Razmear

It's been a stormy day and I noticed a small loach circling the side of the tank over and over again all day...

My tank population consisted of one Dojo Loach about 7 inches in length, 4 small dark brown loaches (sorry I forgot to check the exact breed when buying) that spend 99% of their time under the gravel, 6 zebra danios, 5 red fin tetras, and a ginormous pleco who is desperately in need of a bigger tank.

The 4 small loaches can never be seen all at once so I can't be 100% sure that one hasn't had a sudden color and personality shift, but the new loach is the exact same golden color as the Dojo and is behaving exactly as I'd expect a Dojo to behave, which is making me think that the original Dojo somehow crossbread with one of the smaller undergravel loaches to produce this new Dojo that has been so busy today.

So can loaches interbreed between varieties?

The loaches primarily occupy one side of the tank that has a triangle shaped piece of slate leaning against the glass providing a shaded area and there are artificial plants under and around the slate. Water temp is usually about 76-78.

I've just taken a few videos with my cam and will post links once they are edited and uploaded.

eb

edit:
I've uploaded the raw .MOV file from my cam here:
http://razmear.us/tank/DSCN0247.MOV
it is in Quicktime format and is about 20meg, so you might want to do a 'save as' to watch it.
I'll reformat or post to youtube tomorrow if there is any interest.

second edit:
Got the YouTube vid working, the original is a bit clearer, but this ones easier to watch:


eb

aquarist48

Hello Razmear and Welcome to Fish Lore. I'm sure some of our experienced Dojo Loach members will be able to respond to your inquiry. Hope you enjoy the site!
Ken

Amanda

The small loaches are Khulis. I don't believe that they can breed with Dojos, but I'm not a genetics expert.

Razmear

Here is a second vid:



I guess the first question is if the smaller loach is truly a Dojo. If thats the case then we can worry about how the breeding happened, and if not then try to figure out why a khuli would change color and start acting like a Dojo instead of hiding under the gravel all the time.

eb

MaddieLynn

The smaller loaches are black kuhli loaches. Their colors can fade sometimes if they are stressed or sick, so maybe that's what happened?

Toddnbecka

More likely you had a stray egg on a plant, dojo's can't crossbreed with kuhli's.

Razmear

I just upgraded to a 55 and moved all the fish out and there were no extra loaches, so guess it was just one of the khuli's spazzing out a bit.

eb

valentine

you might be interested in this http://www.dawn.com/2008/10/12/top15.htm its an article about asexual reproduction in sharks.

asexual reproduction has been documented in fish, i dont know about your little loach but would not be the first time.