YoYo loach fighting/spawning/other?

[Ajordan]

I have 3 yoyo loaches in my 37g tank. I would say that 97.34% of the time they are 'normal.' That is, they cruise around looking for food, eat snails and dig up my glossostigma. Occasionally after feeding (typically when I feed frozen treats like blood worms, cyclops or brine) two of the three change their behavior drastically.

They lose almost all color and start to spar. They go head to head and cirlcle each other, from time to time they roll and appear to try to get at each others gills. Then they will come along side each other and 'shimmy.' While this is happening the other loach is still acting normal and doesn't have any change in color. Of the two loaches that are bickering, one is very fat and the other is more slim. I try to watch for the tell tale red mouth but haven't been able to conclusively sex them.

Any idea what this behavior is? I go from thinking it is fighting to mock spawning to fighting to spawning...

 

[fishorama]

It's a dominance fight, very normal. They won't really hurt each other.

The fat loach might be female or just the more dominant one, faster & tougher at feeding time. The females often look ready to burst when filled with eggs but spawning let alone having babies is EXTREMELY unlikely.

 

[Ajordan]

Thats what I was hoping to hear (that they won't hurt each other). They sure do wear each other out though. I feel like I have read about mock spawns that never come to fruition. As cool as spawning would be, its not likely when the best account that I have read about is a rumor of a rumor of a story about a guy who's cousin's best friend's niece had a successful spawn.

I keep telling myself not to worry but its hard when they are duking it out...

 

[Lupin]

No one has so far spawned their yoyos successfully in home aquaria.