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Hi all,

I recently purchased a 3" Dojo Loach for my 20H, and he is relatively happy. I do, however, have very hungry fish and they rarely leave leftovers for him (unlike my other tank where the barbs leave vittles everywhere.) I supplement my fish's diets with brine shrimp and blood worms alongside thier tropical fish flake food. What can I do to make sure my Dojo won't go hungry? Should I move him to the otehr tank where he would have more opprotunities, or levae him in the larger tank and get food specialized for bottom feeders for him? I think he's been devouring my Fiddler Crab's pellets, and I want to make sure she had enough to eat as well. Any suggestions?

Oh, and also as a side note...do Dojo Loaches make use of a vegetable diet? I know he devours brine shrimp and bloodworms, but I alos have somethign called "Vegetable Diet" in the combo mix I bought at the LPS. I know my barbs aren't fanatics about it (I swear I saw them frown when I tried it on them once) but out of curiousity, would my Dojo Loach (or even the Gourami's he's with) care for the veggie diet too, in addition to the above mentioned supplemental vittles?

Definitely don't put him in any smaller tank. These guys can grow quite large when given room and time. 8" would not be a surprise. Generally I would recommend them for 55g tanks or at least 30g instead of a 20. Get some fast sinking food for the dojo. Mine like shrimp pellets, crab and lobster bites(suppose to be for the shrimp and snails), algae wafers, and most anything else that hits the bottom of the tank. They also enjoy the occasional bit of soft vegetable like cucumber or zuchini slices. A bit of vegetable is good for most any fish and the gouramis would surely enjoy some.

I just got a golden dojo loach a week ago, I think that they come out at night and just scavenge for scraps. I don't know about the vegetable diet, but I would be interested in finding out about it.

-Vincent

ya, Budzilla, I've noticed he is more active at night then during the day. But whenever food is intro'd into the habitat, he goes a little nuts.

Ya, I know they do get big, Sham, but this is only while he's young and I'm sapped for money to get a bigger tank. Hmm...didn't know about veggies for the rest of them and the Dojo. I've done a little research and I have noticed that it seems Dojos like peas, skinned and cooked. How does one prepare veggies that small for fish, and for the Dojo?

In the case of peas, the answer is simple - once they're shelled and cooked, mash tehm a bit.

I can already hear some of my fellow UK aquarists laughing at the thought of feeding a loach with mushy peas ...

However, one BIG word of caution I'd issue of you run with peas is this - do NOT use tinned peas! Tinned peas generally contain a brace of additives that might not go down well with your loach (or any other fishes for that matter!) In particular, the dreaded E102, which isn't all that good for some people for that matter ... read this little piece on E102 and shudder ....

Fresh peas taken from a bona fide pod bought at a grengrocer's store, washed beforehand, however, are excellent. And, you might find yourself developing a taste for them yourself instead of the lurid dyed green tinned ones!

Basically, the solution with any food preparation for aquarium fishes should include some means of dividing the food items into bite sized chunks. Break out various kitchen tools (cheese/carrot grater etc), try them out, and cook the resulting shredded veggies. In fact, chances are if you have a fine enough grater, which produces nice tiny bits of vegetable, you won't need to cook the vegetables, just feed them fresh (washed beforehand of course).

Oh, and Planet Catfish has a nice idea for keeping cucumber slices at the bottom for bigger Plecs - a device that is called, wait for it, "screwcumber" ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thanks for the great advice, Calilasseia! My folks hand-grown their own veggies, with peas among them. they don't use any chemicals on them either, so I should be able to grab a few pods without trouble, fresh and untainted.

I'll have to give some of this a try. Has anyone else ever used some of the frozen "Vegetable Diet" on their fish, or know what species eat it? It's taking up room in the freezer atm...But in any case, now i know about fresh veggies and that the fishies may just enjoy them quite a bit. Hm...a loach playing around with a pea...I can see it now..the first annual galactic loach soccer championships; the ball goes to victor!

Hi there,
welcome to the world of Dojo Loaches.
I myself am a proud owner of 2 Dojos,
Strider and Slithering, both are about 5 years
old and are now about 9 inches long and still growing.
Personally, I wouldnt recommend this fish for any
tank smaller than 50 gallons. They can easily grow to
10 inches, and even as much as foot in length.
They are very very very active fish, and prefer friends.
Highly social.

Dojos are omnivores and scavengers, and will eat pretty much anything they can fit in their mouths.
Frozen bloodworms, peas, algae wafers, shrimp pellets, flakes, you name it, they eat it.
They are not nocturnal fish, but do take some time to grow brave enough to be visible, and do come out more in the later afternoon, but not exclusively nighttime.

They grow fast to about the 6 inch mark, then growth starts
to slow. Expect yours to reach 6 inches within 1-2 years.
They are the most interesting fish. Mine are so tame they come to the surface and feed from my fingers, and enjoy an occassional back rub. They often inhale huge amounts of air at the surface and then on return to the bottom will fart bubbles.

They are HIGHLY Sensitive to chemicals. Do not use anything with dyes (methylene blue, malachite green, etc), anything with copper (including copper salts as in aquari-sol ich med), and will NOT tolerate aquarium salt in their water.

They are also called Weather Loaches, because they respond very accurately to barometric pressure, and will go literally crazy, zooming round the tank at high speed the night before a storm, snow, rain, or other weather event.

Also, remember to keep the tank firmly covered. Cover any holes and gaps. These guys can swim with such force they can propel themselves up and out of tank several feet in the air before crashing to the ground.
A large weather loach is definitely powerful enough to
knock the plastic hood of a tank lid where it lifts for feeding clear back and jump out.
I lost one weather loach several years back to doing
just this.
Good luck to you! And Again, congrats on joining the world of the dojo loach! A truly fascinating fish.

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I lost one of my 5 to carpet surfing. Also remember they are a cold water fish. I nearly lost mine when the external temperature control on my heater got bumped up past 80F. They seem to do fine at 78F or lower.

Just to mention,
I have been keeping my 2 9 inch dojos
for the past 5 years at temps of 82F.
Ive had no problems with this whatsoever,
even in the summer when temps in the house
cause the tank to rise to 86F or more.


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Mine were looking all skinny despite feeding, hiding constantly, and very lethargic. Now that the temps are back down to 78F they are acting normal again and gaining weight. Most people have said their dojos didn't handle temps over 80 so I would be very cautious if trying it. Also at higher temps their lifespan is often shortened quite a bit. People have even noticed differences between keeping them in unheated coldwater tanks versus low temp tropical tanks.

Well, goin on 5 years now.
I wonder how long they live?
I assume at least 10 years or so.


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Most sites say 10years with some 10+. There's a fairly long post at the bottom of the loaches.com site that says 8-10years:http://loaches.com/species_pages/wloach.html