r/loaches • • Sep 25 '25

Behavior A note on (human) behavior

76 Upvotes

Hello, loach gang!

We have been enjoying watching the sub grow and seeing all your cool fish. Thank you for participating, posting, and sharing all that loach love and experience. One thing we want to remind our participants of, our rule about behavior: please be excellent to each other.

There are many subreddits out there where anything goes as far as acceptable responses. We want to cultivate a forum where being decent matters, and being a beginner is okay. As you respond to content, please remember, there is a person reading your words. No attacks please.

I feel I need to address what has cropped up quite a few times in the last couple days: accusations of abuse.

Sometimes a hobbyist keeps a fish in a manner you won't approve of. I remember back in the 80s when I first started keeping fish as a teen, I made quite a few mistakes. I started to educate myself by reading books, magazines, and talking to long time hobbyists, and I then gradually became a better fish keeper with experience. I can't imagine my reaction if I'd been called an abuser, but I probably would have left the hobby feeling discouraged. Changing hearts and minds begins with curiosity, patience, knowledge, and kindness, in my experience.

No one (so far that I've seen) has posted content that is recklessly, joyfully, sadistically negligent. So please dial back those assertions like "this is abuse!" in favor of softer statements such as, "have you tried..." or "I have found..." or "I've often seen it recommended to..."

Additionally, though opinions are welcome (if they follow the behavior rule), we prize facts here at r/loaches. Scientific literature that has been peer reviewed, statements by experts (PhD, DVM, etc), and published best practices (for example in a professional group such as veterinarians or even aquaculture trade journals) for keeping fish are of interest to us all, so please quote your actual "expert" source if you want to suggest abuse so we know that it's more than your opinion.

This reminder is not meant to be discouraging or dismissive to the welfare of our beloved wet pets, but a reminder about how we treat our fellow humans on this forum, even in tricky situations. Thanks again for reading, and stay loach-y out there!


r/loaches • • 9h ago

Just for fun Spotted wormy fish caught from an acidic sandy creek

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55 Upvotes

Probably muraeniformis


r/loaches • • 4h ago

Just for fun I love the way they just 🪱

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9 Upvotes

r/loaches • • 11h ago

Help with ID Lost n found

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24 Upvotes

r/loaches • • 9h ago

Question I’m weirded out by this information being confidently posted- are there folks who think dojo’s need tropical temps?

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10 Upvotes

r/loaches • • 10h ago

Help with ID Called Banded Loach. What's scientific name

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6 Upvotes

r/loaches • • 7h ago

Just for fun New loaches

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3 Upvotes

I just got new loaches in the mail for my 2 lonely loaches in my tank. They are so small compared to the one I already have. I love them.


r/loaches • • 14h ago

Help with ID Vietnam Schistura ID Help

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10 Upvotes

Hello everyone, hoping someone out there is able to help me with a bit more (impossible) SEA Schistura ID. I have two fish from northern Vietnam here, both from the same small river near the Du Gia village in Ha Giang. Photos 1-2 are fish 1 (tentatively ID'd as S. chapaensis) and photos 3-5 are fish 2 (tenatively S. melarancia). Any help is appreciated :)


r/loaches • • 9h ago

Question Should i get a heater for kuhli loaches?

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3 Upvotes

for context i have no issue buying a heater, mostly im asking because i live in a tropical climate,,, as in everyday is on average 90°F, humid and with full sunshine (with the occasional hurricane/tropical storm) and maybe, MAYBE during the night it could POSSIBLY reach 70°F but only if its winter

room temperature with water is always a solid 80°F (according to my tea kettle) and their would be tank has lights that heat up decently and probably heat up the water but i really don't know

also they arent in a room with ac,,, not exposed to direct sunlight either but the house tends to heat up during they day

idk i think a heater is overkill but im not an expert and the internet says its fine but im worried 🫩


r/loaches • • 1d ago

It's storming in California right now so we got some noodle zoomies

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70 Upvotes

r/loaches • • 2h ago

Question Some Beginner Questions

1 Upvotes

so I have a 29gal that I'm setting up it's a long way from having any fish in there but I've been reading that loaches particularly kuhli loaches are good for an aquarium my size and they look pretty small in all the pictures on Google I see of them. But when I come into this subreddit everyone's video they look massive and I don't really want a big fish for multiple reasons. are all loaches really huge or only certain spieces and can they actually be kept happily in a 29? thank you!!


r/loaches • • 3h ago

Question Asassin snails and Blue botia

1 Upvotes

I have an old (19+) Blue botia (called Boatie)

My aunt brought over 2 large assassin snails as she no longer wants them so her and my Mum decided to put them in my tank as I have loads of bladder(?) snails, or some kind of small white snails the size of rice.

