Weather loach sudden death

[porkchop_71]

I have a 240l tank with 2 weather loaches and a lionhead, yesterday I found one of my loaches dead he was head first in the substrate (pea gravel) he was fine in the morning and ate as usual, he was always a very active loach I had him about 4 years, 2 questions firstly as anyone any idea what might of happened to him as I thought they were supposed to live for 7 - 10 years, also should I get one or more loaches to keep my other company (she is very shy), she is a brown weather loach would it make a difference if I got a golden one? would they be compatible?

thanks

[Diana]

Hi porkchop, welcome to Loaches!
Sorry to hear about your fish.
The first thing I would do is to check the water for all the tests that you have, but test at least for
Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and temperature.

Ammonia might go up when there is a dead fish in there, but will go right back down when you remove the fish and do a water change. If the ammonia is still too high then there is something else going on besides the temporary spike because of the dead fish.

Nitrite spike often follows and ammonia spike.

Nitrate will climb, and must be kept low. Live plants can help, and regular water changes.

pH ought to be stable, if there are some changes then lets also test GH, KH and TDS and see what is really going on.

temperature is very important for fish. Dojo Loaches are cool water fish. They can tolerate temporary increase in temperature as long as the oxygen is high, but it is not good for the temperature to be too high for too long.

Check all the equipment to be sure it if functioning properly. Is the filter clean so there is plenty of water movement? and similar questions.

Dojo Loaches are quite social . Depending on the size of the tank, and how many other fish there are I would suggest keeping several, not just one by itself. I am not sure about different colored Dojos. Perhaps I just got poor ones, but the 'albino' ones never did well for me, and my wild colored ones did not really associate with them very much.

[porkchop_71]

Hi Diana

Thanks for your reply, Ive done all water checks and water is ok, the only thing I can think of is my light unit has been playing up, sometimes not coming on for a couple of days (changed bulbs) I'm thinking maybe sidney swam up for air and maybe touched the light unit and got some sort of shock? because it definitely looked like he died suddenly especially with being head first in the gravel not sure if anyone has heard of this happening before? I've been out today and bought a new light unit unfortunately I couldn't get another loach anywhere! I was told there is problems with importing them at the moment but I will keep on trying!