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it was near dusk when a few rays of sunlight were just hitting their tank... the sun only catches it for a few mins if I have the blind up.

I caught 2 of the three little buggers going nuts all over the tank. They were swimming as hard as they could, and their bodies were clinched extremely tight together. The third, and largest one, would join the other two occassionaly, but I think he mainly just ate the eggs cause I didn't find any this morning.

When I turned their light out last night, they were still going at it. I think the sunlight exited them (right after a 50% water change).

I have searched for info on spawning these fellas after seeing what they were doing last night. I couldn't find much info anywhere... surely someone else has spawned yoyo's..?? If anyone can point me to some good information, I would appreciate it.

I'm sure the diet I have had them on for the past month and a half or so played the biggest part. It included, but was not limited to:

Frozen bloodworms
Frozen brine shrimp
Frozen Krill
Dried Krill
Live earthworms from my yard
Live Mosquito Larvae
Boiled Zuchini

My homeade dehydrated sinking "clumps".(Peas,carrots,green beans, corn, and nightcrawlers all put into a food processor and chopped to a liquid mush. From there, it is put on a dehydrator and placed outside for a day or so. Hot worms tend to give of an unpleasent odor...however, the fish love them...especially the bristlenose plecs.)

Earthworm pellets
Shrimp pellets

A mixture of flake food consisting of:
Earthworm flake
Spirulina Flake
Krill Flake
Shrimp Flake
Veggia Flake
(All flakes mixed into one jar and fed simultaneously).

I generally feed flakes everyday, and pick from a frozen food just before dark at least once every other day.

Anyway, just thought I would share my experience with you.

Again, if anyone has any info on the spawning of yoyo (pakistani) loaches, please post it here.

Thanks!!

...and snails. I feed them LOTS of snails from my other tanks.

Did you JUST see the dancing or were there eggs actually deposited?

I didn't see the eggs, but I am apt to assume they spawned. Reason being, they have never danced as hard as they did last night.

The middle sized yoyo (the fattest one by far), is not near as fat as it was last night. Either she laid eggs or digested whatever was in her belly. All 3 are just laying around today...and they are usually fairly active during the day.

Regardless, whether they spawned or not (which I think they did)... I saw something very interesting last night.

I dont even know what to look for as far as the eggs go.

Are they scattered or clumped??

Are they clear or colored??

Are they bigger than danio or cory eggs?? (cause I have seen those).

Are they sticky or do they just fall to the bottom?? (I would never find them on the bottom if they fall there).



Another thought I had was this:
I stole 5 danios (4 females,1 male) from the outside pond and put them in the yoyo tank yesterday . They are all tank raised danio's (by me) and they spawn constantly. (I have raised a few hundred). Well, when I put the danio's in the tank yesterday evening, they began to spawn. As tiny as they are, I could see the eggs falling from a female near the top, and the male fertilize them (and eat them) as they fell. Perhaps the yoyo's could smell / taste the milt from the male in the tank, and that triggered a response.

To tell you the truth, everything you've recounted sounds exactly like the wild recorded spawnings of other botia species; therefore, it seems to me that you've accomplished something incredible--no botia species has ever been spawned in captivity (home aquaria) without the aide of hormones. What are your water params? Any seasonal cycling?

One fact does bother me a bit: according to the various accounts of loach spawning, most genera release a shower of reasonably large eggs---such a immense depositing of eggs should be readily visible from any which angle. You should contact a publication company and get your account edited in a book or magazine.

From what I've heard, they are egg scatterers, and two indivduals will clasp each other with their pects and spiral down, releasing eggs in the process. I believe pangio and b. mac eggs are supposedly colored green, but it probably varies with each species.

Next time, do be sure you get a camera to snap some photos. You may want to contact the webmaster of loaches.com, and help other hobbyists with the information you've obtained.


Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 14-Aug-2005 15:03

My yoyos have gone through the same behavior several times and I seem to have 2m and 2f that have paired up. There's 2 larger ones and 2 smaller ones and they always travel around 1 larger thicker one with 1 smaller thinner one. I've read a few reports of them showing spawning behavior when other fish spawn but it seems noone has ever found eggs. I don't know if something stops them before they lay eggs or the eggs are eaten.

It may be to keep the eggs from being eaten you need a large enough tank that the yoyos don't come back across their own eggs. Along with a top swimming fish that won't eat the eggs but will spawn frequently to trigger the yoyos. However one person that was keeping them with bettas said it only worked in a tank with fresh water and the first betta spawn. If the bettas had spawned in that water before the yoyos didn't notice another spawn even with different bettas or if they were just added to the tank.

Last edited by sham at 14-Aug-2005 15:21

Botia and related species are colonial spawners, and thus bo not "pair" up, persay.

Like I said, there has not been a documented spawning of this species--even fragmentary accounts of breeding behavior never yielded any eggs during the courtship; therefore, if it turns out that your fish did indeed release eggs, then you might very well be the only person to have bred this species outside of a farm controlled setting!

I wish that I could have seen the eggs so I could verify that they spawned. I did take about a 2 minute video of it with my webcam. Its rather grainy, and its close to 20 megs big. It just shows them flying around the tank.


Heres the story:

They had been in a 30 gallon tank for over a year. I originally bought 2, and went back a couple months later and bought a 3rd. That is why it is so much smaller. A couple days ago, I took the bluegill out of the 55 (you saw the pics) for the simple reason that the larger one was way to aggressive toward the smaller 2, and I didn't just want to keep 1 fish in the tank. After cleaning, and all that good stuff, I took most of the water out of the 30, some from my 75, and filled the other 50% up from the tap. Then I began the grueling process of trying to get the loaches out of their happy little homes. After about 2 hours and several cuss words later, I had them. I got them used to their new water, and put them in. A few hours later, I went and got a few of the danio's out of the pond. When the danios spawned yesterday, and the sun hit the water yesterday evening, they went nuts!

I haven't checked the water parameters, I dont do that much. I just stay on top of the water changes. Usually 50% every 7-10 days.

As I type this, the sun is hitting the tank in the right hand corner and the loaches are going nuts in the direct sunlight. I will see if the courtship commences again at dusk.

I am uploading the video to rapidshare right now, and I will give you a link to it when it is finished. Theres more chasing going on in the video than anything.

I wish I could have got some video of the largest yoyo when he seemed to be at his wits end. He would chase the other two, and just about the time he got to their back fin, he would do 2-3 somersaults...thats what caught my eye to begin with. After the somersaults, straight to the bottom for the next round...

http://rapidshare.de/files/3986359/spawn.avi.html

There is the video link. It will show at the bottom how many seconds you have to wait to download...usually less than 60.

Last edited by tek at 14-Aug-2005 17:10

It looks as if they are just chasing one another; not an uncommon sight after spending five-six hours a day looking after them at the store.


EDIT: ARGH, Rapidshare.

Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 14-Aug-2005 19:48

Like I said, the video doesn't show much other than them chasing each other. I failed to get the good stuff.