Loaches Online Forum

Hey everyone. I fed my coldwater tank last night and everyone looked great, and when I got home from work today one of my largest gold dojos was floating near the surface, having trouble righting himself.

On one side of his body he has a red mark or bruise, on the other side he has two or three small white mounds/bumps (It doesn't look bacterial/fungal, I've dealt with those first hand before.) Aside from the marks, his skin looks fine, he has retain most of his color, his eyes aren't cloudy, and he seems to slowly becoming less "stiff" the more observe him trying to swim around. The tank just has two large gold dojos, three medium sized regular dojos, a BN plec and some very small goldies; I don't think the injury was caused by any of the tank mates or equipment, but I'll keep an eye out. This fish has always been healthy, and this tank has never had an infection or any sick fish. No new plants, decor, or fish.

Since it looked like an injury and the water parameters checked out, I immediately dosed with melafix (as per for loaches), but now I am not sure how to proceed. Should I see how it develops, or start treatment for what? Tank temp is currently 72-73, should I raise it to the top of the dojo comfort zone, drop it, or leave it? I am hesitant to move him in to QT because that tank current contains a group of 7 young zebras and 6 young clowns, and I think he is much more likely to get picked on in there. I will try and get a picture of the fish, but he is doing his best to hide in floating plants.

please help!

At this point it does sound like an injury. Some fish can ram into others hard enough to injure the swim bladder. It may heal, or it might not.

I would leave him where he is, in surroundings he is used to. Do not raise or lower the temperature beyond the limits for the species, if at all.

Watch the behavior of the other fish. It may be that there was some aggression, but it might have simply been some rough play and this fish bumped into something.

Sadly the fish passed soon after I posted. He didn't seem too stressed, just rested in the floating plants and eventually stopped breathing and drifted to the bottom. I did a water change earlier before I dosed with melafix, and just did another small one. Everyone else in the tank has no idea what's going on except for the other large gold dojo who already seems lonely. I shot some pictures of the fish after netting him;

just under 7 inches total length; you can faintly see the white marks I described toward the rear of the torso


close ups of white bumps/marks


close up of bruise


the larger dojo (7.25" tl) is going crazy looking for his buddy


I feel terrible for the poor guy; he looked great yesterday. the tank is only decorated with drift wood, river rocks, plants and play sand, so I'm not sure what he could have gotten hung up on. i'm going to watch the tank closely to see if anyone is showing any agression I haven't previously notice. sigh