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Is there anyone that has xperience w/ these loaches? I have one in a 55 gallon & was thinking about getting more of them, maybe 2 more for a total of 3.

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
Socrates-
I happen to have become a philosopher

What is with the influx of people wanting this fish... This is like the 4th thread in a couple of weeks...

Anyway... Heres a link to a previous thread about them.
[link=http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/Bottom%20Feeder%20Frenzy/50759.html?200412031927]http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/Bottom%20Feeder%20Frenzy/50759.html?200412031927" style="COLOR: #87B8DF[/link]

If you don't want to bother to read that, I'll give you short answer. No... They get to be 9+ inches which is way to big for a 55g.

sorry for mentioning the Blue BO, didn't know it would get u upset. I'm gonna get rid of the one I have & go another direction. Thanx for th input anyway

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
Socrates-
I happen to have become a philosopher

I wasn't really upset, more amazed.

The Blue Botia, is a semi-aggressive to aggressive loach that reaches 7 inches and up. They are intolerant of their own kind, (unlike most loaches), but are kept otherwise in the same conditions.
They will be intolerant of any fish that look like them (other loaches, RTBS, rainbow shark, flying fox, as well as any blue fish).
From what I have heard, this fish is often a very vicious, nasty little bugger.
I have heard of them murdering all the fish in a tank before while the owner was at work.
Not a fish I would reccomend being kept with anything smaller than large cichlids.

I think 1 would be fine in a 55g tank, assuming you dont mind its nasty tempermant, and you dont have many other fish and no smaller fish.


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I think I'm one of the very few on this site who actually has one, so I'll give some firsthand experiences. Both of your comments seem highly exaggerated.

1. These fish are very shy if kept singly, but if five or more are kept they become more outgoing. In groups of 2-4, the smaller ones may be harrassed, but I have seen this many in a tank before with no problems. Mine stays in his driftwood all day, because I only have one.

2. This species does not bother smaller fish. I keep mine with small tetras and even smaller corys, and he does not bother them at all. He'll even let my corys sit in his cave with him. As far as loaches go, they are also very compatible with inverts. I keep shrimp, crabs, and pond snails in my tank, which other species of loaches would eat without hesitation, but my Botia modesta never bothers them at all. The only problems with aggreesion I've ever had with my loach was with my 7" snakeskin gourami (very similar to a large cichlid), and was because the gourami bit him first while trying to get an algae wafer.

3. This species reaches 12" in the wild, but almost never in captivity, even in huge tanks. This is because it is nearly impossible to mimic their environment and diet in captivity. 7" is considered large for a captive specimen, and these fish do well in a 55 gallon. I have had mine for almost three years and he is about 6.5" long.

4. They do not attack fish that resemble them, either, and that goes for shape as well as color. I keep mine with three SAEs (which are shaped similarly), all of which are approaching the loach in size, and he has never once paid any attention to them. At the store where I work, we keep our Botia modesta with opaline gouramis (which are blue) and rainbow sharks (which resemble the loaches) and not once have I seen the loaches bother these fish. In fact, it is usually the sharks and the gouramis who end up chasing the loaches around the tank.




But, like any loach, these fish are slightly territorial and need their hiding places. That is the only time they will show aggression, if they don't have any place to hide. This species is not aggressive for no reason, and with all of these "horror stories" about the loaches killing their entire stock, I bet anything there is a side of the story we are not hearing about, such as:

1. The water quality is bad. Toxins in the water will stress any fish out and cause them to be irritable.

2. The tank is not large enough. This species, because it is one of the larger laoches, should not be kept in a tank under 45 gallons. In tanks smaller than this, there is most likely not going to be enough room for the fish to establish a territory large enough so that they can get away from the other fish (keep in kind that this species is extremely shy).

3. The tank is overstocked. When the tank is overstocked, that means that each individual fish has less area to claim for itself. Botia modesta needs adequate territory to feel comfortable, or else they might start harassing other fish to get them away from a territory that the tank can physically not hold in those conditions. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish a territorial fish from an aggressive one, but the difference is that territorial ones will become peaceful once they have adequate room.

4. Other fish are harrassing them. This species, although shy, is able to defend itself. Under normal circumstances, it will only harrass other fish if it is harrassed first. These fish are noramlly peaceful, but they aren't going to take any crap from the other tankmates.

5. Other fish could be the culprits in these "horror stories". Pete, you mention that you heard a story about someone going out for a while, and when they came back the loach had killed all of their fish. How do they know it was the loach? All loaches are scavengers, and will readily feed upon dead and dying fish, which will sometimes give the illusion that they are the murderers. But, what is far more likely, is that the introduction of the loach disrupted the territorial bounderies of the other tankmates, causing tragically violent disputes and the loach was merely feasting upon the results. I cannot see this fish chasing and killing other fish through the bright light and in the middle and upper layers of the tank.



