bloated loach

[jenni]

Hi guys, my first time on here but not with good news I dont think!

Our loach is extremley bloated around its underbelly and has been like this for 3 days now. We havent put any food in the tank for the last 2 days.
We've got a couple of pictures-im sorry theyre blurred but i hope they show the extent of it.




We're really worried. Does anyone know what has happened and what we can do to try and help?
Thanks in advance guys, Jen

[shari2]

It's hard to tell from the pics ;-(
If she's a yo yo it could be simply that she is gravid. Is the behavior normal otherwise? See any evidence of illness, excess slime coat, red patches, white patches?

[jenni]

I've done a search on the old forums and it looks exactly like a gravid loach (someone posted better pics than me!)
If she's a she, might there be problems if she doesn't get rid of the eggs? We dont have any other loaches so theres no chance of her being fertile.

No red patches or slime- just that her "bottom" looks quite red. All behaviour is normal- except that she's too fat to fit into her usual pot so is under a bit of wood instead!

Could it just be constipation?? If she is gravid is there anything we need to do/not do?

[shari2]

If she's gravid she'd love some boys around...
But failing that, she should be ok if everything else in the tank stays stable. I had a gravid female that remained so for a long time, until I used Pimafix in the tank and lost several fish. Needless to say I won't recommend the stuff.

Don't know how long she can live that way. In fact, I couldn't get mine to spawn even with her two young guys in there. They were likely too young to know what to do and though I did attempt several different things to try to encourage spawning, that never happened.

so far as I know, there have been next to no documented cases of yo yo's spawning in a tank environment. If you do get some males, and can get it to happen, get plenty of pics and let us know!

[jenni]

Thank you for that. If we were to introduce other yo yos to the tank wouldnt we run the risk of her getting aggressive? As far as I know shes never had any other of her species in the same tank (we got her with the tank as a single fish and other fish to it). How can you tell what sex they are??

I would love another loach but have always held back from adding more because I was worried she might be territorial. What do u suggest- wait for this to maybe pass or try and get a male?

[mikev]

Generally, one should keep loaches like yoyo's in groups, 5+. If the tank size allows it (what is it anyway?), getting more would be a good idea.

You cannot really sex them 100% reliably (females are supposed to have deeper body) and adding just one more does have a potential of creating a fight -- especially if the tank is not very large. (example: I had two 3" clowns fighting while in a 29g ... and now, in a larger tank and a larger group, they are good friends...and clowns are milder). It is also really unclear if it would make any difference if you are adding males or females -- they are not likely to spawn anyway, it is more about companionship. It may be safer to get a few *small ones* -- yoyo's grow very rapidly, it takes about 3 months to go from <1" to 3", and with several smaller ones, at least you would not be creating leadership fights.

[Barracuda518]

Is there anyway you can get some more clear pictures of that loach? That second picture looks very strange to me. I cant even make out that its a YoYo loach. The first picture almost looks like some type of Hillstream loach to me