Loaches Online Forum

hey, i have a lone yoyo loach in my 10g tank, i lost the other one last week..

Q: he is around 1.5" long and hasnt grown in about a year...if i put him into a 55 gallon, will he grow more or will he just stay small?? i plan on having 6 yoyos in there...

i'd hate to have one 'runt' and have the rest at full length (around 6")

-brett.

brett_fishman wrote:he is around 1.5" long and hasnt grown in about a year...if i put him into a 55 gallon, will he grow more or will he just stay small?? i plan on having 6 yoyos in there...

i'd hate to have one 'runt' and have the rest at full length (around 6")

-brett.

It should grow larger. I am not sure if it will reach full size at this point, but it should grow some.

ok, thanks...

i was assured on AH that the other yoyos, even at full size, would play with a little one...haha

but who knows..his growth might have just been 'sleeping' and when he goes into the 55, he might just 'wake up' and grow!!!

-brett.

Even after transferral to a new larger tank, your loach is unlikely to reach it's absolute maximum full size after being in a 10 gallon tank for so long. It is quite likely to grow, but probably slower and never reaching it's maximum potential.

Emma

emma,
hes been in the 10 since october of 2005...so yea, its been a while..he only grew around .5" in the first 2 months, then stopped..

is it harmful to their body at all or does it just shorten their life?

-brett.

brett_fishman wrote:emma,
hes been in the 10 since october of 2005...so yea, its been a while..he only grew around .5" in the first 2 months, then stopped..

What was the size of the other yoyo you had? Same?

1.5" after a year is really too small...I find it hard to believe that this was merely the tank size, did you feed them adequately?

I've been comparing the yoyo's that stayed in a lfs (15g tank prob) as mine grew 1"->3" (they are still growing, but at a slower rate now). The store yoyo's did not grow at all, but I _think_ the factor was mainly that they were given barely enough food to survive, not the tank size. Naturally, after a few months of this they were messed up for life, no hope to resume the normal growth.

So another possibility is that they had too long a stay at the store before you got them.

is it harmful to their body at all or does it just shorten their life?

It is reasonable to assume that anything that shortens their life is also harmful to their body.

thanks mike,

the other yoyo was indeed the same size..

did i feed them enough? no, only flakes
do i now feed them/him enough? yes!!

now adays, i feed the fish flakes, shrimp pellets and tubiflex cubes (broken into little chunks)

i also tried peas today (taken out of tough skin of course) and the yoyo loved them...

when i first got them, and for the first 8 months or so, i just used them as clean-ups..but i now know that you must feed the loaches, not just the other fish...now hes getting a little belly on him!! hehe

-brett.

brett_fishman wrote: did i feed them enough? no, only flakes

This is probably the main reason. If you want to have a large loach, you need food variety. Some bloodworms and frozen shrimp imho a must. I'm not too hot on tubifex...still, better than nothing. Also, during the period of rapid growth, feeding twice a day is not a bad idea.

My sense is that your loach may get fat, but not likely to grow to normal size ever.

(APPEND. I, sadly, have a loach like this. A kub that had a tapeworm infection during his youth. The tapeworm is long gone, the fish is not skinny and is fed normally, but I doubt it will ever reach 1.5").

ok, thanks mike..

all the fish eat the tubiflex in haste..haha

any chunks that reach the bottom (they float) the yoyo snaps up, he loves the little wormies..

i am going to buy some freeze-dried bloodworms next time i go to the LFS...but i will see if they have normal frozen bloodworms..im sure they are much better..

i do feed twice a day, sometimes even three times...haha..i spoil them all with food lately..not too much though..dont wanna kill them..

-brett.

brett_fishman wrote: i do feed twice a day, sometimes even three times...haha..i spoil them all with food lately..not too much though..dont wanna kill them..

You are very welcome.

Just to avoid misunderstanding: I specifically talked about twice a day with young loaches in the fast growth stage. Your yoyo is not now.

years back I bought some yoyos from a LFS and had them for 6 months at home. During one of my visits to the store I noticed a yoyo hiding in the back of the same tank. The poor thing had been in this tank alone almost this entire time. I bought it and to my surprise it appeared that it hadn't grown at all compared to the others I had for 6 months.
the store really doesn't feed the fish at all to lesson the need for water changes.

actually, my lfs feeds all the fish healthy meals, twice a day..

i was there at opening time (on a monday, closed for the weekend) and both the owners were feeding every tank with a good amount of flake, then fed certain tanks other foods (shrimp pellets, bloodworms, algae wafers, etc)

i was amazed by how much they cared for them..haha

anywho, i dont care i just feed them 3 times a day because im bored i think 3 small meals are better than 1 big meal...its not like they get food in meal format in nature, they eat when theres food..

theres two yoyos in the lfs right now, one is around 3.5" and the other is 1.5"...hmm

-brett.

newshound wrote:years back I bought some yoyos from a LFS and had them for 6 months at home. During one of my visits to the store I noticed a yoyo hiding in the back of the same tank. The poor thing had been in this tank alone almost this entire time. I bought it and to my surprise it appeared that it hadn't grown at all compared to the others I had for 6 months.

Did it ever catch up? -- this is the question.

the store really doesn't feed the fish at all to lesson the need for water changes.

Same here.

hmm...my lfs actually DOES waterchanges..that surprised me..they have 2 pythons in the back room, each of the two owners goes around taking water out..then goes around again, filling tanks up..haha

they have around 20 - 10g, 4 - 20g and 2 - 55g tanks..i think..

-brett.

mikev wrote:

newshound wrote:years back I bought some yoyos from a LFS and had them for 6 months at home. During one of my visits to the store I noticed a yoyo hiding in the back of the same tank. The poor thing had been in this tank alone almost this entire time. I bought it and to my surprise it appeared that it hadn't grown at all compared to the others I had for 6 months.

Did it ever catch up? -- this is the question.

the store really doesn't feed the fish at all to lesson the need for water changes.

Same here.

no it never got to be the size others are but it did grow some.
sure the store does water changes
BUT
most LFS treat the fish pretty poorly IMO.