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I know that no one has ever been able to breed botias but they are acting strangly in my tank. The will chase each other around in circles in the same spot for about 10 minute at a time. Then the female i think( newest one) will swim away while the other chases her and prods her belly. It sounds like a kind of mating ritual that I have watched in reef fish while scuba diving.
Is this a some kind of ritual or is it just playing?

-Vincent

It sounds like normal yoyo behavior and not mating to me. However plenty of people have described what definitely sounds like mating behavior and even possibly some laid eggs but the eggs are gone before anyone can verify and noone has gotten fry.

Sounds like it could be some mating behaviour.
You cant say people havent bred botias, because
Yoyos and many others what we buy ARE bred in captivity.

In order to breed them, you need a mud bottom
in your tank, hence the reason no many people have
bred them.
Many loaches, including yoyos, the male and female
will burrow deep under a foot or more of mud, and lay
their eggs there, safe from predators of most kinds.

In the fish farms they have big deep mud bottom tanks
that they breed botia in.


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It really does not sound like spawning behavior at all. My yoyos acted like that all the time even when I removed what I believe were the 2 females from the tank. Reports of spawning behavior are quite different from just normal chasing, circling, and bumping each other. Possible but I really don't think so.

All yoyos I have seen are wild caught. I know there are some fish farms that accomplish breeding them but very few hobbyists and not likely to happen in a regular tank setup.

My Yoyos chase each other as well...circle around each other and all that is described above, but no eggs....they do this often and I think it is just their normal, playful behavior. That is why Yoyos and other loaches are so interesting to keep.

*Kristin*

Actually, probably 95% of all yoyo loaches,
and many many other species are captive bred.

I have yet to see a wild caught one in any stores,
and also, the government of myanmar, where many
of the fancier loaches come from, is going to be
placing a ban on export of all wild caught fish within
the next couple of years, which is why fish farms
are scrambling to breed these fish now.
Most of the west indies and asia are considering
placing these bans in the near future.

Next time you buy a yoyo loach, check your receipt.
My LFS' here always put the name of the fish farm
fish come from on the receipt, and CA for captive bred,
WI for wild. Yoyos always have a CA for captive bred.

I suspect the fish farms just dont want us hobbyists breeding them, so they keep it all hush hush,
just like with Bala sharks.


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You are correct; sort of. Captive breeding definitely possible with botia and has been accomplished multiple times via the usage of hormone injections, similar to other well-documented bottom dwelling "tough" breeders such as riverine synodontis. Other methods, as of yet, have been more or less entirely undocumented. However, it is not efficient cost-wise to research and breed these fish in captive numbers, as natives collect these fish in troves for nest to nothing. You'd better double check with your pet store--sometimes "captive raised" and "captive bred" are interchanged somewhere in the comprehension process, as otherwise, they are flat out lying, for they have, to my understanding, not been bred to any significant degree. Besides, a ban of Myanmarian loaches shouldn't affect the almy trade; exports almost always predominantly come from NE India--I'm not even sure if its range pervades into the Myanmar area.

My understanding is that it MAY be possible to breed Botias in an aquarium, but to do so you will need to perform some farily intricate manipulation of ambient conditions.

First of all, one would have to simulate the appropriate seasonal changes in the aquarium, as I gather that Loaches need this as one of the spawnig triggers. Next, some Loach species are apparently triggered into spawning when other fishes spawn in the vicinity - they pick up the assorted hormones in the water from the other fishes. TFH had an article on this subject in which this was cited as being a possible trigger for the Cherry Fin Loach Acanthocobitis rubidipinnis. One aquarist who has succeeded in spawnig four Loach species to date according to TFH is the unfortuntely named Sallie Boggs - she's apparently been successful with Loaches and some Synodontis Catfishes, as well as Rineloricaria lanceolata.

This page contains some interesting info on this aquarist, who also happens to have a Ph.D in biology (which probably helps a great deal!).




Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

The thing is that botia spawning has never been documented in the wild; they don't know where or when they spawn; only the general seasonal breath and that they migrate fair amounts of distances to "get it on". There's admittedly not a whole lot of demand regarding loach research.

I am pretty sure that clown loaches are being bred in India. Most other loaches, like yoyos, zebras are local fish and breed in muddy waterways. The fancier ones, polka dotted and chain loach along with the clown loach are imported.

The prices of clown loaches have come down considerably and I often see really really small specimens in shops that I doubt are wild caught.

It is also possible that clows are thriving in local waterways, though I dont know of anybody in India who would release a fish they have paid for. They would prefer to exchange it, as it is fish keeping is an expensive hobby in this country.

Yoyos I can get like 5 for a dollar, though I am not sure if they are being bred commercially in India as they are a local fish.

You know something ClownyGirl, all this talk of being able to hop down to the local stream and pick up free Yoyos and Denison's Barbs might lead to a sudden influx of FPilian immigrants taking advantage of the local fauna.

If you have Malpulutta kretseri and Sphaerichthys vaillanti in your local streams, I might be among them.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

You see very young clowns in stores because those are the only fish allowed to be caught--any large wildcaught clown adults imported were done so with disregard to national law in mind. There are no widespread breeding programs of clowns as far as I'm aware.

I think we would have those David, though I am not sure which streams. You are very welcome to go on a fishie expedition here as long as they are not on the endangered list

Well if they're natives ClownyGirl, I could put them in a POND in India ... now that would be a spectacle to behold, a big pond with Denisons' and a smattering of rare Gouramis in it!

In a big pond, they'd probably breed as well, so if any of the fishes were on the CITES list, I could reasonably claim I was helping to replenish wild stocks - in fact I could probably do a good job of replenishing wild stocks if I had a big pond to breed them in!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002