Reticulated Hillstream Loaches turning pale

[armour72]

Hi. I am really at a loss. I don't know what is wrong with my tank. I've lost a Molly and a Reticulated Hillstream Loach in the last 2 days. The only change I made was to add tissue culture plants and I've removed them. I'm posting the timeline and all of the information I can think of. The water is from my well and my fish have been living in it for more than a year. Nothing has changed there. I do water changes weekly because of the number of fish in my aquarium. I have medications at the ready but I have no idea what to even medicate for.

Fluval Flex-established 3/2023
---Well water. Professionally tested 6 months ago. No issues. pH is 8.2
---As of today:

• 11 Reticulated Hillstream loaches
• 1 Blue Phantom Pleco
• 5 Cherry Barbs
• 3 Nerite snails
• 3 Neon Tetra
• Driftwood, 2 rocks, some live plants. All of these have been present since 2023-early 2024.

---The pH runs 8.4-8.6 since start up in 2023. If it goes above 8.6. I change water immediately. Ammonia, 0 nitrates, and 0 nitrites. No CO2 running.
---Every 5-7 days I change 75% of the water, vacuum the top of the gravel, and rinse the sponges. I add Seachem Stability, Stress Guard, and Flourish fertilizer
---Once a month I clean the pump.
---Feed once daily.
A pinch of New Life Spectrum flakes AND Once daily I put in 4 tiny wafers; or I break up 1 of the larger wafers; or I only use a portion of the Xtreme Wafers. I switch these around for variety. None of these are expired. The fish come to the window when I come up to the tank. All of the loaches come to the window and devour the wafers. I am able to count them then. The pleco eats later. This feeding ritual has been ongoing for as long as I’ve had these fish.

• Northfin Kelp Wafers
• New Life Spectrum Algae wafers
• Ultra Fresh Vegetable Shrimp Pie
• Xtreme Scrapers
• Fluval Bug Bites
• Hikari Sinking Wafers

12/17/24—I added a bunch of tissue culture plants (Top Fin).
12/22/24—Normal tank cleaning. No issues.
12/28/24—One of the loaches seems to be lethargic and not eating. Tank cleaned, changed 80% water. Added Stress Guard and Stability only. Removed all of the new plants. pH 8.6 0 ammonia 0 nitrates 0 nitrites
12/30/24—None of the loaches come to the window or eat when I put food in the tank. 2 are pale and moving slowly. Fish, snails, and pleco acting normally. pH 8.6 0 ammonia 0 nitrates 0 nitrites Changed 50% water. Added Stress Guard and Stability only.
1/1/25—No change with the loaches. I had one Molly at that time. She was swimming slow and slightly bent. No change with the other fish or snails. pH 8.8 0 ammonia 0 nitrates 0 nitrites Changed 5g of water.
1/2/25—Molly dead. I can't see anything wrong with her. I have pictures of her dating back to last march with slightly cloudy eyes. I believed this to be normal for her. Changed 5g of water. pH 8.6 0 ammonia 0 nitrates 0 nitrites. Saw a loach with a white lump on his head. It had slime as well. I don’t see it on any of the other fish. There are a couple loaches that are pale in color.
1/3/25—The loach with the lump is dead. pH 8.6 0 ammonia 0 nitrates 0 nitrites. 2 loaches are pale in color and none of the loaches are eating well. The remaining fish look normal and are still eating.

Thank you for any advice, I am so frustrated and upset.

 

[Colin_T]

Need pictures of the remaining fish and one showing the entire tank. Make sure the glass is clean and the pictures are in focus.

Need a video showing the fish breathing and moving around (or not moving if they are loaches).
Upload videos to YouTube, then copy & paste the link here.
If you use a mobile phone to film the fish, hold the phone horizontally (landscape mode) so the footage fills the entire screen and doesn't have black bars on either end.

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

Do you gravel clean the substrate to the bottom of it (not just a quick clean over the top)?

How much aeration/ surface turbulence is in the tank?

Have you had the well water tested recently? If might have become contaminated.

What is the GH (general hardness) and KH (carbonate hardness) of the water?
A pet shop can test this for you if you don't have test kits. Just take a glass of tap water into a pet shop and ask them to test the GH and KH. Write the results in numbers down when they do the test. Write down what the test results are in too (ppm, dGH, etc).

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The molly looks fine apart from being dead. It could have died from anything.

The loach has a wound or infection on its head. This could be from a physical injury (getting stuck under something and scratching its head or being burnt by a heater), or it could be something worse. I would say it's most likely a sore/ injury that got infected.

The white stuff on the loach looks like excess mucous covering the sore.

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Tissue cultured plants are unlikely to have caused this. They are grown in a lab and they don't use chemicals on them. Generally, if plants are contaminated with something, the fish show signs of poisoning (breathing heavily, dying) within a few hours of the plants being added, they don't die a week later.

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You don't need to keep adding the Seachem Stability or Stress Guard. You don't have chlorinated water so the filter bacteria aren't going to die off. Adding stress guard shouldn't be necessary either unless there is something toxic in the water and then a carbon filter would be a better option.

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I would do a big clean. Clean the filter, deep clean the gravel (push the gravel cleaner right down to the bottom to get rid of any gunk in it. Leave the plants where they are and gravel clean around them.

Do a big (75%) water change and gravel clean every day for a week.

Monitor the fish and post pictures and video of any others that look unwell.

Maybe get the water professionally tested again, specifically for chemicals. I assume they give you a printout of the results showing what is in it. If not, make sure you get one.

Add a carbon filter to the tank for a few weeks and see if it helps. Don't add plant fertiliser when using carbon because the carbon will remove the fertiliser. If you want to keep using fertiliser, then filter the tap water with carbon before using it in an aquarium. You can fill a large plastic container with tap water and put a carbon filter in that for a few days before using that water in the tank.

