Unusual Behavoir

[lvacey]

Hi! Just joined the forum. I set up a new 8 gallon tank about a month ago. I have 2 striped loaches, a beta, and an algae eater. My 2 loaches have been swimming erratically up and down on one side of the tank for two days now. The only time they act normal is when I feed them. Then they go right back to swimming up and down again. I have a short video but I don't know how to attach it. Are they okay?

 

[Slaphppy7]

Welcome to TFF

Load the video on YouTube, then link it here

I can say, bettas should be kept by themselves, in most instances...if the loaches are Botia striata, they need a much larger tank, and a bigger group to feel comfortable

"Algae eater" is a very generic term, need a pic to properly ID

 

[Back in the fold]

Don’t know if this helps but there was a guy here once who claimed that fish settle down and swim around peacefully when conditions are right but if they’re pacing around like a caged animal something’s wrong. That baker from New Zealand with the Discus , whatever his handle was.

 

[Byron]

The swimming behaviour described is termed glass surfing, and in loaches it is a sign of quite severe stress. This is two-edged. Normally it will occur when the fish are moved to a new environment, like acquiring them. This is to be expected, because the species we term loaches do not like changes in their environment. However, there is another much more serious issue here, and that is the numbers as @Slaphppy7 mentioned. Loaches are highly social fish, and they absolutely must be in a decent-sized group. They will develop an hierarchy fairly quickly, with an alpha fish (often if not always a female) and they will govern themselves accordingly. But two fish cannot possibly do this, and that is where the severe stress comes in. The fish have this need programmed into their genetic blueprint, and we cannot change that.

No mention is made of the tank size, nor the species (common names are not reliable, I could find several very different species of loach that might be called "striped"). The algae eater again being a common name does not tell us which species of fish, and there are several to which this name is correctly or incorrectly applied. Unfortunately some of these are downright nasty and not at all possible with loaches. Please let us have this information, as these issues will only worsen with time.

 

[Essjay]

I set up a new 8 gallon tank

To be honest I don't know of any loaches which can be kept in a tank this size, especially not a group of them, nor any algae eaters.
The smallest 'algae eater', otocinclus, need to be in a shoal, and they need algae to eat. I'm afraid an 8 gallon tank is unlikely to grow enough algae for them. At the other end of the scale is the Chinese algae eater which not only grows large but as it matures it stops eating algae and develops a taste for the slime coat of other fish.


The good news is that the tank is perfect for a betta on its own, or perhaps with a snail for company.

 

[Byron]

Sorry, I overlooked the tank size previously included, but Essjay saw it fortunately.

With this data, the loaches and alga eater, whatever species these are, would best be returned ASAP.

 

[lvacey]

Thank you, all! I am returning them today...

 

[Slaphppy7]

Thank you, all! I am returning them today...

Good plan...your betta will be much better off