All in all, I think that these are great fish. I do want to get rid of mine however, but that's only because he digs up my plants (and this species of loach seems more e to digging than other Botias), and because he takes the algae wafers into his cave where the other fish can't get them. But they are peaceful fish when they are being cared for properly, and I have firsthand experience with this species to back me up. In my opinion, they are the most beautiful of the loaches (blue body with bright orange fins), and make great additions to any large tank. Their main drawbacks are that they tend to dig a lot, which is kind of frustrating if you have planted tank like I do, and that they are so shy. They almost never come out of their hiding place except if they smell food.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

They are too agressive to keep more than 1 in a 55g tank.

I would go for clown loaches.

there's really no need to be upset or amazed.

I've only kept this botia once and I had 2 of them in a 75 with various juveniles of larger growing central american cichlids. the larger botia killed the smaller one. he/she also picked a fight with a 3-4" midas and the botia won.

I've always heard and read that this is one of the more aggressive/territorial species of botia, but when kept in groups of 6 or more the aggression is more at a minimum.

you might check out Botia striata, the zebra loach. these are a very peaceful, ime, fish and have very nice coloration. personally, I wouldn't keep clown loaches or blue loaches in a 55 for more than a few years due to their large size but that's just me.

I'm gonna bring thr Ble Botia to my LFS since I have some Danios & Barbs that I dont wanna loose. I tried looking for yoyo loaches but no luck locally. I'll figure something out.

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
Socrates-
I happen to have become a philosopher

Cory-
Apparently this blue botia was purchased at the pet store I shop at, and was around 4-5 inches long when purchased. It was put into a 125 gallon tank with the largest fish being a silver dollar, it was a "amazonian tetra", apparently they had lots of smaller and medium size tetras, some congos and some silver dollars, popped the fish in, it showed some aggression, they figured it would stake a territory out and went to work that afternoon, came home and almost every fish in the tank was dead.
The other occassion that these fish murdered fish was, it was bought by this older gentleman (i spoke to him in the LFS), he had bought the botia because it was large and wouldnt be harrassed by his cichlids. He put it in his 90g with his convicts, firemouths, and some other medium size cichlid, and 3 hours later was watching the fish, and the blue botia attacked one of the convicts, and by the time he got the hood off the convict was dead.
My LFS, after hearing these two results, now refuses to even stock the Blue Botia, and have also had poor results similar to these with the Skunk Botia and will no longer stock them either.
I watched this fish, 1 in a tank with tinfoil barbs and tiger barbs at another LFS constantly attacking and stalking the barbs. Another I saw in a tank with a RTBS, they were facing off and the larger botia was winning, the rtbs had to give up his lair.
I would not purchase this fish after seeing and hearing these things, but then, NOT all members of a species are the same. You may luck out and get the timid one in the group. I personally wouldnt chance it either.

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Strange, because we stock this species regularly and have never had any problems whatsoever with aggression or anything.

I think the one batch that your store got might have been bad, because even when I look at batches at other stores around here (even major chain stores), they have all been peaceful.

There are at least two other species that look very similar to Botia modesta, and they are sometimes imported instead. There is a chance that the batch that your store ordered might have been one of those look-alike species, which have not been kept or studied enough to truly know their habits.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

I, too, have kept these fish for a time and they still come in (albeit rarely) on the weekly fish shipment at my store. I agree with cory in that the commentary in regards aggressiveness is indeed exagerated. However, they can definitely be more aggressive than she stated them to be. IME, they tend to have a wide range of temperaments (as with their close relatives, the skunks). I would not consider placing them in groups in a tank smaller than, oh, 100 gallons. This estimate is not only attributed to it's potentially large size but also to the bullying that occurs amongst them. While I have personally never witnesssed one loach kill another, there is a fair deal of chasing that goes on between indivduals. As for intra speceial conmpatibility, I would not keep them with fish small than 2 inches in length or with long fins. Long finned tankmates will, with a good amount of regularity, be nipped to death. Actually, nipped is a bad description, as they will clamp onto the aforementioned fin and literally shred them off. While they may not always attack smaller ended tankmates, they are notorious fry eaters (in the store they are kept with large cichlids and large livebearers), and precaution is always welcome. Keep in mind that there was a period of time in which my manager refused to purchase these fish from the wholesaler because customers would always complain to us about how they would wreak havoc in the tank (which is a shame as they are, indeed, beautiful fish). Yet, in my setup, they (actually, a trio) were kept with gibbies, silver dollars, congo tets, and ABFs without any problems.