Loaches Online Forum

I have two golden weather loaches I've had for less than two weeks and today I found at least 4 little tiny tiny tiny almost threadlike babies wiggling all around the tank. I never noticed eggs, nothing (and my substrate is black sand) but omg they're adorable!!! I tried getting pics of em but I was having issues so I'm gonna try again tomorrow. Everything I've read says that they don't breed in captivity and I just wanted to share how cool it was that I only got two cause I ran into the petstore for something else and couldn't resist and not long after I've got wee ones too!!!

Pics as soon as I can, promise. But literally, just picture from 1/4 inch to an inch long thin threads wiggling around the tank =-)

I'm so excited!!!

wow!!! how cool. post some pics when you can!

Awsome you are so lucky!! Please if you can please tell us your water specs and tank specs, other fish in the tank. Anything at all you think may have brought on the spawning. Water temp change maybe even from the water at the store and your house?

I have to be honest, I'm not really that good about all the levels and stuff in my tank. I've only really had this tank for maybe 4-5 months? Not even sure. But let's see, it's a 20g long tank with 5 Kuhli loaches, one crazy hyperactive albino cat who THINKS he's a loach cause he swims with them all the time and like them if they're chillin, one angelis botia, my two weather loaches and one big shrimp tho I don't know what type (and wondering if I have to sacrifice him to the toilet gods so he doesn't accidentally get any of the babies). As it is I had two yellow glowfish that got sacrificed cause I watched them eat two babies and my loaches are way more important!! (I know, seems heartless but I don't have room for a quarantine tank and I wasn't about to risk my babies - I'm not a monster tho, I swear!). Oh and I got two TINY algae eaters yesterday that are about the size of my thumbnail and they were swimming with the weather loaches this morning too - was ADORABLE!! (Don't know what type they are tho, I have to go back to petland and thank the manager for keeping all these plants I can't find anywhere else but online so I'll double check that but they're a trip too!! - they look like the chinese algae eaters but they've got one long stripe down their sides and they're slightly iridescent, I'd never seen them before)

I keep my tank at about 78-82 but I'm not using a heater atm, it stays about that temp in my room so I won't bother till it starts getting cooler and been wondering about what to do about that since the golden's like it colder and the Kuhli's like it a bit warmer but both seem pretty adaptable *shrug*. I do have one tho, just not using it.

Anyway, I didn't even notice them doing anything unusual. They play ALL THE TIME and wiggle around each other and swim around the tank like they're on a marathon and god forbid they should stop. The one I think is the female is a bit less active tho but not by much. I never noticed any eggs (tho I admit I don't know what they look like for weather loaches and tho I bought more plants yesterday for hiding spaces the tank had been fairly bare cause of Angels the petstore recommended before I had the goldens so I'd have something mid-ground and he SWORE they wouldn't eat my plants. But they DESTROYED them so I brought them back to the petstore and got the botia instead (better deal imo anyways tho he's really shy - does he need a friend too?).

Then yesterday I was just staring at my tank like I always do and I see these little "threads" here and there. Now I swear to you - they're so tiny it's like if you took sewing thread and unraveled it into TINY pieces it MIGHT be thin enough. And then it started to move and WIGGLE like CRAZY!! I only see a couple here and there so I have no clue how many there really are or how many were playing around in the filter before I even noticed them but I honestly am totally new to all this and don't monitor levels as well as you guys - I don't even have a test kit yet, that's next check I think lol....

But, the day before I had done a HUGE water change - I'd say about 2/3 of the tank cause I'd been away and it seemed to need it and then voila! babies!!! No significant weather changes here either - I'm in NY.

I don't know if that helps at all but that's the long and short of it.

As for pics, I've tried but they're just too tiny and they move so fast it's hard to get them in the lens. I'll keep trying tho. But even the longest of them are no bigger than a child's fingernail and so thin they look like debris till they do the wiggle dance....

Omg I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE loaches!!!! Never in my life has a fishtank of mine been this much fun!

