Weather loach

[sandygirl]

I am a new loach person. Two days ago I brought home 2 weather loaches. Put them in my 29 gal tank with 2 females and 1 male swardtail. last night when I turned off the light everything looked great. The loaches where very active. This morning 1 of them was dead. All the others are very active and eating well. Can anyone suggest what could have happened.

[KLKelly]

A few questions to start with:

How did you acclimatize them from the water at the store to the water in your tank?

How long has your tank been set up?

Do you have test kits? Ammonia and nitrite could easily kill a weather loach.
Your local fish store could test your water for free.

[sandygirl]

I have had my tank since christmas. When I brought the loach home I let the bag floot in the tank for about 15 minutes. I have had the water tested and it should be fine. I will have my pet store test it again tomorrow. I am new to this hobbie and really enjoy loaches. I want to creat the right enviroment for them.

[Ashleigh]

Christmas as in this Christmas just past? Was there any action taken to cycle the tank before the fish were added?

Ashleigh

[chris1932]

Sandygirl

I have a few questions also. Do you mean this Christmas as in a few days ago? If so please take all of the fish you have purchased back to the store where you purchased them and see if they will hold onto them for you.

A new aquarium takes at least a three weeks to be ready to support aquatic life in the form of fish. If you're aquarium is brand new it lacks the bacteria to convert the fishes waste to harmless nitrate.

Fish in an aquarium produce ammonia through feeding and wasting, the ammonia breaks down into nitrite, nitrite breaks down into nitrate. At any level ammonia and nitrite kill fish as they are cumulative.

There are very few products that you can add to a new aquarium to jump start a cycle. Marineland Bio Spira is one of the only ones that really works. Other alternitaves that work are getting some gravel and filter shakings from someone with an established tank.

The best thing you can do if you can get someone to hold your fish.

Purchase test kits. They are a must. I suggest Hagen kits. The following are things you will need, or should have.
http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/215373/product.web
http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/11352/product.web
http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/215459/product.web
Go to you're regular grocery store and get a quart of clear ammonia.
http://www.marineland.com/products/mlla ... ospira.asp

Let the aquarium run as if it had fish in it. Every other morning add four or five drops of clear ammonia, every afternoon test for ammonia and write down the result. You want to see the ammonia over five ppm for a few days. On day five test for all three major parameters Ammonia, Nitrate, and Nitrite. Stop adding clear ammonia on day five. Let the tank keep running and test daily until ammonia and nitrite are as low as the test will read. Nitrate will be very high unless you have live plants to use it. Do a 50% water change to reduce nitrate. If you see a reduction in nitrate that matches the amount of water changed you are ready to add fish. The tank will have a flourishing population of "good" bacteria that can convert the fishes waste and uneaten food into harmless byproducts that are not dangerous to the fish.

On a positive note, Weathered loaches are wonderful aquarium pets, after a short time in you're aquarium they will literaly be eating out of your hand. They do get large. They enjoy cooler temperatures than most "tropical" fish.

Please be patient, the first aquarium is the most frustrating. Chain pet stores make it look too easy. They sell fish and tanks cheap, and everything else expensive, in the first month most people give up out of frustration.

My post is greatly simplified, there are hundreds things that effect fish in a closed system. The things I outlined above should serve to get you started on the right track.

Chris

[sandygirl]

Thanks to all of you for the information. And it was this past christmas that I got the fish tank from my son and grandchildren. We set it up on christmas eve. 4 days later I went to our local pet store and told them what I had and would they please help me setup my tank, as they were the experts. They sold me a lot of things as well as fish. I was relying on them to help me set up the tank right. I will be going back tomorrow with the information that I have colledted to date.

I live in a small town with only one fish pet store other than Walmart.

I so enjoy watching my now one loach and would love to get my tank in shape to have many more. Although in this area I have only seen the weather loach. Thanks again

[chris1932]

If you would like to get more loaches, you might want to visit this site.
http://www.franksaquarium.com/brookstreamloaches.htm

Frank is a really nice guy. He cares about the fish he sells. He quaranties the fish he sells so they get to you healthy. There is an astounding selection on his site. I have purchased from him several times and only once have I had a DOA, and he refunded it immediately.

A suggestion

If you are going to keep weathered loaches, keep them with a shoal of danios or rasboras, they will appreciate the same water quality and temperature. They are the perfect tankmates.

[KLKelly]

You should get a test kit. I use the aquarium pharmaceuticals mini master test kit. The liquid kits are more accurate and cheaper in the long run than strips. The two bottle ammonia test kit is also a good thing.

Your fish - especially your dojo loach is going to go through a very hard time with cycling and keeping ammonia below toxic levels and nitrites minimized will be his best shot. I'm sorry you weren't given helpful info at the fish store. Fish store people sell fish. Not all of them are knowledgeable or want to spend their time educating fish buyers. A lot of fish die as a result.

Prime - the aquarium conditioner would detox up to .6 of ammonia. I used this during my cycling experience from hell. I think its worth its weight in gold.
Amquel - would detox up to 1.2 but can destabilize ph.

Ammonia is toxic at different levels. I hope you have ph on the low end. My ph is high at 8.3 so ammonia is toxic very quickly.

Best of luck.