Loaches Online Forum

As mentioned in my previous thread regarding adopting m friends' loaches, I went to get the loaches off my friend just two hours ago.

Unfortunately his last remaining clown passed away yesterday with the cause unknown. He appeared healthy but was not as active as before when he had two other clown loaches (who died of skinny disease). Hence, I got the 4 yoyo loaches off him (8-9cm) and around 18 months old.

When I tested his water parameters, Ammonia was at 0.25 and Nitrite 0.5. Should I acclimatise the loaches any differently to any other fish?

Currently I using the drip method to acclimatise them over 75 minutes to my small 90L quarantine tank which has 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 15ppm nitrate.

I was just worried that the yoyos might have ammonia/nitrite shock already. We tried to work out why my friends tank had ammonia and nitrite readings. He last changed the tank (40% water change) yesterday and before that a fortnight ago (he does water changes fortnightly). However, he does not have a test kit so did not know how long the ammonia/nitrite has been in the water.

In terms of feeding, he feeds them very sparingly once a day, each time only what the loaches can finish in 1 minute, so overfeeding can be ruled out. I really couldn't think of any other causes since my friend has not added any fish to the tank for a year. The only possible cause is that when the 3 clowns (over the last month), it may have affected the water quality, but I would have thought the water changes would have eased that.

The yoyos don't appear stressed or effected in any way and look very healthy and active. There are no signs of them breathing fast or gasping for air. I'm just not sure if I should treat them any differently if the water they were in had ammonia/nitrite readings.

Also, my mate gave me his driftwoods that were in his tank that the loaches loved to hide in - I am tempted to soak them in some tank water (from my quarantine tank) but am not sure if I should soak it for a bit longer before oputting it in the tank in case any of the ammonia/nitrite bacteria from my friends tank might spread to my quarantine tank.

Any advice/suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Just an update.

I have placed the Yoyos into the quarantine tank. They were very stressed when they just went in, but all four of them soon took shelter under a piece of driftwood and pretty much stayed there since.

I hope they will be OK and will check the water parameters tomorrow to see if there is any ammonia or nitrite spike. The water parameter when I just tested the water in the Q tank again was 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 15 nitrate and pH 6.8.

I have not added anything else to the tank apart from Prime, I put a bit of Prime in just in case ammonia/nitrite builds up overnight. I wasn't sure if it was necessary to put in anything else like Melafix.

I'd wait on the melafix unless you see signs of skin or eye issues. Give them some time.

As for the wood, I'd scrub it well in tap water, then boil it if you can. Cool it off, and add to the tank. Wood is porous and will absorb all kinds of things. Don't want to ask for trouble there.

shari2 wrote:I'd wait on the melafix unless you see signs of skin or eye issues. Give them some time.

As for the wood, I'd scrub it well in tap water, then boil it if you can. Cool it off, and add to the tank. Wood is porous and will absorb all kinds of things. Don't want to ask for trouble there.

Thanks for the reply. I have given it a good scrub and boiled it twice tonight, but can still feel the algae on the wood, should I boil it a few more times? How can I tell when the wood is safe to go into the tank? Would one method be to put some tank water and soak the wood for a little while and then measuring the water to see if there is any ammonia or nitrite?