Dwarf Chain Loach Bloated Belly

[ikuznetsov223]

Hello everyone! I purchased 3 dwarf chain loaches and an angel fish about a week ago for the tank. There are also around 7 live plants in the tank. I always run an airstone and turn on LED lights in the tank 8 hours a day as well. I normally feed them twice a day. (mostly a small amount of tropical fish food but once every two days I feed them a frozen block of blood worms and a small amount of tropical flakes later in the day) They have been in the tank for a little over a week now and they seemed healthy until recently. I skipped feeding them Saturday and when I came back on Sunday I fed them the usual block of bloodworms. Today when I woke up I noticed they had very large bellies. I'm not sure if this was overnight or if I just hadn't noticed them until now. The angelfish seems okay I believe. Is this something I should be as panicked as I am over?

 

[Sylvan]

When you say block, are you defrosting them first?
What are your water parameters I. E ammonia etc? What size is the tank and how long has it been set up for?

 

[ikuznetsov223]

I just ran a water test and the PH is around 7.6, Ammonia around 1ppm, Nitrate levels around 0ppm. The temperature is set to a constant 79 degrees. I truthfully have never kept fish before but I'm terrified of harming any or killing any. I have seriously tried educating myself as much as possible before even considering getting fish; however, I feel I'm missing something. I'm going to do a water change again soon to lower ammonia levels in the tank. Could that be causing this?

The tank size is 20 gallons. I setup the aquarium and let the water run with BioBooster and Water Conditioner from Imaginarium. I then added flourish for my plants and let the aquarium run with the filter for a week before adding any fish. I had the fish in the tank for about week now.

 

[Sylvan]

Your tank hasn't cycled so it doesn't have the bacteria to deal with ammonia and nitrite. The ammonia needs to be 0, big water changes with declorinated water until your tank cycles. You may need to do them every day. Plants help a lot, if you can get your hands on some floating plants like Salvinia they will take up a lot of the ammonia. Tetra do a product called Safestart, it's a bottle of the bacteria that would eventually develop if your tank was cycled so it gets your cycle done much quicker.

 

[Salty&Onion]

Your tank hasn't cycled so it doesn't have the bacteria to deal with ammonia and nitrite. The ammonia needs to be 0, big water changes with declorinated water until your tank cycles. You may need to do them every day. Plants help a lot, if you can get your hands on some floating plants like Salvinia they will take up a lot of the ammonia. Tetra do a product called Safestart, it's a bottle of the bacteria that would eventually develop if your tank was cycled so it gets your cycle done much quicker.

Agreed. Also, angel fish need a 55 gallon tank which makes the 20 gallon too small for them as they get high, unless the tank is already high.

 

[ikuznetsov223]

Is it okay to leave the fish in the tank while doing daily water cycles for this? Are they in immediate danger? I planned on moving the angel fish to a larger fish after a few months in the twenty gallon tank, for financial purposes. Is the one okay for the time being?

Are these things possibly causing the bloating?

 

[Essjay]

Yes, leave the fish in the tank. use a siphon tube to remove the water and clean the bottom of the tank - if you have gravel push the wide end into the gravel. Make sure than the new water is dechlorinated and is roughly the same temperature as the tank water. Test for ammonia and nitrite every day and do a water change whenever you see either above zero. Fish excrete ammonia so that builds up first. Once the ammonia eating bacteria start to grow, they turn it into nitrite so then that goes up. Eventually there will be enough bacteria to keep both ammonia and nitrite at zero.


Can I ask, what do you have on the bottom of the tank? It looks quite rough in the photos and all bottom dwellers need a smooth substrate.

 

[Sylvan]

Leave them in the tank and do roughly 75% changes. Do you know the ammonia levels in your tap water? Some members have problems there as well which is why plants are very useful. It could be or it could be something else. I don't remember seeing the answer but do you defrost the blocks of bloodworm first before feeding or just drop it in the tank. While your ammonia levels are high cut back on feeding so there's less in there to produce ammonia. I only feed my fish once a day anyway apart from my fry with a fast day once a week.

 

[ikuznetsov223]

Ugh okay that makes me feel much better. I will definitely do water changes changes asap. I placed EcoComplete in the tank per the fish store employees request. Do you think that is too sharp for the loaches? I also have a EcoBio Stone since the employee told me I needed that as well. I didn't put that in the tank yet but would that help?

I do not unfortunately, I use distilled water for tank changes. (I'm terrified of chlorine in the tank even though I'm sure its ridiculous with water conditioner added) I will definitely cut down on feeding as well. I normally don't defrost the bloodworms. Should I? What do you defrost them in?

 

[Sylvan]

I always defrost frozen food first because I worry about shocking the gut with the cold but I have seen things on the Internet of people just dropping them. As I say personally I would always defrost first. To defrost I pull the block out of the freezer, pop it on a dish and just let it thaw until its completely defrosted.
They're probably over fed though if you just have the 4 fish in the tank which could be causing the bloating and since the blocks will sink to the bottom I would think that's why the loaches are affected and the angel fish seems ok.

 

[ikuznetsov223]

Okay perfect! I'll be doing all of these things starting tomorrow! If they're overfed to the point where their bellies are jutting out, can they recover still?

 

[Sylvan]

Fast them for a couple of days to see if their bellies go down which will also help your ammonia problem.

 

[ikuznetsov223]

Will that harm the angelfish at all? I'm not doubting your suggestion at all, I just worry about literally everything haha!

 

[Sylvan]

Fish can go a few days without food pretty easily so the angel should be fine. Its fine to worry, we all worry and especially when things aren't going the way you want them to.

 

[ikuznetsov223]

Perfect! I will work on the fasting starting right now and monitor their bellies. Thank you!