Loaches Online Forum

my polkadot loach has had a strange attraction to my heater and as a result of this it doesn't interact with the others. i has puzzled me for weeks and i hoped someone could help. it only comes out for food rarely. my other polkadot loaches are very active and are confidant. if someone could help that would be brill

Its difficult to say for sure, but maybe the fish in question is ill. Maybe an internal bacterial infection. That can make a fish hide and not eat well.

Jim Powers wrote:Its difficult to say for sure, but maybe the fish in question is ill. Maybe an internal bacterial infection. That can make a fish hide and not eat well.

This is definitely common behavior in loaches when they have an infection. I'm not really sure on which steps to take, does somebody know any kind of medical thing that can be done?

I would recommend using Maracyn and Maracyn 2, together. Maracyn is erythromycin and combats primarily gram-positive bacteria. Maracyn 2 is minocycline and is good against gram-negative bacteria. Both are available in the US, but not so much in other countries.

Jim Powers wrote:I would recommend using Maracyn and Maracyn 2, together. Maracyn is erythromycin and combats primarily gram-positive bacteria. Maracyn 2 is minocycline and is good against gram-negative bacteria. Both are available in the US, but not so much in other countries.

How are those on the filters? For some reason I always imagined that one of those is a filter killer.. or not?

From my experience, when used properly, they do not damage the bacterial colonies in the filters.