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YoYo Loach? I accidentally got one..

8K views 4 replies 2 participants last post by  PunkinOfSteel 
#1 ·
I'm going to give you some backstory before I get into what this title means.

I had a planted 10 gallon aquarium with a male Super Delta X Betta who is 3 years old. I recently had to take the tank apart and had to have a friend of mine babysit the plants in her aquarium while Steel, my Betta, sat in a 5 gallon. I wasn't able to care for a whole aquarium at the time because I was too busy caretaking my father. He's recovered and I'm now able to put my 10 back together. I'm removing the gravel and replacing it with sand and I'm adding more plants since some of mine died while they were at my friends house, she wasn't leaving the light on long enough (since her fish died she sorta put that tank on the backburner which is what I was doing and thats why I had her watching them in the first place so that they would be taken care of! ugh!) and some of my plants happened to keel over. No big deal, I can replace them. I also have a snail problem in that 10 gallon, which is another reason i'm taking it all apart. I'm not 100% sure how it happened, I always QT my plants for two weeks before adding them, so maybe it came some other way, not sure. There's a little bit of old water left in the tank, about 3 inches above the gravel, round abouts.

Today I went out to Petco and PetSmart and I bought sand, a new hood, some more plants and at Petco I bought a driftwood with a Anubias attached. I had wanted to buy another piece of drift wood as well as another Anubias so might as well kill two birds with one stone.

I brought everything home and pulled out my 2.4 QT tank and sat it down. The driftwood is in it's own bag, I dump the water it's in down the drain, no need for it since it'll be QT for snails. I pull it out of the bag to get a good look at it and see if there are any visible snails on it so i can pick them off, i turn it upside down and there's a little cave under it, inside I see not a snail but a FISH! There's a hide a way fish in my driftwood and it's ALIVE! I freak, cause i just dumped all of it's water out down the drain so I run across the house to my aquarium and place it down in there.

I couldn't tell what it was at first, I only caught a couple glimpses of it and it looked like a Chinese Algae Eater but it wouldn't come out from inside the wood. So I let it sit there for about 10 minutes or so then come back to see if the butthead came out or not. It did. I pulled the plant out and put it in the QT tank and came back again to get a good look at the fish. Turns out it's not a CAE but a Loach of some sort, well, that makes me feel better, cause I have no idea wtf I would do with an a-hole fish, we have had them in the past and they were far too aggressive.

So, to Google I went, found it in the images immediately, i think he was the first picture.. he or she. A YoYo Loach. Now off the top of my head the only thing I knew about them is that they are peaceful.

I've done a little bit of research but I haven't gotten as much information as I would like, so I have a few questions. I'm not worried about my Betta bullying it, he's been with Otos and a Bristlenose Pleco before, he ignored the Otos and tried once to be all big and bad with the Pleco (Munch) who whipped his tail once and literally scared the poop out of Steel. After that Steel would try and lay near Munch almost looking at him as if he wanted to be friends or was apologising lol (though I'm sure that's not what it was).


Do they have to be in a school or can they be housed by themselves?

I'm sure I won't be his/her forever home since I know they can get up to 5 inches long and I'm not going to be able to afford to buy a larger aquarium for a while still.. What's the minimum it's recommended for them to be in (US gallons)? Currently he's quite small.

I know they eat snails, which is really awesome, but I know they are Omnivores. I've heard they are fine in planted tanks but sometimes can eat some of the live plants, which type will they eat?

I heard they like to burrow, but can't find any more sources on this, i've heard that doing this they have dug up plants before, do you think this can be resolved by putting some gravel around the roots of the plants to stabilize them a little more?

What is a good water temperature for them? My tank has an adjustable heater that is set at 78 degrees F.

What else do they like to eat? I've heard brine shrimp or pellets.. I have 15 different types of Betta pellets, frozen and freeze dried brine shrimp and blood worms.. i'm guessing since they are omnivores and have munched on plants they would maybe munch on some algae?

I've heard they can live to be 20 years old, is that true or a little bit of hogwash?

Are they sensitive to Aquarium Salt? I don't use it much but i do like to add some to my tank when I do water changes.

Are they sensitive in the way Otos are or are they more hardy fish?

If this thing survives the shock of being dumped into a tank with completely different parameters and a totally different temperature I would like to make it as comfortable as possible and feed it as good as possible. My Betta gets New Life Spectrum Betta pellets and Small Fish Formula as well as the main diet but also a varied diet with all these others.

I've added some more water so that I can place the heater back into the tank along with a bubbler.. I used API Stress Coat+ (because I swear by it) as well as adding a little bit of API Quick Start, just to do what I can to make the fella more comfortable and hopefully survive.

Help would be appreciated, thanks!
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Nice!!! I have 3 in my heavily planted 29g. That awesome fish. Now 2 the questions

1. They CAN be kept alone. But is meant 2 be in small groups or a large school.
2. I would say, a 29g. VERY active fish.
3. No they dont borrow, they dig. Also if u have a sand (that is what they prefer) that is 3in+ they will not uproot plants. I have not had any issue with that.
4. Your temp is fine.
5. No they are mainly carnivores. Though they will eat flakes and pellets. Mine eat my ghost shrimp. They also LOVE frozen bloodworms and frozen mysis. They will not even touch live plants or algae.
6. I think they could live 15+ with proper care. But idk.
7. They dont like it. But can stand a little bit.
8. To me otos arent sensitive. But i guess they are around that.
Good luck with him/her.
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#3 ·
Awesome, thank you very much for the information :)

Currently he/she is in the tank with gravel and i think 3 silk plants, i did buy enough sand so that it will be a few inches deep, so that's good to know.

I don't know if Otos are sensitive or just really fragile when they are first bought, I'm guessing it's just stress from moving from their breeding tank, to the store, then to the house. I know that's quite a lot of moving to be done, especially for a little fish.

I'm sure i'll end up having to rehome it at some point, but I would like to keep him/her around for awhile to see if it'll pick off some or the majority of my snails, that would make me quite happy.
 
#5 ·
Well, i'm setting that aquarium up in a week or two- i'm taking the fake plants back out (only added them so that this thing had some cover) and am getting rid of the gravel. It's being replaced with sand as well as i'm putting my live plants back in, i'm not worried about the silk ones or having the gravel messed with lol
 
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