aerial. I had mine in a 4x2x2ft tank without covers and never lost one.

I had a group of 20 originally in the 4x2x2ft tank. It had an undergravel filter with an uplift tube at each end. Only one end had an airstone sucking water up the uplift tube. The other end was left open and the loaches use to go down the uplift tube and spend half the time under the filter plates. When food was put in the tank they all came out of the uplift tube one at a time. It was quite amusing to watch.

The tank had a lot of plants in it and got a 75% water change each week. I used a gravel cleaner to suck out the gunk around the plants and gravel clean the opens areas of substrate.

I fed the fish 2-3 times per day with dry flake and pellets; frozen (but defrosted) bloodworms, marine mix, brineshrimp, daphnia, mysis shrimp, raw prawn; and live foods like mozzie larvae, aphids, blackworms, and daphnia. The Botias ate anything offered and weren't fussy.

The tank had rainbowfish, barbs, Farlowella and Loricaria catfish, pygmy perch and a white finned rainbow shark, as well as the 20 loaches.

12 months after I got them there was about 50 in the tank. They had spawned and the babies had grown up in the tank without any extra food. I assume they lived on infusoria that was on and around the plants.

My adults grew to about 5 inches for females and the males were about 4 inches long. Females were fatter than males and much more dominant. They have a pecking order with one big female being in charge and everyone else is below her rank. The dominant female was always the biggest loach in the group.

When I originally got the fish I got 30 of them and gave 10 to a friend. He kept his in a 6ft tank and his dominant female reached 8 inches in length and most of the others grew to about 6 inches. His fish were kept with 50 neon tetras, some Corydoras, gouramis, barbs and some small cichlids. He saw his fish displaying but he never got babies. Apparently a couple of males were swimming next to the female and they all stopped on the gravel and shook together for a few seconds. This happened a few times before the males left the female and swam off back under their rock. His tank got a 90% water change and complete gravel clean each week and didn't have many plants in.

They are also quite tolerant of cool water. I did a water change on their tank and the heater failed. The next day the water was about 12C and half the fish in that tank were dead, but none of the loaches died. I got a new heater for the tank and when the temperature was back up to 20C they were all racing around like nothing had happened.

My water was soft (GH below 100ppm) and the pH was about 8.0. My friend's tank had the same chemistry as mine.
 
Ahh ok then thank you for the info :). So are there any other tropical fish that spawn seasonally then?
 
Most fish will breed whenever conditions are right for them. In captivity, fish get regular food, clean water and a stable temperature and this can be sufficient for many species to breed almost continuously. Fish that don't breed readily can usually be encouraged to breed by doing big daily water changes for a week or two, and using water that is a couple of degrees cooler than the tank water. This can simulate rainfall, which is when most freshwater fishes breed.
 
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