Breeding Loaches

[Callie84]

Hi all,

I have five yoyo loaches and was wondering if anyone can give me some information about breeding them.

One particular fish has a very round belly (and getting bigger), was thinking she (?) could be pregnant.

Have tried googling but all i can find is "not a lot known" or "not in captivity"

Any info at all would be great

Thanks.

 

[loachman]

Hi all,

I have five yoyo loaches and was wondering if anyone can give me some information about breeding them.

One particular fish has a very round belly (and getting bigger), was thinking she (?) could be pregnant.

Have tried googling but all i can find is "not a lot known" or "not in captivity"

Any info at all would be great

Thanks.

Basically, it can be done (sort of) and is apparently done by some commercial breeder. I believe they use hormone therapy to stimulate the fish to spawn. Naturally, they don't really give much info since they don't want others doing it. It should be a similar process to Y. sidthimunki if you can find any information on that.

I've never heard of any hobbyist doing it though. There are quite a few reports of gavid females in home aquariums, I belive www.loaches.com has some gavid female photos on it somewhere. But I never heard of the females actually spawning.

 

[helterskelter]

It's not something that going to just happen, your gonna have to work towards it, you want a long tank and try to recreate nature with a strong flow rate.

Lots of stones and then hope for the best.

Females will get fatter then the slender male's when the eggs ripen but that's the easy part, getting the trigger to spawn is a massive facter, photoperiod, temp, water quality are the main griggers to fish so playing with all these will allow you to find whats best!!!!!

Breeder just give an injection of carp pituitary to both males and females to induce spawning, but as I've never done this I cant help any more than is.

 

[Callie84]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I guess i will just keep an eye on her and see what happens.
So if she is pregnant, but doesnt spawn because of the lack of hormones, do you think it will harm the fish?

I mean do they get like egg-bound or anything?

Thanks again for the help.

 

[helterskelter]

If the eggs get to old they will shead then or reabosrbe them, so it should not be a priblem.

 

[Callie84]

If the eggs get to old they will shead then or reabosrbe them, so it should not be a priblem.

Thats good to hear,

I will post an update if anything changes.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Lateral Line]

There is a body of evidence that suggests at least some Botia species migrate prior to spawning. Unfortunately, I have read conflicting account. Some say they migrate upstream to cooler faster flowing better oxygenated conditions, others that they migrate to esturine conditions.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I'm planning on breeding my yoyo loaches in the future. Some of them in the group kinda look gravid, although i'm not sure if the loaches are still too young at the moment to do anything.
Right now i'm just taking it easy with them, i have them in a sub-tropical tank with fast flowing water and a soft sand substrate scattered with pebbles and rocks and bits of driftwood and stuff. The tank never seems to drop to temps cool enough to be properly sub-tropical (which is why i still have some of my tropical fish in the tank), but the yoyo loaches seem to be having a great time either way.
When they're more mature, i'll concentrate on breeding them more, right now i have a group of 7 yoyo loaches and they are all about 3inches long roughly each. I've read that juvenile yoyo loaches prefer to spend their time in calmer waters, and then move to faster flowing rivers when adults to breed.

 

[mikev]

There is NO evidence that any Botia species has been ever bred in a home tank, so don't hope too much about this happening.

If you want to breed loaches, this is possible with a number of other species, just not Botia's.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

There is NO evidence that any Botia species has been ever bred in a home tank, so don't hope too much about this happening.

If you want to breed loaches, this is possible with a number of other species, just not Botia's.

Hm, well, i'm going to give it a try when my yoyo loaches are more mature, i think most of it probably comes down to accurately recreating the natural habitat of the loach in question and the changes that take place in the habitat that encourage the loaches to breed. Whether this is posible or not to do this though is another question .

 

[mikev]

Hm, well, i'm going to give it a try when my yoyo loaches are more mature, i think most of it probably comes down to accurately recreating the natural habitat of the loach in question and the changes that take place in the habitat that encourage the loaches to breed. Whether this is posible or not to do this though is another question .

The good news is that Yoyo's do get gravid readily and somehow manage to lose eggs too...so imho they offer the best hope.

Practically, your chances are probably zero, even if you can manage to induce a spawn. Botine eggs have unusual properties and are easily destroyed by filtration systems...

It probably would be better to experiment on schisturas, the chances are low, but this has been done.

 

[mikev]

There is an account of clown breeding in the 1993 book "Loaches and Catfish" by Tetra. Unlike the Hammond story, this one rings as possibly true.