Yoyo Loaches

[dilysmoore]

Hi, hope someone can help us here.

We've had 4 yoyo Loaches for about 2-3 months now, started off fine and just recently have had some problems. One went MIA, and have never found him. One managed to get stuck in the outflow of the filter and died 2 hours after freeing him and one, who we'd never had problems with managed to find a gap that no other fish had found and jump out of the tank. It was too late to save him by the time we found him. We now only have the one yoyo left, he's always been happy to swim alone anyway and often prefers to swim with our Betta but do we need to get some more since they're community fish? We don't want to if we don't have to because it was really quite traumatising with how the others died and we'd like to give it some time before looking into more fish.

Currently have 1 Betta ,1 yoyo, 6 glowlight tetras, 5 Endler guppies, and 4 Amano shrimp. It's a 65L tank, I'm not sure on exact water parameters because I'm not at home and didn't really think they were relevant for a stocking question, but we do home tests and take samples to local fish shop and they're always completely fine.

Thank you!

[NomadicNeptune92]

Sorry to hear about your yoyo loaches. Given the recent unfortunate incidents, it might be a good idea to wait a bit before adding more fish to the tank. Yoyos are social fish, but since your remaining one seems comfortable with the Betta, you can observe how they interact before deciding whether to introduce more yoyo loaches in the future. Best of luck!

[parkasute]

A sad story about your yoyo. As far as I know, yoyo fish are fish that live in groups. They will develop better if they live in groups. Therefore, you should raise these species in groups to grow and develop more.
flappy bird

[Velvetmaggot]

I have a shy yo-yo(Bananas)that’s going on 8yrs old. He’s still a master of deception and hides very well. When he was younger, I’d assume he’d died, but he trained me well…I’d use bloodworms to lure him out. He’d bust out like a cannon, clicking and dancing. He started getting a bloodworm gut and having issues, so that trend stopped. They are social fish, but he never really bonded with the yo-yo pack. He had some amano shrimp pals. Trial and error, I have several caves and hidey holes that are all loach-proof…which means no small holes or sharp edges. I dremel any sharp edges. I used superfine sand. I have lots of plants to create hideaways and mental stimulation. I have another yo-yo(Marshall Applewhite) that I took on after it was stuck in a lava rock which resulted in part of his face being gouged off…a he’s 7yrs old and is the friendliest of my bunch. (They’re all friendly, but she’s genuinely sweet). There’s a Ukrainian person that makes smooth ceramic caves that are safe and nice looking…I’ll look for their info.

[Velvetmaggot]

Yuriy - https://plecoceramics.com/pages/about-us

Though they specialize in pleco, they have products that are also loach safe.

[Velvetmaggot]

Also, a tank upgrade is essential. Your remaining yo-yo will likely die and any others added will follow the same fate. They really need room to dance and have their own little sleeping huts.