Sorry for the slightly manic and really long post - I'm just so excited!!!

Cool! Thanks for the update and def keep us posted...I vote a link to daily blog

Hi kaffinated,

Are you able to take any photos of these wrigglers? There have been instances of weather loaches breeding in aquaria, but I just wondered if these are definitely babies or whether they could simply be planaria? These can come about if there is uneaten food in the gravel, and they look like tiny wriggling white worms, about the thickness of a hair.

You do have a mixture of fish which aren't all that well suited in terms of conditions they prefer, so long-term you need to set up additional tanks or take some back to the store. There is no excuse for flushing any live fish down a toilet - take them back to the shop you bought them from.

Emma

P.S. This old thread with baby weather loaches may be of interest:
http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?t=6396

i find it quite upsetting that you put live fish down the toilet - perhaps a case of animal cruelty there.

Ya it is rather disturbing that someone would kill live fish and it would be even worse if someone killed them for eating baby fish that turned out to be worms or something instead of baby fish.

did you find out whether or not your loaches had babies? if they were loach babies may be you can get a picture if they're bigger

Wow, that's great! Get some pics up soon would love the see them

PS. in furture mabey try find a home for unwanted fish or put them in seperate tank....flushing them down the toilet is extreamly cruel ....

Grats if they're baby loaches~! I'm dying to know, since I had two amazingly happy and active dojos' and they did the spawn dance all the time at HIGHER TEMPS. But, it seems that they're a colder water fish. Now that the tank temp is more suitable for them...
they never dance. And they don't even lay together anymore at all.
So, I'd love to know if your's did the baby dance at 82 degrees .
P.S.
NEVER flush fish. It's cruel. And, it's unnescessary. Fish stores will usually take them back from you. Maybe you won't get money back, but still, you'll be sparing a fish from a horrifying cyclone ride in a dark, horrible twisty bunch of pipes, only to arrive in a) a pile of refuse (septic tank) where they'll suffer for days in pure darkness, and filth, and probably suffocate eventually...OR, a trip into the city wide version of same.
Don't do it.

totally cool that you got babies awesome also love to see pics .

yeah, about the flushing, couldn't you just drop them off at your local LFS? I have had to do that in the past , better option , IMO. I know you are stoked about the babies, and concerned for them , hope you can come up with a better way to deal with possible baby predators next time. sorry, don't mean to lecture, enjoy the new additions !
G

I'm gonna add one more voice to the "WTF" chorus regarding the flushing of the live, non-dead goldfish down the toilet.

It's a horrible, horrible death, with the chlorine in the water, and being emptied into the sewage system. Chlorine literally burns the protective coating that fish have off. BURNS. and the chaotic ride through the pipes would be terrifying.

There's no way to undo what you've done at this point, but for goodness sake, DON'T flush any more fish down the toilet!

You should set up a small fry tank and transfer the baby loaches into it so they can escape being eaten by larger fish. To keep them from being killed by the cycling process (which could take up to 8 weeks to complete), you should use Seachem's Stability in the fry tank for at least 7 days. That will help establish the beneficial bacteria a lot sooner. Also, hook up a good filter, but be sure to put a pre-filter sponge over the intake tube so the babies don't get sucked up into the filter.

For larger fish to eat smaller fish (including fry) is perfectly natural, and you shouldn't blame the larger fish for that. Those poor little glo-fish didn't deserve to die like that just for engaging in natural behavior. Shame on you! On top of that, glo-fish danios are so beautiful in and of themselves. What a tragic waste!

Isolating the fry is your best way of protecting them. If you can't, then place floating fry matts inside your main tank, or put lots of floating plants in there so they have a good place to hide amid the thick foliage.

You are very fortunate to have baby Dojos -- if you can be certain that's what they are. But please remember that ALL of your fish and invertebrates are special and precious in their own right, and "sacrificing" them simply isn't the answer.

-- Dojosmama

Appreciate the info, it’s good to know.