YoYo Loaches

dethjam316

dethjam316

Large Fish
#21
Mar 24, 2004
409
0
0
43
gainesville, fl
plaza.ufl.edu
#21
MC-- i posted in your other thread, where i noticed this is for a 10g? i would *strongly* advise against yo-yo loaches for such a small tank. i think 20g is really the minimum for this species (and most botia-genus loaches), and i know when i had mine temporarily in a 20g a couple years back, they seemed cramped in that...let alone a 10g. just my opinion.
 

dethjam316

dethjam316

Large Fish
#24
Mar 24, 2004
409
0
0
43
gainesville, fl
plaza.ufl.edu
#24
shimmercat said:
I have mine in a 10g, and they are doing fine. More people disagree with dethjam on that; the yoyos are fine in 10g.
Click to expand...
i am sure there would be a few that do, but most people definitely do not disagree with me on this. shimmercat, i am not picking on you, but in your sig you declare yourself to be a "fishie newbie," so maybe it's not really good for you to dispatch unresearched advice based only on your limited experience. the "they are okay in my 10g so it's fine" argument is not a good one. sorry if i sound mean, but i do have a lot of experience with loaches of several species, and i wouldn't put them in a 10g for sure.

some links that suggest a minimum tank size for yo-yo loaches. keep in mind, this is a bare minimum, and all of these say more than a 10g as minimum. most go even further than i suggested when i said a 20g as a minimum, recommending a 36" or 30g minimum tank:
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=16&cat=1949&articleid=2583
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile79.html
http://petresources.net/fish/cyprinid/bot_alm.html
http://www.fishtanksandponds.net/live-stock/fishprofiles/pakistani_loach.htm
http://www.members.tripod.com/~boeing_dude/id118.htm (listed under 25g+)
http://fishiezoo.com/boards/viewtopic.php?p=219&sid=538cbea78740dd02e17f7315e7b082f8
http://fish.mongabay.com/botiinae.htm (listed as Pakistani Loach)
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/glohachata.html

i could find many many more as well, but i don't have all day to prove my point.
 

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shimmercat

shimmercat

Medium Fish
#26
Jun 8, 2005
63
0
0
41
Southern Maryland
#26
While I may be new to the hobby, I would NOT buy fish if I felt they would not be happy in my little tank. I did a lot of research before getting the loaches. The fish profiles on THIS SITE actually say that yoyos are fine in a 10 gallon. I also searched the archives and found several threads that agreed with that.

In my searches, I also saw a thread or two where people argued whether or not yoyos were fine in a 10 gallon. This is obviously a point of contention. However, obviously MANY PEOPLE DO FINE WITH YOYOS IN A 10G. How do I know this? It wouldn't be arguable if they DIDN'T. It would be a simple "no."

There are no rules in fishkeeping, there is only advice and personal experience. Therefore, "'they are okay in my 10g so it's fine'" IS a good argument. I felt confident saying this, because I've seen other, more experienced people saying the same thing.

A 10g is all I can physically fit in my apartment, or I would have a larger tank. I admit that it is not the perfect environment for my fish, but they are healthy and happy, and I wish to share this experience. I think that's only fair, no matter what my level of experience.
 

dethjam316

dethjam316

Large Fish
#27
Mar 24, 2004
409
0
0
43
gainesville, fl
plaza.ufl.edu
#27
advice and personal experience is important, absolutely. but not all advice is created equal--not all advice is good advice!! you wrote that "most people disagree with dethjam" when giving advice contrary to what i said, and you are certainly wrong about that, because most people *do* in fact agree that loaches require significantly more than a 10g tank. therefore, that's not good advice. if 9 out of 10 say one thing, and 1 out of 10 say another...which would you bet on being more trustable advice?

yes, there are different ways to do things successfully, but inevitably certain practices are are proven to be better. in this case, picking and choosing out of a large pool of evidence until you find some that says a given fish a good choice for a 10g does not make it so. as for this site's profile saying 10g, i didn't notice that until you pointed it out, but it's pretty shocking to me. it is the lowest minimum size recommendation on the net i've seen, and therefore it does not promote good fishkeeping IMO. i would suggest it is an error that should be corrected ASAP to read "20g" or "30g."
 

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Masta_Cheef

Masta_Cheef

Large Fish
#28
Jun 15, 2005
315
0
0
36
Mesa, AZ
#28
I gotcha guys =) No more arguing.. I guess I'll just have to put off the Loaches for another time, right? You've also got to remember that I want other fish besides YoYo Loaches, so in this case, I'm going to agree with dethjam that it's prolly not good for me to have 4 other fish in with 2 loaches in a 10g tank. I can always get a bigger tank, right? Right. So, in conclusion, I won't buy the loaches. I'll save them for another time.
 

dethjam316

dethjam316

Large Fish
#29
Mar 24, 2004
409
0
0
43
gainesville, fl
plaza.ufl.edu
#29
yeah, seriously, they are GREAT fish. i highly recommend all the botia-genus loaches i have ever kept. but i also enjoy them a lot more now in my 55g than i did when they were in a 20g. i realize not everyone has space for big tanks, but to me there's a huge difference between 10g and 20g. more swimming room is probably more fun for them, but it's definitely more fun to watch. ditto more loaches to form a nice school--there's a 300g+ tank in a store here with 30-some clown loaches, and it is just awesome! when you can get a bigger tank, put them at the top of your list!
 

shimmercat

shimmercat

Medium Fish
#30
Jun 8, 2005
63
0
0
41
Southern Maryland
#30
Going back and reading my original post, it really didn't sound like I had meant it to! It felt like you were attacking me personally out of nowhere because I hadn't realized I had sounded so rude. That wasn't on purpose. The internet does that sometimes. :(

It is still a point of discussion, however, as I have seen other experienced people say that yoyos are fine in a 10g, at least as long as they are still babies. I do know that mine are healthy and happy little botias. They play around with each other a lot, haven't tried to escape since the first night, and they have nice dark markings (they were bleached almost pure tan from stress when I had them in the bag, and now the dominant one has nice, deep brown markings and the sub-dominant is only a little lighter). MAybe they would be happier in a larger tank, but they were in a 10g at the LFS for a long time (they are big for babies), with probably 8 other fish (none of them yoyos; I took the last two). This is really all they've ever known.

I agree, no more arguing. I just wanted to prove that my fish are happy fish, and I'm a good fish mama, though not perfect. ;) Even if they would be happier in a larger tank. I have a live plant and plenty of narrow caves for them, and they get algae tabs and shrimp pellets and all sorts of other goodies. They are my little slimy babies.
 

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ecotank

ecotank

Superstar Fish
#32
Aug 30, 2003
1,379
3
0
61
Palm Springs, Ca
home.earthlink.net
#32
The Yoyo's that we had were bought for about 3.00 each and were cute lil 1.5 inch guys. After being entertained by them for about a year and a half, we recently auctioned them off for about 10.00 each and they were 5.5-6.5 inches long. I could not imagine these in a 10g tank.
 

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