Mystery Illness with Hillstream Loach

[itiwhetu]

I would buy some more live plants, so that my tank has around 50% of its volume in plant, and I would see if that helped the situation.

 

[Rocky998]

I would buy some more live plants, so that my tank has around 50% of its volume in plant, and I would see if that helped the situation.

That just may help but if the nitrates are in the tap I don't see that helping much tbh...
If it is in the tank itself fast growing plants will definitely help the situation

 

[Byron]

@Colin_T or another member will be more likely to diagnose the issue, but there are some things that are creating significant stress and problems and are most likely part of the issue.

There are too many chemicals being added to the tank. Conditioner is needed at water changes, but not Stress Coat (aloe vera is harmful). Potassium is unnecessary; for one thing, Flourish Comprehensive Supplement has all necessary nutrients and in the correct proportion--adding individual nutrients is only asking for trouble. Iron should not be added beyond what is in Flourish Comp.

Nitrate is way too high and is undoubtedly part of the problem. If there are nitrates in the tap water, that is one issue. If they are occurring solely from the biological system, that is another and easily solved. Increase water changes, feed less, live plants--all contribute to lower nitrate.

Water changes must be more substantial (50-70%) and regular, once a week should work. Once you have things sorted out anyway. The ammonia may not be an issue at this low level, and the plants should easily handle it. Using Prime is not the answer.

 

[Colin_T]

Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
If not, then start doing it.

It looks like excess mucous but without clear pictures (when the pictures are expanded to full size) it's hard to be 100%.

High nitrates, dirty gravel, lack of water movement, lots of rotting food in the substrate and possibly filter will contribute to fish producing more mucous. If one fish is physically weaker or more sensitive, then it will show more.

The rock has nothing to do with this and is unlikely to affect the water chemistry due to the size of the rock vs the tank.

Check the tap water for nitrates.

Your water company might have changed water sources and is now giving you harder water. Contact them and ask if they have changed the water source.

--------------------
BASIC FIRST AID FOR FISH
If your fish ever get sick, do the following.

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.
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 them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

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


--------------------
For this situation, I would do a 75% water change and gravel clean every day for a week. And clean the filter. See how the fish goes after that. If nothing improves then post more pictures.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Add some floating plants like Duckweed and Water Sprite. They will help keep nitrates lower between water changes. Plants growing in the substrate will also help but floating plants are better at it.

 

[IR_Crayoneater]

@Colin_T or another member will be more likely to diagnose the issue, but there are some things that are creating significant stress and problems and are most likely part of the issue.

There are too many chemicals being added to the tank. Conditioner is needed at water changes, but not Stress Coat (aloe vera is harmful). Potassium is unnecessary; for one thing, Flourish Comprehensive Supplement has all necessary nutrients and in the correct proportion--adding individual nutrients is only asking for trouble. Iron should not be added beyond what is in Flourish Comp.

Nitrate is way too high and is undoubtedly part of the problem. If there are nitrates in the tap water, that is one issue. If they are occurring solely from the biological system, that is another and easily solved. Increase water changes, feed less, live plants--all contribute to lower nitrate.

Water changes must be more substantial (50-70%) and regular, once a week should work. Once you have things sorted out anyway. The ammonia may not be an issue at this low level, and the plants should easily handle it. Using Prime is not the answer.

I started dosing with the potassium and iron because my plants were yellowing with a lot of holes in them, since I started dosing the plants have started recovering. Ive been dosing the potassium for about 3 months, the Iron for about 2 but this issue with this loach popped up in the last 2 maybe 3 weeks. I do 20 gallons out of 55 spread out over two consecutive days due to my work schedule every week. I never had a issue with nitrates till that molly started giving birth once or twice a month, I consistently have at least 25-30 fry in there and usually dont rehome them till they are about an inch long.

As far as my tap water goes, its extremely soft with higher ammonia levels. A lot of people from my part of town go to the LFS for water because of it. I have started adding more plants from clippings out of my shrimp tank.

What is wrong with using prime as a conditioner? Ive used it for 3 years to condition my tap water.

 

[IR_Crayoneater]

Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
If not, then start doing it.

It looks like excess mucous but without clear pictures (when the pictures are expanded to full size) it's hard to be 100%.

High nitrates, dirty gravel, lack of water movement, lots of rotting food in the substrate and possibly filter will contribute to fish producing more mucous. If one fish is physically weaker or more sensitive, then it will show more.

The rock has nothing to do with this and is unlikely to affect the water chemistry due to the size of the rock vs the tank.

Check the tap water for nitrates.

Your water company might have changed water sources and is now giving you harder water. Contact them and ask if they have changed the water source.

--------------------
BASIC FIRST AID FOR FISH
If your fish ever get sick, do the following.

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.
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 them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

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


--------------------
For this situation, I would do a 75% water change and gravel clean every day for a week. And clean the filter. See how the fish goes after that. If nothing improves then post more pictures.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Add some floating plants like Duckweed and Water Sprite. They will help keep nitrates lower between water changes. Plants growing in the substrate will also help but floating plants are better at it.

