Picked up five Yoyo`s

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Belly up

Piranha
MFK Member
Sep 19, 2008
637
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Wolverine, MI
I have been keeping CA cichlids for most of my life. Recently I have kind of grown weary of their propensity to kill one another so I bought some barbs for a fifty gallon to see if they bored me. I found them to be interesting and well peaceful. Then I started thinking I would add something for diversity and loaches came to mind so I went to the LFS to see what they had. Knowing loaches actually like each other I was disappointed to see he only had two Yoyo loaches. I told the owner I would like at least five fish. I left empty handed. A week later I went back and he had brought in three more so I grabbed them.

These guys have been a hoot to watch. They are about 2.5 inches at this time. They will hang together for a while then spread out. Sometimes they follow the barbs but I have never seen them bite one. It is nice to have five fish of the same species without them killing each other!

I am wondering about the growth rate on these guys and the possibility of breeding them down the road, a big attraction of cichlids.
 
they are perfect but people with smaller tanks. nice colors like the clown but not a ridiculous max size. im looking to get a couple more myself when i find them
 
Loaches in general are hard to breed but it's not impossible as I have been able to get kuhli loaches to spawn. In terms of growth rate, they can grow pretty quickly if you give them a varied, high protein diet. I recommend bloodworms, brine shrimp, or mysis shrimp. they can still be fed dry sinking pellets.
 
Much slower growth rate than your average cichlid, very difficult to spawn, but hilarious and worth the effort of raising. Get as many as you can fit in your tank/afford if you want to see hilarity ensue. Be sure to offer a lot of caves. The more you add the safer they feel.
 
I have had them for about three weeks now; I had them a while before I posted. They have been entertaining to watch to say the least. These are the first loaches I have owned in many, many years. As already mentioned I have been a cichlid addict most of my life. I think this tank is at carrying capacity with the barbs, especially once they put on some size. I am in the process of bringing more tanks on line as I currently have four fifty gallon tanks and an assortment of smaller tanks in the garage. I have made some changes in my business that allows me the option of having more tanks. As I bring them in they will have barbs to cycle them then different species of loaches because I love the variety!
 
Well I lost one of my Yoyo loaches to skinny-ness. I medicated the tank in an attempt to save him but no go. The remaining four all look good and eat like little piggies.
 
AFAIK, skinny or wasting disease isn't curable. If you see it then yank the suffering fish and put into a quarantine tank. That may or may not help, but if it can minimize the chance of spread it is worth it. I lost my first kuhli--Calvin kuhlidge--to wasting. I assumed back then it was a parasite in his intestine or something like that. Don't know if there is much more recent progress on this, but I'd just try to be safe than sorry. After all, you don't want the disease to spread from the corpse or allow the corpse to be eaten (not to mention the fish while alive, acting as a disease transmitter).

Can anyone else add to skinny disease?
 
I researched it on the web and found there is a treatment recommended but no one claimed it was anymore than something to try. The rest of the herd seems to be fine still. The one thing I noticed was how hard that poor loach seemed to fight to hang on. He was removed before he could be dined on and disposed of.
 
idk I heard someone talking in my lfs, and they said that the reason behind the "skinny loach" is due to an abundance of hormones to get the loaches to breed.
 
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