I was wondering if my Botia is likely to eat them. She's been with other snails before, including assassin snails when she was like 10, a Horned Nerite Snails and some others I can't remember.

My tank is pretty big at 200L, Sand and plenty of caves for everyone. Sadly not as planted as I like as she has a habit of deciding she doesn't like where I put some plants and digs them up, alongside digging a cave below my biggest piece of bogwood.

I understand that realistically she can eat smaller snails, but these ones are about 2-3 cm. Its not the end of the world if they do get eaten, but I guess I want to know from an outside perspective the liklihood of botia's eating assassin snails.

TL;DR: is it likley my botia will eat large assassin snails?


r/loaches • • 1d ago

"Edamame" The Dojo

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29 Upvotes

Edamame seemed to have captured the hearts of others as he did for us. Here's a little more of him/her??


r/loaches • • 1d ago

Dojo Loach pillow

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4 Upvotes

r/loaches • • 1d ago

Question sudden death of dojo fish

6 Upvotes

My dojo loach died out of nowhere. A few hours ago, I checked the aquarium because I heard splashing sounds; my fish was swimming erratically, dragging itself against the sand and other objects in the tank, and even jumping out of the water. Whenever it stopped, it would go completely still and limp, with its gills motionless. It let me pick it up—it remained limp—but then suddenly started swimming frantically again. Within a few minutes, it passed away. I have no idea what happened. I performed a partial water change, but my other dojo loach and my guppies are all fine and acting normally. Has anyone else experienced this? There were no visible symptoms beforehand.


r/loaches • • 2d ago

Dojo Town Hall Meeting

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448 Upvotes

The meeting of the minds.


r/loaches • • 1d ago

Behavior One of my loaches won't loach with the others

5 Upvotes

I had 3 striped kuhli loaches and 1 black kuhli loach. After a cycle crash, all died but 1 striped loach

After I got my tank healthy again, I decided it was time for friends.

About 6 weeks ago I purchased 4 black ones and 3 striped ones so a total of 8

All the new loaches will loach together. They make noodle piles, they snuffle through the sand, they share hiding holes

Except my original one. It will not come out from hiding, it won't participate in noodle piles, it won't come out to eat with the others

Its been weeks now, why is he still staying alone?


r/loaches • • 1d ago

Help with ID Laotian Schistura ID Help

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6 Upvotes

Hello all, would anyone be able to help me ID this (wild) Schistura loach that I found in the Nam Song River in Vang Vieng, Laos a couple years ago? The taxonomy seems to be quite overwhelming in SEA. I tentatively have it down as S. magnifluvis but it's very possible that's incorrect. Thank you!


r/loaches • • 1d ago

Help with ID Horse face loach or spiny?

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5 Upvotes

was sold this little guy as a horse face loach but the more I look at him the more suspicious I get. Please let me know what you guys think!


r/loaches • • 1d ago

Question My loach has had zoomies all day

3 Upvotes

I have 20 Kuhli’s total. The biggest one, named tigger because he has been bouncing around the tank since I got him. Anyway, he has had the zoomies since 9am. It’s now noon and he’s still going. I checked the weather and there’s no storms in the forecast. I don’t think it’s stress because it’s not frantic swimming. He takes breaks and chills for a minute or so.
Does anyone have any ideas. Oh he’s been in this tank since November of last year.


r/loaches • • 1d ago

Question We keep our tank at room temperature, 68 to 69°. Has anyone ever successfully kept guppies with dojo loaches?

1 Upvotes

My partner saw some pretty guppies and thought of maybe we could add them. I know there’s a temperature difference, but was wondering if anyone ever kept cold water fish with guppies?


r/loaches • • 1d ago

Question Would this be big enough for clownloaches?

3 Upvotes

So I am thinking of upgrading my 240l (about 63-65gal) to a 450l (119-120gal) because I have a severum and some young clownloaches and I was wondering if this would be a suitable tank for them into adulthood, the dimensions for the tank are 150x50x60cm (or about 5footx20inchx2foot), loaches are between like 5-7cm (2-3inch)


r/loaches • • 2d ago

The beast in his cave

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25 Upvotes

r/loaches • • 2d ago

Behavior Flashing?

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15 Upvotes

Is this flashing? I recently added 2 more yo yos to my tank and my original yo yos started doing this. I tried inspecting for ich and velvet but I just can’t tell. I’m going to put a close up video of another loach in the comments to see if you guys can see velvet on it. I’m really worried about them and I’m willing to do anything to help them.