Crazy Loach

[lorano]

So, i have this loach. MY bofriend saw it at the fish store and thought it looked cool so we took her home. We dont exactly know what kind of loach it is but after looking it up he says its a botia kubotai. well anyways the problem is that its swiming around in circles, not like giant circles really fast at the back of the tank but more like chasing its tail all around the tank sometimes fast enough to jump out of the water abit. then it rests on the bottom of the tank on its side breathing heavily. he spends mos of his time on the bottom of the tank in various tank ornaments hiding out but randomly will swim like this. ive only seen it do that twice. i cant tell you the water specs because i dont have an at home test kit but its a 20 gallon tank with 4 female bettas and a school of endlers(2 mails 3 females). anyone have any idea?

 

[CKutz]

i have no idea...loaches are pretty odd characters sometime

lots of people say that loaches can often have worms, maybe he does or maybe some type of internal parasite that is irritating him.
also if you want to see more of him, you should get another 3 loaches at least..at the verryy least get another 1, but theey really like being in groups, 5 being the minimum.
i can't really help you with parasites advice, if no one else responds, try the fish emergency section, and research it on your own.

 

[millym]

hi as long as your tank water parameters are all ok, and there are no other signs of illness/infection, its normal mad loach behaviour- especially when they are young. one of our yoyos used to spend hours and hours and hours swimming round in a figure 8 up the back of our tank, our khulis still often will spend a lot of time swimming round and round the thermometers in our tanks esp at lights out. our yoyos are around 6-7yrs now & still are mad but i havent seen the repetitive swimming behaviour for years now. they now tend to spend more time loafing around on their sides now.

loaches are scaleless so are very sensitive to anything you add to your tank (various meds arent suitable and other meds you need to use 1/2 dose if loaches are present so important to remember that now you have a loach ) have you put anything in your tank water recently ( snail killer,meds and other additives??) doing a small water change just to make sure might be a good idea. im also presuming you always use dechlorinator in your tank water as chlorine can irritate & harm fish.

also as said loaches are sociable creatures so it prob would be kind to get him a friend of his own type also make sure you have a tight lid loaches can jump & ours when young used to skip/splash across the top of the water when they were having mad dashes. we sadly just lost a khuli in our small tank this way last week there was a gap & sadly it must have jumped overnight found the poor thing crispy on the desk in the morning.