Loaches Online Forum

Hellow all, I am really bummed out to have lost all my Striadas this week, two which I have had for almost 12 years and been with me through a few heartbreaks and GFs.

A week ago I added a couple new materials to my river tank, a large piece of green dense foam and a soft plastic mesh. One or both of these I believe to have contaminated the water. I lost all three Striadas and one recently aquired Schistura (seen on a photo I posted)
The odd thing is not all the fish were affected the same way or were as sensetive to the contaminant. Only two clown loaches and the Kubotia seemed to be doing well throughout and was not affected. All my other clowns, my tigers and my one and only beauforti seem to be acting as if they are crippled by wobbleig their whole bodies while they move/swim. Their stomachs also got concaved in a short period. Really unpeasant sight in my tank.
A couple days after I installed the materials, even before the lights were on, I thought it was unusal to only see two or three fish plus dither fish eating when I feed them. I made nothing nothing of it as I left for work. After three and four days the striadas died one by one. I thought it was odd but they been friends for a long time and I thought it was greif and old age. With the few plump healthy loach and the occasional head of the others peeping out of the caves, it did not occur to me that the water was bad. A couple more days of not seeing the loaches completely come out made it hard for me to ignore the feeling that something was really wrong.
I did an inspection in their labyrinth of caves and I had to coax them out only to be shocked and heart broken by their condition. I immediately did a 90% WC and during it they came out of their caves all wobbly (possibly to be in the fresh water). It has been two days since the WC and they are still wobbly but most are eating and out and about, atleast when the main lights are off. The clown that has been affected the worst has not eaten yet, atleast not that I have seen but she seems to be doing better because she came out and got the strength to be a little grumpy to reclaim her cave from an intruder. I do hope they get better.

Oh no, so sorry to hear this Vance. I take it you've removed the suspect items from the tank now? I would keep up the water changes and insert a Polyfilter (which absorbs all sorts of nasties) into the filter. Not sure how commonly available they are over in the US, here is a link to one site which shows you what to look for: http://www.everythingforpets.com/polyfi ... 86.dept.5/
They really aren't cheap, but I doubt that will be a worry when it comes to saving your loaches which you've had for so long.

Best of luck,

Emma

Vance, I'm sorry to hear of your misfortune. I would say the foam was the problem.Many are treated with agents to retard fungas ,mold etc.

So sad to hear. I'm hoping for the best for the rest of your loaches.

Emma Turner wrote:Oh no, so sorry to hear this Vance. I take it you've removed the suspect items from the tank now? I would keep up the water changes and insert a Polyfilter (which absorbs all sorts of nasties) into the filter. Not sure how commonly available they are over in the US, here is a link to one site which shows you what to look for: http://www.everythingforpets.com/polyfi ... 86.dept.5/
They really aren't cheap, but I doubt that will be a worry when it comes to saving your loaches which you've had for so long.

Best of luck,

Emma

Emma, you are a life saver, literally. I just got off the phone and I have located the polyfilter at a petsotre in another town, 1.5 hour drive. A couple LFS spoke highly of the product although they did not have it. I will do another WC and drive over to get it. I cannot loose my babys.
Thanks
Vance
p.s. items were removed immediately upon suspect.

My condolences Vance!

Thanks you all for the support. I jut installed the polyfilter after the water change and within minutes, the filter turned pink then red.

I'm so pleased that you managed to source a Polyfilter, they are a great bit of stuff to keep in the cabinet, 'just in case'. Sounds like it's pulling out quite a bit of something already. How are the remaining fish looking?

Emma

Hope all gets better soon.

So sorry Vance.

Follow-up: For the most part, they are all doing much better with the exception of one who just peeks out and nibbles at the occasional food that passes her way. Atleast she seems to be regaining her appetite.

So glad to hear that the remaining fish are doing ok. Keep us updated!

Emma

Once again, thank you everyone.
Here is a follow-up on how they are doing. Except for the one who was affected the most but is now eating, they are all coming along fine and all plump. I wanted to wait a week to make sure all was well. I had two major changes that lead to this.
1. The poly filter (thanks Emma). I had the color of the filter analyzed and there were heavy amounts of iron and some aluminum in the water. This condition was probably from me adding salt (dont know why, I never do this) to a tank dosed with liquid fertilizer and iron pellets for plants. Salt could have caused the iron in the water to change form. You know what salt does to iron. Now they are not posioned no more.

2. I had the bio-filter removed from in the water to an overhead hanging drip plate. This increase of air for the bio bacteria is obvious in the behavior of the fish. They are now hungry as ever and have lost all inhibitions. Initially, they had lost theit appetite for several months since I transfered them to the river tank.

Great news, I'm so glad the rest survived!

Emma

What is polyfilter? Where can I read about it?