Skunk Loaches

Vincenia

Vincenia

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Dec 11, 2011
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I picked up 4 Skunk Loaches, since they looked neat and cute. When I got home, I looked them up and they do best in groups of 5 or more to spread out aggression among themselves and should be kept with fast swimming fish. I put them in my densely planted 20g with my Harlequins, which seem to fight back. I still have a Hillstream Loach but the skunks leave him be, since he chased them off. Mostly the skunks go after each other and leave most fish alone. Might add 2 more when theres more at the LFS. I might take the betta out and put him in a different tank.
 
I have never seen skunk loaches before. The name suggest they would be neat. Any pics?

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This species, Yasuhikotakia morleti as it is now known, is very active and boistrous, to the point of frequently being very aggressive and nasty. It deserves a spacious aquarium with plenty of hiding spots (chunks of wood with tunnels are ideal) so it can bekept in a group of at least 5 or 6, otherwise some members may be relentlesslypicked on and succumb to stress and injury. Even so, some fish in this specieswill decide to pursue other fish in the aquarium to their eventual demise. It should never be combined with the similarly-shaped Botia species loaches, but othersemi-aggressive loaches such as Syncrossus species are possible. Uppertankmates must be robust, hardy and active, such as medium barbs, largerrasbora and danios.
 
Only fish the skunks leave alone are the Krib fry, most of the rasboras, the hillstream, cories and betta. I have lots of caves in the tank. The loaches seemed to have calmed down. I would put them in my 37 but I have kuhlis, bulldog pleco, and bumblebee catfish....
 
I kept skunks for ~6 months a long, long time ago. They were cute, fast, food aggressive fin nippers we had to rehome as soon as we could finally catch them. I'm guessing they are small now but they are too active &, at ~4 inches when mature, too large for a 20. I would keep them with danios & maybe other aggressive loaches in a larger tank, say a 55g at minimum if I decide to try again someday. I'm worried about your other fish surviving long term. We tried several different tankmates including an African cichlid, a Jack Dempsey & several other fish that were easier to catch than the skunks. Giant danios seemed like the best but they were prone to jumping.
 
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