Kuhli loach issues

Sarah1978

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Hey guys, I recently brought 2 lots of kuhli loaches 5 & then 6. After buying the second group many died all 6 actually, they started becoming patchy and then would die and turn white. I just lost one from the first group looks to be the same thing and a few from the first group are also patchy. Does anyone know what could be causing this?

My tank is 30gallons, semi planted has been set up for just over a month (upgraded from a smaller tank). Have tested water all seems well but am having issues with surface scum build up.
Has 4 new albino corys
4 Pygmy corys
9 neon tetras
An albino bristle nose pleco
A bunch of RCS
And as of now 4 kuhli loaches
 

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What is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH of the water (in numbers)?
What sort of filter is on the tank?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the aquarium?

How long after you got the second batch of Khuli loaches did they start dying?
How much time elapsed between you getting the first and second batch of loaches?
Did you add any other fishes around the time you got the loaches?

Are they eating and if yes, what are they eating?

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It looks like the fish is covered in excess mucous. This is normally caused by something in the water irritating the fish and the fish respond by increasing their mucous production. Fish naturally have a thin layer of mucous over their body to help move through water and to act as a first line of defence against pathogens and chemicals in the water. The more mucous they have the whiter they become.

The other option is a disease but they don't appear to have an external disease that I can see. They do look skinny and if they had just come into the shop shortly before you got them, they might have been suffering from stress after going from fish farm, to exporter, importer, wholesaler, pet shop and then your tank. This could have weakened them and the difference in water chemistry between where they originated and your tank (and everywhere in between), could be enough to kill them.

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BASIC FIRST AID FOR FISH
Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. Post the results in numbers.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Post a video of the fish so we can check them for issues that might show up when they move around. Try to get them to swim in the video.
You can upload videos to YouTube, then copy & paste the link here.
If you use a mobile phone to film the fish, hold the phone horizontally (landscape mode) so the footage fills the entire screen and doesn't have black bars on either end.
 
I don’t have exact numbers one test kit for nitrate it was blue on the sheet. When I took water to the shops ammonia was yellow and they said everything else was normal. Tank has only been running for a month. I have two filters running currently a Kmart one and the aqua one that came with the tank. I have been doing about 10% water changes every second day not gravel vaccing and yes I use a dechlorinator. The second batch was straight from the supplier still in the blue water bag and starting dying about 2 days after I got them. About a week and a half between getting the first and second lot. Got the bristle nose pleco with first lot, otherwise no new fish at the same time. I feed them Hikari sinking wafers and they pick up the scrap micro pellets that the other fish eat.
 
Do bigger water changes and contact the supplier and let them know the khulis died.

If you have to buy fish, try and avoid getting them when they first come into a shop. Wait until the fish have been there for at least a week. And don't buy fish if the shop has just done a water change. Get the fish on the day before the shop does water changes.

At this stage I would say you got a bad batch of fish. Wait a month and then get more if you like but try to quarantine them for a month before adding them to your tank.
 
As Colin said, speak to the store you purchased them from. I don’t know about yours, but my LFS has a policy that if a fish dies within 7 days of purchase, they ask for a sample of tank water, if parameters are good they will replace it free of charge.
 
Thanks guys. I contacted the store and they were happy to refund. Still very sad tho they are such cute fish. I’ve attached a video just in case. Thanks again.
 

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