Loaches Online Forum

Hi there,
I'm glad the ich is gone and this isn't really an illness...at least I hope it isn't

so here goes

now that my loaches are happy and eating and the ich is gone they're eating quite well and i'm super happy

there are 2 biggers clown loaches about 3 and 5 inches
and 2 smaller clown loaches that are about 2 inches

one of the smaller loaches seems extremely round...and when i mean round i mean her entire body...top and bottom

she's very active...eating better than the others and seems to only want food with protein...she will not touch any vegetable foods whatsoever

I know osmotic shock can cause fish to seem bloated and round...but with the water change schedule and how i'm dropping the salt concentration extremely slowly (the way I described in my illness thread...and was approved by Diana and Keith) I don't see how that could be a factor

I know you usually get worried when the fish is skinny...but she seems abnormally round...like she's pregnant or something (and I know it takes years for loaches to become mature to even consider her being pregnant)

it's not only her belly that is very round but the fish...i dunno how to describe it

clown loaches usually have that slender look to them and get wider instead of rounder if that makes any sense

I can get a picture tomorrow morning but I'll be gone to the cottage as of wednesday until next monday

any ideas what it could be?

If it is osmotic shock, you'll need make smaller water changes and slow them down even more. Be sure to keep the nitrates low too. Did you ever get a TDS meter? If so, what is the reading?

Fish will react differently to TDS changes. Fish have a limited amount of energy that it will spend on bodily functions. If a fish is over-eating, much of that energy will be spent digesting the food and not acclimating to the water when you do water changes. So if you do a water change to reduce the TDS, it's best not to feed the fish right before or after.

so is my plan to drop the concentration of salt not good?

I'll go through it again

7 gallon bucket = 7 tsp per gallon
7 gallon bucket = 6 tsp per gallon (the next week)
7 gallon bucket = 5 tsp per gallon (the following week)

it's roughly a 20% WC with the 7 gallons

and no I didn't get the TDS meter...I spent my money on a brand new 55g setup that I'm planning to get setup asap to give the loaches a little more swimming room (I just got rid of a loveseat to make room for it too lol)

Would I be better suited to do 2x 10% 3.5g WC per week instead of 1x 20% 7g per week? and should I add the same amount of salt for 2 weeks?

instead of dropping 1tsp per week should i drop 1tsp every 2 weeks?

why I'm asking is cuz I think I might run into problems in about a month

right now lets say I have the following:

60% of the water with 7tsp
20% of the water with 6tsp
20% of the water with 5tsp

I'm guessing in a month I will have big problems if this trend keeps going

In a month I'm guestimating something along the following (with the WC schedule I previously spoke of)

20% of the water with 7tsp
20% of the water with 6tsp
20% of the water with 5tsp
20% of the water with 4tsp
20% of the water with 3tsp

which is a pretty drastic change during those weeks no?

right now it's not as bad cuz there's still 60% of the water with 7tsp

what do you think Keith?

There probably isn't a problem with how you are doing the water changes. It probably isn't osmotic shock if you are changing the salinity level that slowly. Perhaps there's is another cause for the bloating. Did you get any pictures yet?

a TDS meter only costs $10-$20 on Ebay. It's a worthwhile investment. If you get one, look for one that goes from 0 - 9,990.
Here's a good one-
http://cgi.ebay.com/HM-TDS-4-METER-TDS- ... 286.c0.m14