Clown And Pakistani Loaches Very Lethargic

[Neo8223]

Hi all. My dads tank has been pretty bad recently, having the first death in 4 months, being a clown loach. All the other clown loaches are basically hovering at the middle of the tank near the glass, or sleeping next to the filter in-take. They are also becoming anorexic. He cleans the filter and does a water change every 5 weeks (but not at the same time, sort of 2.5 weeks inbetween)

The pakistani loaches are also always lyeing on their sides and resting. I dont see them much.

All 4 of my pleco's are happy as larry, and my angels and gouromis are not showing any signs of being tired.

My red finned shark has been lethargic since he reachedabout 5" a few months ago. (been in tank for over a year now)

Any ideas why? I'll do a pH, nitrite and ammonia test later on tonight if it helps.

 

[millym]

hi
i think a water test would be a good idea. does your dad clean the filter sponges in old tank water? how big is the tank?
might help us sort out the problem. in my experience it is unusual for yoyos to be lethargic, yes they do spend time loafing around but that is usually interspersed with bursts of mad activity.

 

[Neo8223]

nitrites = .15
ammonia = .3

He will do a water change tomorrow.

My tank is in my profile, it is:

First Tank =72 US gallons and its got 4 plecs, 5 pakistani loaches, 3 clown loaches, 1 dwarf gaurami, 1 red finned shark, 3 angel fish and 4 guppies (which surprisingly survive)

My dad cleans the lot under running water (minus 1 section which is the biofilter, which gets washed in the water that comes out of the external filter)

He uses an aqua 1 external filter. Moves 200 gallons an hour or something.

I would post pics but my pc just fried as i was attaching the pics to imageshack. (using my uni laptop now)

 

[millym]

hi
washing filter sponges in tap water will destroy the bacteria load so in effect your dads tank will undergo a minicycle again afterwards where the ammonia levels & nitrite will be spiking which will affect the fish & ultimately could kill them. i think maybe he should do some little water changes (10% or so) daily for a couple of days to get rid of the ammonia & nitrite, this could well be what is affecting the loaches. if i was him i would also maybe start testing the water a bit more often just to make sure there is no ammonia,nitrite or nitrate problems and although some people disagree i think more regular water changes (25% weekly/fortnightly) might be a good idea. i do a 25% water change on our tanks every week. i rinse out filter sponges (alternating the actual sponge) about every month or if the flow drops from the spraybar of the filters.