I think my loach is dying.

[yewberry]

Honestly, I don't know much about fish--My husband is the fish maintenance person in the house, and he's at work. We have a smallish tank with some thai algae-eaters, a chinese algae-eater, and a lovely striped loach.

Now, one of the thai algae-eaters is gone, and the loach isn't looking healthy--he's just resting, not swimming around at all. In fact, there are new snails in the tank--I guess he's not eating.

So, check the pH, I can do that, but what then?

[wildeyed]

1. Check him all over for any type of fungus, growths,

change of color, etc. Then ask the guys at the fish store. They might be able to recommend some sort of medicine or water treatment to add to the tank. Also, is he still eating?

The other thing, how is the water temperature? The weather has been much colder where I am. Could it be that the tank got too cold?

Sorry I am not much help. I had a betta fish get sick on me recently, and that is the extent of my fish knowledge. Good luck!

[yewberry]

2. Well, he looks okay

aside from being inactive & resting on the bottom of the tank. I think he's not eating, because loaches are great snail-eaters, and I have a couple of snails now.

The temp is okay, the pH seems fine, and there's not detectable ammonia.

Dang.

Thanks for the reply and the good wishes.

[ThingsGottaChange]

3. Hi, Tofunut

What's the size of the fish in the tank? Tank size? Also, how often do you do water changes? Could be a build up of Nitrates. Is the chinese algae eater pestering it? I know they can get somewhat aggressive as they grow. How long have you had the loach? Could I ask more questions?!?!?

If you haven't done a water change or gravel vac in a while you might want to do that. I don't know what substrate you have so a gravel vac may not be in order.

[yewberry]

5. Hi TGC

Well, the tank is 26 gal, and the loach (striped--botia striata, I think) is only about 1 1/2" long.

We do 25% water changes about every other week--but we had to do a major (too much, like 50%) change about 3 weeks ago, to move the tank.

Meanie (the chinese algae eater) doesn't really bother anyone. He's pretty placid, and smaller than the others. (The thai algae eaters actually chased him around for a while.) We've had Frank (the loach) for about 3 months, I think.

The pH, ammonia and nitrite look fine, but I don't have a nitrate test. What's a gravel vac? (Yes, we have gravel.) I do have some kind of chemical (AmQuel plus) that claims that it'll remove the nasty stuff, but is that a fishtank equivalent of a nuke?

Um, when I lost the thai algae eater, I didn't exactly find all of him. Is it possible that Frank (gulp) ate him? Could that be causing the problem? (But, then, that wouldn't explain why the first one died, would it?)

Thank you, thank you for talking to me about this. The fish have always been my husband's thing--but I really like these little guys.

[ThingsGottaChange]

7. Hard not to fall in love with the little buggers, eh?

I don't know how experienced you guys are so I don't want to sound like a know it all. If you have a gravel substrate most of the fish poop and other crud will fall down into it instead of being sucked up in the filter. A gravel vac uses suction to clean all that crud out of the gravel without sucking up the gravel. Only do 1/2 of the tank at a time so you don't suck up too much of the "good" bacteria, though.

It is hard to find nitrate tests. I would try to find one, though. If there is alot of debris trapped in the gravel that may increase your nitrates which can be bad for fishies at high levels. But, you don't have that many fish in there. And since you did that move, you probably removed alot of crap anyway. I had one botia striata that only lived for about 6 months. It really could be a number of things. Age of the fish, conditions before you bought it, etc.

I'm not one for using many chemicals. If you maintain the tank properly (and I think you do) you shouldn't need much else. I assume you use a dechlor if you have city water? Has the water been cloudy at all lately? On that tank I would do at least 25% water changes each week. If it looks like your loach might make it, I would suggest getting him a couple more loachy pals to hang with. They like to be in groups. I doubt that Frank (I love that name for a fish!) killed the algae eater. Probably did some snacking after he died, though. I always keep Melafix on hand for misc. scrapes or injuries. It is awesome stuff.

I would do about a 30% water change now, use dechlor if you need it. Try to find a nitrate test and a gravel vac. If you can't find the stuff locally you can get it online at bigalsonline.com, petsolutions.com, thatpetplace.com or about a brazillion other online sites! Yes, I have them all bookmarked!

Hope I didn't blather too much here! Please let me know how it goes!!! Oh, and no aquarium salt with loaches. Good Luck!

[yewberry]

8. Yup, they're sure nice to have around.

I'm completely inexperienced, so a know-it-all wouldn't be a bad person to have around for me.

Now that I look at the gravel, it does look kind of gooky and white underneath. Crud. We do dechlorinate the water, and it hasn't been cloudy.


Well, Frank died. Geez, I feel bad.

Hey, thanks so much for your help and advice. Once this is cleared up, I'll think about getting a few loaches rather than just one. (Frank really seemed to like scooting around the tank with the others!)

[ThingsGottaChange]

9. Oh, I'm so sorry about Frank!!

Here's some sites with forums & articles.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com /

http://www.aquariacentral.com /

http://myfishtank.net /

http://tropicalresources.net/phpBB2/main.php

I didn't know a thing about keeping fish when I started about 3 years ago. I spent a lot of time searching the 'net for info. Lost some to ignorance but, kept learning.

Feel free to pm me anytime. I'm certainly no expert but, I spend tons of time reading about the hobby. Again, sorry about little Frank!

[yewberry]

10. Thanks, really, for your help

and for your kindness.

Shouldn't be too hard to find what I need to get the situation under control--I'm in a city with a lot of resources--but I wish I'd had a clue a little sooner. I guess I'll learn. Tomorrow I'll do what I can.


Thanks again! Your input has really helped me!

[GardeningGal]

4. Check your ammonia and nitrite levels.

This is a good place to get fish information. Enter the message boards and they have an aquarium section that may be useful.

http://www.koivet.com/html/community/community.php

[yewberry]

6. Thanks for the link--

The ammonia & nitrite are fine.

TGC suggested nitrate levels--I guess that's next in my fishtank crash course.

Thanks!