update on mysterious floating loaches & death

[Louise]

Yesterday my last little loach ate a bit which made me so happy! Last night I I did a 10% water change with water I had sitting at room temp for 24 hours and it seemed to help. I watched him closely and he zipped around a bit but didn't seem in distress and was able to easily "land".

I hope my problem is solved and I want to thank everyone for their suggestions very very much.

I still have the strange seizures to deal with but I think maybe it was bad food from overfeeding.

I hope I find more loaches soon my last guy seems to be looking for his buddies and that makes me sad. Does anyone know how long a loach can live alone? I don't want to add more of anything until I'm sure everything is under control and I've lost 5 loaches + 1 gourami in the past 2 weeks.

Thanks again!

[BotiaMaximus]

A Khuli will be fine on his own for a few weeks at least. I wouldn't stress that too much. Just glad to hear you got some improvement. I would keep at those "aged" water changes till everything truly balances out and you have high confidence again before adding anyone else.

You might want to consider setting up a larger aging barrel for your water so you can age enough of it to do a full 25% water change in advance, and maybe add a small powerhead or re-circulating pump in there to keep the water moving and help it release any gasses.

I have a 65 Gallon Trash Can that I have a filter and heater hooked up to. It prefilters the water and lets it age for a few days before I need to send it to the tanks. This helps out tremendously, and my fish don't even seem to notice when a water change is happening.