kuhli loaches

[specks]

For the last hour my kuhli loaches have been acting strange. They keep hanging around at the top of the tank, very often they will swim from side to side after propelling themselves approx. half way up the tank but they dont all do it at the same time. Tonight they are right at the top trying to stay as long as they can before going to the bottom then back up again. All 5 are doing this, every one else in the tank is behaving as normal, should I be worried?

 

[WILDER]

What are your water stats in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,and ph, what size tank, how many fish and which type.

 

[specks]

Water stats as follows; ammonia=0, nitrite=0, nitrate=25 & ph=7.2
Tank is 180ltrs
Fish are; 3 panda corys, 5 leopard danios, 5 silver tip tetras, 4 swordtails & 3 dalmation mollies.
Sorry Wilder I should have told you that when I posted. I've not introduced any new fish for weeks now & nothing else seems to have changed. Any ideas?

 

[WILDER]

To be honest it's not normal, have you added any meds or salt, i no you probably haven't but have to ask, are they bloated or skinny looking , has there colour darkened or faded.

 

[WILDER]

Are they laying eggs or anything like that as they lay them hign up in the plants i think.

 

[specks]

Hi. Wilder. No I have not added any meds or salt at all. I wouldn't use salt because of the corys, even though I've got mollies, I've always kept them in fresh water. As for laying eggs, can't see any sign of anything. Plants are at the moment low growing as I've just culled them all as I had hair algae a while back. As I write they have calmed down a bit, they were rather skittish this morning & when I got in from work a short while ago. As I said yesterday all the other fish are fine, it seems strange to me that all 5 are acting silly.

 

[LoachLover]

Yeah your water is a bit out of wack. the one weird thing is the other fish seem fine, since my first reaction would be poisening of some kind from something.

 

[specks]

Water stats are normal for my tank. My son & I both do our water changes at the weekends with water from the same tap, everyone in his tank happy & healthy. This morning when I was leaving for work 2 of the kuhlis were laying belly-up, they flipped over right way as I looked into the tank. Came home a short time ago & 3 of them are up to the top & down again after a few seconds, the other 2 are resting under the bogwood (this is quite normal). I am really at a loss to know what to do about them. They have always been quite active & come out a lot during the day whereas my sons only come out at night. However their behaviour over the last few days is not normal.

 

[Bloo]

I'm a bit confused. I was under the impression that anything up to 40ppm for Nitrates is "normal" (in an established tank) and acceptable. And to lower that would be to do water changes ?
So in my opinion, that stats are fine, but you either need to do larger water changes and / or more often. Or require more filtration.

 

[abstract]

the stats are fine.....khulis are crazy - that is the only explanation really..

i'm sure they do their laps everytime you turn on the light and any time there is a loud thump/vibration right? it is just what they do - they are REALLY skittish fish...when i first got them they swam around for 2 days straight almost...now that they have their favorite spots (buried in the sand with their heads sticking out, underneath a piece of driftwood, and a homemade slate cave), they only do this when i spook them

 

[LoachLover]

khulis are crazy - that is the only explanation really..

I wouldn't say that, there is no reason a bottom dwelling fish should be hanging near the surface for that long.

 

[Lateral Line]

I don't see anything wrong with that water either. Some people have more nitrates coming out of the tap then that. Also adding more filtration will not help. Ammonia->nitrite->nitrate if the filtration was inadequate, you'd expect to see residual ammonia or nitrites.

Loaches are famous for doing whacky things, but lying belly up and spending a lot of time at the surface is not really typical behaviour. Has anything happened that could have reduced the Oxygen content of the water? Failed pump? Removed airstone? Anything that could have modified the water circulation? Temperature too high? The kind of behaviour you describe is could easily be described by low Oxygen.

Loaches are high energy environment fish, which means very high dissolved O2.

 

[abstract]

by "hanging around the top" do you mean they are actually RESTING at the top or are they spending a lot of time swimming back and forth, up and down around the top? if they are actually resting, then i would def. suspect the low oxygen levels (increase surface agitation by lowering water level if you use HOB filter), or use an airstone for awhile to see if it helps - but if it was low O2 i would expect the other fish to show some signs of it....

if they are just extremely active and swimming back and forth across the top, i dont see anything to be worried about....try giving them some more hiding spots if that is the case

 

[specks]

Thanks for all the replys. To answer the points you have made, yes the kuhlis do go mad when lights are first switched on & they do get a bit skittish if for example I shut the cupboard door rather sharply. They do spend a fair bit of time out of their little dens during the day & will swim 'up' the glass but usually stop about halfway, swim across & down again. Pump has not failed, everythihg is working as normal. That is what is so hard to understand, there is, as far as I can see no logical reason for this. Surely if it was down to a water problem or pump failure all the other tank residents would be affected as well wouldnt they?
Have put food in the tank a few minutes ago & all 5 are 'hoovering' over the gravel, wierd or what? Whatever it is they still have an appetite.

 

[Bloo]

Also adding more filtration will not help. Ammonia->nitrite->nitrate if the filtration was inadequate, you'd expect to see residual ammonia or nitrites.

Thanks for clearing that up LL.

The kind of behaviour you describe is could easily be described by low Oxygen.

Loaches are high energy environment fish, which means very high dissolved O2.

So how could that be increased ? Sorry for asking a daft and obvious question )