Age of Aquariums > Freshwater Fish > YoYo Loach - Botia lohachata
I was excited in anticipation when Australian laws allowed Pakistan Loaches to be imported. I rushed off and bought 7 Pakistan Loaches, thinking they were peaceful from my experience with clown loaches. Unfortunately I was mistaken, and the Pakistan were aggressive fin nippers towards my other fish such as angels, rainbows and gouramis. It took investigaton work to actually catch them as they were very sly in the fin nipping procedure. Pakistan Loach will wait at the bottom and then do a quick strike at the fin before going back to the bottom of the tank. I did provide plenty of plant and infrastructure in the fish tank for the Pakistan loaches, there was no reason for the fish to fin nip except as standard normal behaviour. Pakistan loaches are fine with plants and are not sensitive compared to the average fish to poor water qualiy. However with all loaches you need to half the medicine dose of the manufacturer recommended rate when treating the loach for illness.
My wife was given a tank by her sister in law about 1 year ago. When she got the tank I wanted to get a new fish, so we went to the store. The yo yo was the coolest looking fish I could find, so I bought one. Another customer at the till told me how much he liked his pair and how they played. After bringing my yo yo home I found that he was kinda boring to watch cause he was always trying to hide, so I went back to the store and got him a friend. What a difference this made, it was instant they were best friends and just tearing up the tank. The second yo yo I brought home doubled in size in the first month, but the other one did not change. Just the other night I was cleaning the tank, after the tank was clean again I noticed the little yo yo attacking the bigger one. I didn't know what to do, so I shut off the light and they seemed to calm down. While I was watching them fight I noticed that the little guy kept going after the fins behind the gills and really trying to tear them off. He did a pretty good job with this cause the next day my big yo yo had some good marks on each side of him. I recently thought he was dead because of how he was laying on his side in the tank, but he seems to be surviving (they just like to lay on their sides). I think I'm gonna try and find another yo yo to maybe calm them again.
These fish are known to me as Pakistani Loaches and I must recommend them as one of the most delightful characters in my aquarium. I purchased two over 12 months ago and unfortunately one of them died quite quickly. The survivor is now a healthy, vibrantly coloured 5 cm fish that gives me no end of pleasure. These fish seem to have real character, constantly scavengening about amongst the gravel and foliage. They seem to appreciate a well furnished tank with lots of nooks and crannies to satisfy their curiosity. Mine will quite often "play dead", sitting motionless on top of the internal filter or head down wedged in the leaves of a plant. It is almost as though he is having a rest before springing into life and scurrying off around the tank again. He thrives on frozen and live foods, and has taken a liking to the sinking cat fish pellets I drop in for my Plec. In fact this fish will gorge itself on the catfish pellets displaying an alarming bulge in his stomach after consuming the lot. It is wise to take care when feeding such foods as I suspect he would eat until it killed him if possible. Plants take a bit of a battering from this creature as he will nose around amongst the roots looking for fertilzer balls or nuggets of food. This can sometimes be a nuisance as he disturbs the substrate and pollutes the water with clouds of semi-dissolved plant feed! I recomend either a fine sandy substrate or larger, rounded gravel to avoid damaging the delicate barbels around the mouth. I have seen no signs of aggression towards other tank mates who he basically seems to ignore. Only the much larger Plec receives any sort of attention when they are both attracted to the same slice of cucumber dropped in at feeding time. His lack of fear is remarkable, and adds to my overall impression that this a "cheeky", lively and contented fish that is always interesting to observe.
These Loaches are my favorite. I have 4 of them right now and they seem to have the best personalities. Some books I've read say that these are solitary Loaches and sometimes aggresive but my 4 live well together and seem to have a rank system. At times when they do fight they start making a clicking noise. As for the name, I have seen this loach called 3 names: YoYo, Pakistani, and Burmese. I usually search with each different name when looking for information on the net. A lot of their bright colors come out when fed frozen or live blood worms. They seem to loose shyness to light quite.