Why Won´t My Yoyo Loaches Eat Bottom Feeder Pellets?

[oceanArnold]

So about two days ago I got two yoyo loaches to add to my tank. My dwarf chain loach had always just eaten the snails in my tank, but when I added the yoyo´s by the end of the day there were no snails yet. The problem is that I have attempted to thus feed my dwarf chain loach (who I have had for a year) and the yoyo´s pellets and even a tablet and they showed no intrest and yet they are all frantically searching through the gravel like they are starving. What do I do?

 

[gwand]

Ask the fish store where you bought the yo yo what they were feeding them. Sometimes new fish will reject new food.

 

[anewbie]

If young it will likely prefer flakes as it gets older it will be more open to tackle harder to eat food. I mean pellets are not the easiest thing for them to break apart; though once they have been soaking a while and begin to break down it might go after the bits and pieces. In general even adult yoyo loaches prefer smaller (1mm) foods or soft foods they can break apart. I feed my adult yoyo loaches and clown loaches (5-7 inches) smaller foods. They also like soft foods they can rip apart - some might go after raw shrimp; and well my clown loaches (and adult yoyo) are always up for a large piece of zuc they can dig into:

 

[Colin_T]

It's preferable to only have one species of loach per tank and to keep them in groups consisting of at least 6 (preferably 10+) individuals. Having two species that are different sizes will usually cause problems to the smaller more peaceful species.

 

[anewbie]

It's preferable to only have one species of loach per tank and to keep them in groups consisting of at least 6 (preferably 10+) individuals. Having two species that are different sizes will usually cause problems to the smaller more peaceful species.

Well.... i have 6 yoyo and 12 clown loaches and 10 zebra loaches. While i agree they should be kept in a group i also think groups of mixed species works - of course it depends on the species. In this case these three species are capable of co-existing. The zebra is a bit of an outlier since it is both smaller and much more passive. The clowns and yoyo leave them alone and they only occasionally join the larger loaches in play. Also the zebra are just assertive enough to get food.

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What i don't think works well is keeping for example a solo yoyo with 5 clown loaches. In my tank the different species have their on preferred locations - and oddly enough individuals seem to have their own prefer locations sometime away from the pack. For example one of my yoyo prefer to hang out by itself under a small piece of driftwood - it is a smaller male.

 

[oceanArnold]

If young it will likely prefer flakes as it gets older it will be more open to tackle harder to eat food. I mean pellets are not the easiest thing for them to break apart; though once they have been soaking a while and begin to break down it might go after the bits and pieces. In general even adult yoyo loaches prefer smaller (1mm) foods or soft foods they can break apart. I feed my adult yoyo loaches and clown loaches (5-7 inches) smaller foods. They also like soft foods they can rip apart - some might go after raw shrimp; and well my clown loaches (and adult yoyo) are always up for a large piece of zuc they can dig into:
View attachment 349984

Ok ya the pellets are about half the size of a pea, and my yoyo loaches are 4 inches long so I figured it would be ok. What brand of food, and what type do you feed your clown loaches?

 

[oceanArnold]

It's preferable to only have one species of loach per tank and to keep them in groups consisting of at least 6 (preferably 10+) individuals. Having two species that are different sizes will usually cause problems to the smaller more peaceful species.

So all of them are peaceful, and because my chain loach is apart of the botia family and so are my yoyos they are social, and actually my chain has been hunting along side the yoyos, odd behavior but it seems to have no ill effect on him.

 

[anewbie]

So all of them are peaceful, and because my chain loach is apart of the botia family and so are my yoyos they are social, and actually my chain has been hunting along side the yoyos, odd behavior but it seems to have no ill effect on him.

The thing is that an adult yoyo is like 4 to 8 times the mass of the dwarf chain - not just longer but greater girth esp a female yoyo. One of my female yoyo is nearly the size of the largest clown loach (currently as the clown loach has a long ways to go in growth); my guess is that it is 6+ inches long and nearly an inch wide. It is substantially larger than the males i have which stay a lot slimmer.

As for food i feed them a lot of fluval bug bite (blue and red - i started grinding up the red and mixing in algae max); algae max-regular; a few sera or omega-one flakes - the thing is that my 600 is a community tank so i'm feeding for a lot of different species not just the loaches. - for example i put in the greens for the plecos but the loaches are big green eaters. The flakes are really intended for the schoolers and head-standers but the loaches (esp the zebra) find them much more amendable than larger food.
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I'm really fond of zebra loaches but i wouldn't mix them with dwarf chain as they are much more passive 'quiet' fish. I have one bold fellow that will come up to be hand fed (this is a new thing as for years like the others he avoided me). I think it got hungry or something. Long terms i'll probalby not buy anymore zebra loaches because the clowns will get so much larger - also when the yoyo age out i'll probably not replace them. But on to your question - i feed them small pellets (fluval blue) or ground up fluval red and a bit of fluval for bottom feeders since it has peas mixed in it as well as high-quality flakes or algae-max (nls) regular (which is the smallest size). The one negative of algae-max is some of it will float which annoys me - luckily the flag cichild and chocolate cichilds will clean up the mess but that is my aquarium.

 

[oceanArnold]

The thing is that an adult yoyo is like 4 to 8 times the mass of the dwarf chain - not just longer but greater girth esp a female yoyo. One of my female yoyo is nearly the size of the largest clown loach (currently as the clown loach has a long ways to go in growth); my guess is that it is 6+ inches long and nearly an inch wide. It is substantially larger than the males i have which stay a lot slimmer.

As for food i feed them a lot of fluval bug bite (blue and red - i started grinding up the red and mixing in algae max); algae max-regular; a few sera or omega-one flakes - the thing is that my 600 is a community tank so i'm feeding for a lot of different species not just the loaches. - for example i put in the greens for the plecos but the loaches are big green eaters. The flakes are really intended for the schoolers and head-standers but the loaches (esp the zebra) find them much more amendable than larger food.
--
I'm really fond of zebra loaches but i wouldn't mix them with dwarf chain as they are much more passive 'quiet' fish. I have one bold fellow that will come up to be hand fed (this is a new thing as for years like the others he avoided me). I think it got hungry or something. Long terms i'll probalby not buy anymore zebra loaches because the clowns will get so much larger - also when the yoyo age out i'll probably not replace them. But on to your question - i feed them small pellets (fluval blue) or ground up fluval red and a bit of fluval for bottom feeders since it has peas mixed in it as well as high-quality flakes or algae-max (nls) regular (which is the smallest size). The one negative of algae-max is some of it will float which annoys me - luckily the flag cichild and chocolate cichilds will clean up the mess but that is my aquarium.

Ok thank you so much.

 

[anewbie]

Also don't be shocked if it takes a fish a couple of days to adjust to a new food; this is not unusual - a well fed fish can go several weeks without eating.

 

[oceanArnold]

Also don't be shocked if it takes a fish a couple of days to adjust to a new food; this is not unusual - a well fed fish can go several weeks without eating.

Ya at this point I am going to go with they will eat when they get hungry enough. But in case they do become too thin I have a back up plan. I have just put a few of the remaining snails in a glass vase with a lid and they can breed so that there will be more snails just in case.