New With Loaches But...

[wardawg]

It may just be me because I've never kept loaches before, and I can't find a lot of information on these specific guys. I bought two loaches a few days ago and they've been hiding in the decor till tonight (though they come out to eat at night I know because they ate a couple of peas that the danios I know are too small to eat). The problem is that when I got them from the store they both looked the same (chocolate brownish) but one of them has taken on an unusual appearance.



Is this something I should be concerned about? They've both been hiding till today so I can't exactly compare to their "normal" behavior.

 

[wardawg]

I forgot to mention in case it isn't clear in the picture, it doesn't look like a "growth" on the loach so much as it looks like the skin is cracked and revealing a clear blue underneath.

 

[WILDER]

A grey blue film on a fish can be a parasite.
Does the loach try to flick and rub.
Any excess mucas on the gills or body of the fish.

What are your water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.
How many gallons is the tank.
How many fish and which type.

 

[wardawg]

25 gallon tank, 5 zebra danios and the 2 loaches (I'm restarting after a frog I got developed a taste for fish and wiped out a lot of my danios)

I don't know about flicking and rubbing, like I said they'd been hiding till recently as I just go them. They both tend to float around the bottom in hiding places like loaches tend to do, occasionally they'll swim up and down the side of the tank rapidly like something scared them and they tend to be spending a lot of time near the top of the tank in the fast flowing water where the power head flow comes back in.

My water stats are the same as they've always been, ammonia is 0, I don't have a nitrite/nitrate test kit right now (forgot I ran out) but I just did a 50% water a day before I got the new fish, and my PH is 7.8.

A friend of mine suggested I dose the tank with Cycle as it does have a scale coating compound and it seems to have helped with how lethargic he's been looking but if it's a fungal infection what should I dose the tank with?

 

[WILDER]

I would get your water tested.
Not sure what the blue is apart from this.

Chilodonella



Symptoms:

The skin and gills become discolored, taking on an opaque, bluish-white to gray coloration. The area between the head and dorsal fin is generally the most severely affected. In advanced cases skin begins to swell, eventually shredding and falling off in strips. Gills are also affected and may be completely destroyed. Clamped fins, listlessness, hanging at the surface and gasping may also be seen. The fish may rub or scrape against objects in the aquarium in an attempt to relieve irritation.



Cause:

The ciliate Chilodonella cyprini. These heart-shaped parasites, at a size of 40 to 60 microns, are not visible to the naked eye. The parasites are able to swim freely, spreading easily from fish to fish. Reproduction occurs by asexual division.



Treatment:

Highly infectious and able to kill in great numbers, Chilodonella may very well be the most dangerous skin parasite there is. Overcrowding increases the risk of infection. Acriflavin Plus, Malachite Green, Paraform, Quick Cure or Formalin are the drugs of choice for Chilodonella. All fish as well as the aquarium they inhabit should be treated.

 

[Colin_T]

it looks like excess mucous. Loaches are scaleless fish and will suffer from poor water quality or chemical exposure before other fish. As Wilder suggests, check the water quality because that is the most likely cause. If you don't have any test kits then just do a 50% water change each day for the next week. Make sure the new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine and has a similar temperature & pH to the tank water.
Also do a gravel clean each time you do the water change. Make sure the filter is clean but don't wash the filter media out under tap water as it will knock the beneficial filter bacteria around.
See how the fish looks after a few water changes and if it isn't better, then let us know.

 

[wardawg]

I did about a 30% water change today and a 30% change two nights ago. (I really need bigger transfer buckets for a 25 gallon tank, I'm using sterilized old plastic cat food containers).

I bought some test strips and I tested the water in the tank and compared it to the fresh water I was putting in. The water in the tank had Nitrate20/Nitrate0.5 which I expected since there are new fish in there since my frog ate what was previously in there and the tank went for a couple of weeks before I got around to restocking. However my alkalinity is measuring just north of 300 and the water has a hardness rating of close to 1000ppm (the water here is naturally hard, as the fresh water measured the same alkalinity and hardness.

I cleaned the filter during the change today in the old tank water as well and put an extra couple of capfulls of dechlorinator just to be sure (it has a "protective coating" chemical included so it couldn't hurt too much) and dosed the tank with some Cycle as well to make sure my numbers keep in check. I picked up some sinking pellets as well because the lazy loaches aren't getting to the surface before the danios at feeding time.

 

[pippoodle]

your best bet is to make sure you're getting accurate reults - Test strips are very unreliable and hard to read so invest in a liquid water testing kit
API master is a good one that lots of us use , you really need to be testing ammonia aswell as nitrates and nitrites

Also keep doing water changes every couple of days until you get a liquid test kit and also to get the nitrites down to zero .

Ebay is a good place to get the api test kits cheap

 

[wardawg]

I have liquid test kits for ammonia and nitrates (ammonia is at 0), I picked up the test strips mainly because they were a more convenient way to test parameters like pH and hardness that don't need to be tested as often.

 

[pippoodle]

I have liquid test kits for ammonia and nitrates (ammonia is at 0), I picked up the test strips mainly because they were a more convenient way to test parameters like pH and hardness that don't need to be tested as often.

what did the liquid one say for nitrites ?

 

[wardawg]

Nitrite is also zero, I had a friend give me a bottle of Pimafix and have been dosing with that the last couple of days after daily 25% water changes. The loaches have returned to hiding in their little cave most of the day and when they come out at night the one's colour seems to be returning to normal (less blue). Looks like things are looking up for the little guys. I really like them (even though my fiancee thinks they're kind of ugly) so I may be getting a few more if these guys make it.

Lazy loaches :

 

[WILDER]

I doubt the pimafix will be any good.
Seen any sign of flicking and rubbing.

 

[wardawg]

The loach I pictured above has returned to his normal color and seems to be getting better, however the other loach seems to have not made it past last night. The surviving loach is back to hiding out in his house during the day and tearing around the tank like a mad loach at night. Is it okay to get a new loach (I heard they're better kept in groups) or should I wait a few days?

Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm
pH: 8.0

On a related note, I assume that since loaches are normally found in streams that they are naturally fast breathers? Both of my loaches have been breathing rather quickly (though at the bottom of the tank not the top) the whole time I've had them and they were breathing fast at the pet store where I got them.

 

[WILDER]

R.I.P.
I would leave it a few weeks with a fish dying.