Loaches Online Forum

Hi i have a Beautiful 55g set up its a communtie tank with molly's sward tails angle fish fiddler crab placo and an assassin (killer ) snail to eat the apple snails off the plants. its not overstocked just pirty lively. i have a canister filter glo t5 ho lights co2 (sugar water yeast). the water moves left to right with one rotating power head and the intake on the other size of the tank. i have two air plumps one runs all the time to fill my bio dome and spin a wheel the other is on a timer and is hooked to the power head and blows fine bubbles all night the water has been perfect for months. i do add a teaspoon of marine salt per 5 gallons of water to help keep ick down. never had a ick problem..

ph 7.1
anannoa 0
nitrites 0
nitrite 0
kh 2 db
gh 6 db

i bought three small clown loachs and they all disappeared and i believe died.. i never found body's but the crab would of eaten then rather quickly. they crab are not fast enough to catch anything live and never have..

about three weeks later i found a full size yoyo loach at a mom and pop pet store and he looked awesome in color and was very livly. i took him home and acclimated him using the drip method for about 30 mins before i put him in the tank. the first day he was all over the place checking things out. i haven't seen him eat anything yet. i fed him algae logs and bloodworm. day two he slept inside a small house i have in the tank for about the whole day. today is day three and he is breathing very rapdily. but is swimming around a bit. looks good but not sure...

i know loaches have some weird behavior but is this normal? i believe he is about 3-4 years old (3 1\2 inch's long)

oh and i change water once a week and i change 10 gallons and treat it with aqua plus water conditioner.

thanks!!!!!

i do add a teaspoon of marine salt per 5 gallons of water

This is not good for fresh water plants or fish.

Hard breathing within 24 hours of adding the fish to the tank suggest acclimation problems, though there may be other issues.
30 minutes acclimation may not be enough if your water has more or less minerals than the water in the store. Your GH and KH are fairly soft, very good for these fish. If the water in the store is harder, though, the fish will have a very difficult time acclimating, and are better off in a quarantine tank while you watch for disease and parasites, and VERY SLOWLY adjust the water to match the main tank.

Ich can hide in the gills, so a fish that looks clean in the store may in fact be bringing Ich into your tank.

Loaches don't mix well with crabs, crayfish, etc. Even though they're faster, they often sit on the bottom because they don't have swimbladders that allow them to float effortlessly in mid-water. They also sleep on the bottom.

A 30 min acclimation probably is too short. It takes me several hours to get the TDS to match. I also recommend a quarantine tank. People always seem to be in such a hurry to introduce new fish to their main tank and they pay the price.

rapter630 wrote:Hi
oh and i change water once a week and i change 10 gallons and treat it with aqua plus water conditioner.

use Prime water conditioner
pretty sure that aqua plus is junk

Aqua Plus by Hagen

* Aqua Plus with P.H.E.; Works instantly to make tap water safe for aquariums
* Removes chlorine, and chloramine
* Neutralizes heavy metals
________________________________________________________
* Protects fish by replacing their natural protective mucus coating

* Use Nutrafin Aqua Plus for; Water changes
* Adding new water
* New aquarium set-ups
* Fish transports
* Damaged fins, abrasions, cuts and wounds
* Nutrafin Aqua Plus features P.H.E. (Pure Herbal Extracts)
* Contains herbal extracts known to contain anti-inflammatory, stress reducing and wound regeneration properties
* Patented Stress-Reducing Formula


I added the line in there. Above= the stuff you want a water conditioner to do. Neutralizes heavy metals is optional. But it does not say lock up ammonia. With my water a dechlorinator that JUST broke apart the chlorine-ammonia bond that makes chloramine would be releasing 1 ppm ammonia into the tank.

Below the line is useless stuff.

I use Chloramine Buster available at Pet Smart, and it also available on line. Breaks apart the chlorine-ammonia bond. Locks up chlorine and ammonia.
Period.
1 pint (.47 liter) treats 8000 gallons (30,200 liters)
http://clearpond.com/Merchant2/merchant ... Code=CBUST