General Care Discussion :: cohabitation with dojo loaches?

[scriabin]

Has anyone any first-hand accounts of tanks shared by dojo loaches (weather loaches) and Red Ears?

I've heard of Chichlids cohabitating with Dojos, and RES cohabitating with Chichlids, so...

Just a pipe dream... I would love to have a Weather Loach pond some day...

[leon1355]

Has anyone any first-hand accounts of tanks shared by dojo loaches (weather loaches) and Red Ears?

I've heard of Chichlids cohabitating with Dojos, and RES cohabiting with Chichlids, so...

Just a pipe dream... I would love to have a Weather Loach pond some day...

hi
i have 4 RESes around 2 years old and just for test i put one catfish (5 CM) inside the tanks it just remained 1 day and disappeared!

i asked from some of friends in Internet they agree RES will eat any kind of fish (even sharks) slice by slice but there is just one way to do this
you must put bigger fish with very small turtle and they grow together
and i cant test it!



Br

[Bascomb]

Scri-bin and Leon -- No matter what the size fish you put in, eventually the turtle will get to it. The turtle may put up with the fish for a while but eventually the turtle will eat it. One of the truths of life is that turtles eat and like fish. It is like mice and cheese, bird and worm, cow and grass; you get the point. b.

[Daniel3507]

its basically impossible for anything to live with a turtle haha. i had a pretty large pleco in tank at one time. it was about twice the size of my turtle. one day i walked by and saw cujo swimming around with the tail in his mouth just dragging the pleco around and i could see the bite marks on the pleco. anything that goes into a turtle tank will eventually become food.

[scriabin]

Well, I know you might be right, but I'm not sure I'm going to agree. I've heard (elsewhere) a lot of success stories about small turtles being raised with large fish and leaving them alone for the rest of their lives - definitely it seems a universal that large fish introduced to adult turtles with no fish experience will likely be viewed as snacks. But it's like that person who was posting pictures of her cat hanging out with her bunnies - if you start them young, they grow up together and affect each others development along the way. I think lifelong peacfeul cohabitation is possible, you just have to work at it...

Anyway, it will take years to test that hypothesis, so I'll keep you posted.

Dojo loaches I think I would get especially attached to, so I might not want to risk it...

[roseK]

well my turtle is lazy and rather hunt lettuce than fish.


i guess a loach could live if you had the proper habitat for it, but weather loaches are a schooling fish so you would need alot.

i think that your argument is flawed, theres people who raise tigers as kittens and when they grow up. the tiger will still attack them.

i say it is possible, but dont count on it

[Daniel3507]

there have been people on here that have had the same fish in their tanks for years and then one day they are gone. so like rose said, its possible but i wouldnt bet on it. but hey, its worth a shot.

[ScrewZoo]

i put a catfish in my tank a long time ago n he lasted 4ever.

[scriabin]

Well ... I guess my hypothesis is that turtles react to fish based on their temperament/personality, and that to a certain degree, this can be influenced over time depending on how they are raised.

Check in with me in five years, I'll let you know how it's working out!

[Bascomb]

Just don't get too attached to your fish. Enjoy it while you can. It may be a day, month, or a year or two but one day, poof it's gone

[scriabin]

Bascom, I respect that in your experience as a turtle-keeper, all of your turtles are by nature predatory carnivores - that's cool, maybe one or both of my turtles will turn out the same way.

However, I started this by doing research, and read about people who have kept large fish with turtles and never had a problem... it was doing that research which made me decide to do it -so, all I'm saying is, it's possible and its probably different for different turtle keepers.

I think it can work, and I'm going to try - but thank you for the advice, I will not get attached to the fish.

[spaceapple]

Of course it's not impossible, you never know when you'll get lucky! I say give it a shot. (Maybe with an inexpensive fish...)

[scriabin]

oy ... I shouldn't have asked about the dojos. It's just that I have this fantasy of keeping a dojo pond and it would just be weird to have a pond in my (future) backyard and not have the turtles in it. Anyway, it's just a pipe-dream... I don't have a backyard...

If you're interested in my gameplan, I was going to start with yellow electric chichlids (or similarly sized chichlids) fast and fierce in their own right, but won't get so big that they could actually hurt the turtles. I was also going to try for a pleco that is at least as big or bigger than they are ... I know that might be a long shot since plecos are such easy targets, but it has been done! (seriously!) I was into the idea of adult (8") silver dollars since they are so fast and skittish, but of course they would eat my water plants even faster than the turtles would. I've also heard good reports of RES living long-term with pumpkinseed perch and other sunfish, but I've not seen those for sale... so long term probably a turtle/chichlid tank, and if I'm lucky enough to have turtles that don't feel inclined to attack large bottom feeders, so much the better...also I think I'll probably let guppies breed freely in the tank so you know, if the girls are hungry, they'll always have the option of eating a smaller, slower fish that actually fits in their mouth.

However, it will be a while yet before I can get started, since my water isn't close to being healthy for fish...

[roseK]

tropical fish in a pond? kay..


fish and turtles arent dogs, you cant raise them that way, it depends on their personality.

[scriabin]

Dojo loaches are actually cold water fish.

certain fish (puffers and dojo loaches for example) can be raised to recognize/trust/interact with their keepers and can be hand fed.

If you're telling me that reptiles can't learn from and adapt to their environment in a rudimentary way, then we just disagree.