Loaches Online Forum

Graeme Robson wrote:

mikev wrote:OMG...you sure it is the Kubotai who is doing it?

With angelfish83, the loch ness monster could be possible. Just a word of warning.

So what does that say about me?

Jeez give the guy a break will ya?

For what it's worth, my 3 kubotai are little buggers at times. They will chase the 20 Tiger Barbs around and nip at their tails.
It's a 6 foot tank, so there's no shortage of space or whatever and there's Clowns in there that dwarf the kubotai, so that blows out the big fish theory.

They may have been called angelicus, but that name is way off

This all comes down to what we tell people again and again.

"Your mileage may vary"

In other words there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to fish behaviour. What happens in my tank bears little or no relationship to how the fish act in another person's tank, even if the setups are quite similar.
Fish, like humans have different temperaments and you can only modify behaviour to an extent.

Personally, I wouldn't keep kubotai, almorhae, histrionica, or rostrata with things like Angels or Gouramis and expect to have no problems. These fish are just too fast and inquisitive and sometimes that can degenerate into unsociable types of behaviour.

My 50c anyway.

Martin.

Strange how we don't hear much about the Modesta group on this.

I've always advocated that these loaches will not process aggression until aggression is posed upon them. And will stand by this.

One's view.

I think with the modesta complex though Graeme there's a perceived threat, so hopefully people don't put them in with these sort of fish.

Hmmm... so true Botia are like Israel then?

Disclaimer:

Your yamuka may vary.

Martin.

yamuka's have range?


All we can do is give what we see. Nothing more.

I had similar problems with yoyo's and angels in a 55g. They were young boisterous yoyo's and large angels. More so then playing with fins the yoyo's discovered that angels are sloppy eaters and would swim right up to their noses and catch the food they were dropping, even got to the point where they would just snatch it from them. They would occasionally also yank a tail fin, apparently to distract the angel so they could dash around and grab the food he was about to grab.
Of course the angelfish can't turn on a dime and rarely could catch the offending little monsters but I did witness one unfortunate yoyo who got caught. The angelfish grabbed him right by the nose. Yoyo was frantically backing up trying to get loose. It was like a tug of war with his nose as the object. He did managed to break free after a moment with no real harm done.

It was amusing but not so much that I wanted to let it go on indefinately. I re-homed the yoyo's. The angels were there first after all.

edit: lol, no allusions to political situations were intended by this post

That is a great tank Emma - some nice big clowns in there too. What is the tank size

FWIW I kept a school of kubotoi in with a long fin male angel and he had no problems.

I've also had yo yos and modesta in with angels-or more properly angels in with them when I had to separate what turned into two breeding pairs that were anihilating each other. Had to move them due to the modesta. The yo yos were never a problem.

Currently I have a breeding pair in with some largish clowns and have seen no problems between them.

Also, I have seen angels 'turn on a dime' to get away from each other they can move quite speedily when they want to...but they are at the mercy of other fish at night since they kind of 'sleep' at night.

midman wrote:That is a great tank Emma - some nice big clowns in there too. What is the tank size

Thank you!

The tank is 8ft long x 18" wide x 30" high.

Emma

you're right Shari, I guess I have seen my angels turn on a dime. Just not quickly enough to catch a speedy little yoyo, lol!

funny how people have such different experiences with loaches and angles. Perhaps tank size is the leading factor as Emma pointed out and perhaps just individual loach personalities.

I also wonder about learned bahavior in a pack of loaches.
I have had a group of 5 striata in with my angels for a couple of years and unlike the yoyo's the striata never approached the angelfish, not even when the yoyo's were in there and they saw them doing it.

On the other hand I added 2 more striata recently and one of them is exhibiting the same behavior as the yoyo's I formerly had. I wonder where he learned that?
He's not nearly as bad or persistent as the yoyo's fortunately and I think he may be settling down now, maybe he's taking an example from the rest of the school. I'm relieved, I didn't want to believe that striata's could be "bad".

Well,
If you decide to get more Kubotai, I just saw them six days ago. "That Fish Place" in Lancaster PA had about 30 of them.. For sale for 9.99 each (Good price). This comapny usually does mail order and sometimes thier quality is sub par, but I actually live close enough that I drove out last week and saw them in person. This batch of Kubotai looks fat and healthy and of an actual size of between 2" to 2.5". Anyone interested in a good pick up of Kubotais might inquire of them, and no, I don't have the number or URL.. Google them, they're out there.

The only reason I didn't get any is because I already have 10 and I'm still holding out on future loach purchases until I find 3 or more Orthos..

Fishhead