Loaches Online Forum

Hi all

I bought 6 borneo suckers yesterday. Gastromyzon varities: 3x zebrinus and 3x scitulus ( i think).

I think they were all in reasonable condition when I floated the bag in the tank and started topping the bag up with tank water every 10mins for an hour. I then made the mistake of tiping them into a large rectangular storage container about the size of a shoe box, and put an air stone in it. 10mins later I came back and 5 of the 6 had climbed out and were either on the floor or in amongst assorted pens/keys/odds and ends in a decorative dish that I keep beside the hillstream tank.

Surprisingly they were all still alive (thankfully), and I immediately transferred the water and fish to a much much taller bucket so I could look at their condition. I noticed that one of the zebrinus has a large bump on its right shoulder. The fish are now all in the tank with 4x other gastromyzon and 11x small-med sized sewellia lineolata. The bump is still there almost 24 hours later.

Should I be concerned? Can I do anything about it?

Also, one of the new scitulus seems to have a white 'scuff' mark on his spine. Is there anything I can do to help that heal?

I am worried because these fish cost $15 each, and I've had a few over the last 12 months that have died from that bump thing -- although they were placed in a different tank that might not have had the same amount of oxygen levels and food source as my current tank (hence I think their current tank is more likely to encourage healthier fish).

Matt

He Matt,
pictures of the bump and the injury could be very useful!
I would always first put new hillstreams into a quarantine tank for a month.
Observe your fish good and look if they eat.
When they graze constantly, everything is in order.
If the patches get bigger you have a big problem! It could be patchy disease....
Then you have to treat your fish essential.
Good luck!

Well the guy is still alive. The bump is still there, and if my eyes aren't deceiving me, it might even be dropping a bit. The little bruising/scratch that he had closer to his head has healed up a bit too. Pictures are hard as I have a lot of rock and hiding places and whenever I stop looking and go to grab the camera they all seem to dart off to somewhere else.

I took heaps of pics, so hopefully one or two of them show up the bump. I'll post them up in 12 hours.

He is grazing, although I'm not sure how much edible algae I have left on the rocks. I have fed with defrosted frozen 'live' foods (artemia, cyclops, something else), as well as a crushed/ground version of most of my food mixed with asian style seawood and also spirulina. All the fish seem healthy, and most of them can be seen at some stage with a unbroken line of feaces still attached (until they dart away and it breaks off).

I squirted a 1/3rd recommended dose of melafix into the whole tank. Melafix is just a watered down 100% pure tea tree oil (Melaleuca alternifolia), and it certainly smelt like it. I haven't re-dosed the tank since that first night though, so I might look at putting some more in tomorrow morning, just as a precaution, and then in the evening I'll do a water change.