Loaches Online Forum

Hi

I've had my Khulis for quite some time, 1 for 6 years or so and the other 3 for around a year, the veteran of the tank is seen regularly, the other three are more shy, and i have seen very little of them since i got them... over the last month or so i noticed my older khuli had developed a swollen patch around the belly, I thought it may be from eggs, but i thinkit may be an ulcer... I checked my water is fine and treated it with bateria control, it appears to be getting a little better but then i've suddenly noticed two of the newer khuli's have started to appear, they've changed to a strange brown colour, losing all the stripes they had except around the head, and look very fat and swolen, the belly area is very large and white, no spots or anything. I'm quite worried i i have no idea what it could be! I'll try and post a picure but any ideas?

I don't have an answer I'm afraid. Sounds serious. What do you feed them? I assume you must be doing something right given the length of time you have had these fish? I keep myersi and kuhlii - they are out (or at least visible) at feeding time every day. The myersi have a rock pile to hang out in, and the kuhlii have various multi-stemmed plants (Cryptocoryne) that they love to hang out in. Anyway, hopefully someone can help you, particularly if you post some pictures. I think there was another post a few months ago about a kuhli loach with a protrusion.

I hope the fish is better by now.

I'm sorry, but I'm going to be blunt here,
90% of the time, fish problems are water quality related or due to not quarantining new or sick fish properly.

If you have one sick fish while the other fish are healthy, the sick fish absolutely needs to removed from the tank and put into a quarantined environment. Using antibacterial products in the main fish aquarium disrupts the entire biological ecosystem. I know it's too late now though, so you'll have to keep your eye on things, like the ammonia and nitrite levels.

If I had to guess what the problem is here I'd say it has to do with the water quality. Perhaps OTS, Old Tank Syndrome. I'm basically shooting in the dark though because I don't know any of the water parameters.

What are the Nitrate, kH, and gH levels of the aquarium water before and after a water change? Also what are those parameters of the tap water?