 

[Magnum Man]

I would suspect the water is hard, if the Ph is that high... I also have hard water, but installed a dedicated RO unit, for the aquariums... I would not have attempted Hillstream's before the RO filter... I like my plecos, but don't have one in my Hillstream tank, as they are often more agressive competition for food... not sure if your problem is something just popping up, or long term exposure to the higher minerals, typical to high Ph water???

 

[armour72]

GH 2 KH 6

I only vacuum the top of the sand.

I have 2 six inch air stones and the output.

Dimensions 32.5 x 15.75 x 32.5

None of the fish fight. I don't know how that one was injured. There are 2 more that are pale. That doesn't make sense either. That was sudden this week. I didn't make any changes. I was looking at Paraguard or KanaPlex to treat fungal infections but it seems that those products are dangerous for loaches and snails. Those 2 loaches are going to die. The loach that died today looked like them 2 days ago.

Here are some short videos:

https://youtube.com/shorts/zmIl5xJw58Q?si=oiAkiR_1JuVms-ei

Thank you so much for your time and advice!

 

[armour72]

I would suspect the water is hard, if the Ph is that high... I also have hard water, but installed a dedicated RO unit, for the aquariums... I would not have attempted Hillstream's before the RO filter... I like my plecos, but don't have one in my Hillstream tank, as they are often more agressive competition for food... not sure if your problem is something just popping up, or long term exposure to the higher minerals, typical to high Ph water???

It was sudden. I bought 3 loaches well over a year ago and I ended up with 10 babies last January. They have all been doing great until this week. I didn't change anything though. The pH seems to be rising quicker and I noticed more poop than usual...all this week. The KH is 6 and the GH is 2.

 

[Colin_T]

A couple of loaches are looking pale but the rest of the fish look fine.

It doesn't look like there's any algae in the tank but it does look like a lot of uneaten food on the substrate. If that's the case I would do a complete gravel clean and increase the light to get algae growing on the glass for the fish. The lack of algae in the diet probably isn't causing this but uneaten food and dirty substrate could be the cause.

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It's weird the pH goes up when the GH and KH are low.

 

[Magnum Man]

are you adding aquarium salt to this tank??? trying to understand the high Ph..., in generally soft water... something is strange...

in my tank, I've done several things, to both increase the algae growing, and to bolster it nutritionally... I very rarely feed tablets to my tank...

 

[armour72]

Thank you for responding. I'm attaching my water test reports. The pH read 7.8. with my API test kit and I also have a meter, I get 8.2 from the faucet, not 7.8. I've never tested below 8 with my kits. I can run the KH and GH again, perhaps I made a mistake.

Yesterday I removed the rocks and the driftwood. I vacuumed really well and put everything back. There were two hillstream loaches that were pale and lethargic at that time. Today I have three more that are more lethargic in have a couple white spots on them. The cherry barbs, neon tetras, and the pleco do not have these issues.

I started with three hillstream loaches over a year ago. They had 10 babies last December. I didn't notice them until January 1st of 2024. They have all been doing fantastic until this last week. I didn't make any changes at all, except adding tissue plants a few weeks ago and I removed them as soon as I started to see issues. I have not added any other fish, rocks, wood, or plants. I've not changed foods, and I have not changed the way I clean my tanks. I do large water changes a minimum of once every 7 days. Occasionally, I will do two in a week. I change it this frequently due to how many fish are living together. I hadn't intended on having babies like I did. There is definitely something wrong. I don't think they are getting injured or fighting. My water parameters haven't changed at all. Could it be columnaris or fungus? I was considering medicating with KanaPlex or Paraguard, but it seems questionable whether it's safe for loaches and snails. I'm afraid to medicate my tank on my own. We don't have professional fish keepers in our little town. We have a PetSmart.

In March of 2024 I had a worm problem. I have no idea how that happened either. I hadn't introduced anyone new except a few baby guppies that were born in that tank. When I saw the white stringy poop I treated the tank with PraziPro as Colin_T had recommended and the problem resolved. I lost my guppies throughout that time. But everyone else lived and I haven't had any problems since.

This is heartbreaking. I don't want to lose anyone else. I adore my fish. I will try to send pictures, but I cannot get one that clearly shows what I am seeing. I also attached a video. Thank you for helping me.

 

[seaweeds]

I accidentally used sanitizing wipes with ammonia chloride without washing my hands. I fed my fishes and the borneo loached died. The loach's tail turned paler in color. I was also medicating the fishes too so it could have been medication too. Sometimes there's mineral in the water such as salt which calcified on the fish especially after medication. Happened on my beta which I thought was ich but it never went away and does not spread.

On my hillstream loach, I saw a patch of pale skin where the arrow in the picture is. I think that's where the fin is attached to the body so there's no color there. I thought there was a problem with my hillstream at first but it is still eating fine. It's more active than my corydoras. I could be wrong. You might have a different problem

 

[armour72]

are you adding aquarium salt to this tank??? trying to understand the high Ph..., in generally soft water... something is strange...

in my tank, I've done several things, to both increase the algae growing, and to bolster it nutritionally... I very rarely feed tablets to my tank...

No, I have not added salt. Your loaches don't eat the tablets often? I had not considered that. I get Black Beard algae at my output nozzles and on the driftwood at the top of the tank where the water output is. I didn't have problems with that kind of algae when I ran CO2 but I haven't used CO2 since summer. No one eats that algae either. My plants are old. I don't get a lot of algae otherwise. I rarely clean anything except the sand, filters, and the pump. The glass, rocks, and walls stay clean from the snails and the loaches. Snails lay eggs all over the driftwood and no one eats them either. What changes would you recommend?