I rotate each week between each side of the tank and vacuum the gravel away from the plants. I have lots of water movement and have an additional blower if needed for more current. I clean out the filters once a month including scrubbing inside and outside of the intake tubes and removing the motor and cleaning it out. I have been looking into switching to a cannister filter with some possible under gravel filtration.

 

[Colin_T]

I started dosing with the potassium and iron because my plants were yellowing with a lot of holes in them, since I started dosing the plants have started recovering. I've been dosing the potassium for about 3 months, the Iron for about 2 but this issue with this loach popped up in the last 2 maybe 3 weeks. I do 20 gallons out of 55 spread out over two consecutive days due to my work schedule every week. I never had a issue with nitrates till that molly started giving birth once or twice a month, I consistently have at least 25-30 fry in there and usually don't rehome them till they are about an inch long.

As far as my tap water goes, its extremely soft with higher ammonia levels. A lot of people from my part of town go to the LFS for water because of it. I have started adding more plants from clippings out of my shrimp tank.

What is wrong with using prime as a conditioner? I've used it for 3 years to condition my tap water.

There might be a build up of iron or potassium in the aquarium.
Are you testing the aquarium water for these?

When adding fertilisers to an aquarium with fish or shrimp, it's a good idea to do a huge water change (75-90%) once a week before adding more fertiliser. If you don't, the plants might not use all the fertiliser and it can build up over time and poison the fish.

----------------------
A single big water change each week is better than 2 smaller water changes done during the week. The two smaller changes don't dilute as much stuff and the nutrients can build back up between water changes.
So two 25% water changes don't actually equal a 50% water change due to dilution ratios.

If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

----------------------
Mollies can give birth about once a month if conditions are good. If you want them to stop breeding, get rid of the males or females and only keep a single sex.

If you have only males, they won't produce any young.

If you have only females, they will continue to produce young for about 6 months and then they should run out of sperm packets from previous matings with the males, and stop producing young.

----------------------
Water companies either add chlorine or chloramine to tap water to kill off microscopic disease organisms. Chloramine is a mixture of chlorine and ammonia. If they add too much ammonia, you get ammonia readings in the tap water.

If you have ammonia in your water supply, the water company is screwing up the ratio of chlorine to ammonia to make chloramine. You can contact them and let them know there is ammonia in the tap water. If they are smart, they will reduce the ammonia to get the ratios right and to save money.

You can also filter water through Ammogon/ Zeolite to remove ammonia, or put the tap water in a container with floating plants and the plants will use the ammonia. Dechlorinate the tap water too so it gets rid of the chlorine.

If the tap water is really bad, you can buy a reverse osmosis (r/o) unit make distilled water with a solar still.

 

[IR_Crayoneater]

There might be a build up of iron or potassium in the aquarium.
Are you testing the aquarium water for these?

When adding fertilisers to an aquarium with fish or shrimp, it's a good idea to do a huge water change (75-90%) once a week before adding more fertiliser. If you don't, the plants might not use all the fertiliser and it can build up over time and poison the fish.

----------------------
A single big water change each week is better than 2 smaller water changes done during the week. The two smaller changes don't dilute as much stuff and the nutrients can build back up between water changes.
So two 25% water changes don't actually equal a 50% water change due to dilution ratios.

If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

----------------------
Mollies can give birth about once a month if conditions are good. If you want them to stop breeding, get rid of the males or females and only keep a single sex.

If you have only males, they won't produce any young.

If you have only females, they will continue to produce young for about 6 months and then they should run out of sperm packets from previous matings with the males, and stop producing young.

----------------------
Water companies either add chlorine or chloramine to tap water to kill off microscopic disease organisms. Chloramine is a mixture of chlorine and ammonia. If they add too much ammonia, you get ammonia readings in the tap water.

If you have ammonia in your water supply, the water company is screwing up the ratio of chlorine to ammonia to make chloramine. You can contact them and let them know there is ammonia in the tap water. If they are smart, they will reduce the ammonia to get the ratios right and to save money.

You can also filter water through Ammogon/ Zeolite to remove ammonia, or put the tap water in a container with floating plants and the plants will use the ammonia. Dechlorinate the tap water too so it gets rid of the chlorine.

If the tap water is really bad, you can buy a reverse osmosis (r/o) unit make distilled water with a solar still.

I used to do one 25% change a week but wiht a newborn and my job its hard to take the time to clean the tank and do that big of a change in one night thats why I split it up over two days. I have all female mollies now, my last male died in Jan-Feb.

While all this is helpful, still doesnt explain whats going on with the loach looking like a little cotton swab but acting completely normal with no behavioral change.

 

[Colin_T]

There is something in the water that is irritating the fish. So the fish produces more mucous to try and stop whatever it is affecting the fish.

Doing big daily water changes or at least one big (75-80%) water change and dropping fertilisers for a couple of weeks might reduce the irritant and the fish could clear up.