Clown Loach not eating, but extremely active

[water patters]

Hey everyone,

I'm wondering if any of you have had the same issues...

Our Alpha clown loach who's about 6 years old has decided to stop eating the past few days. He's also been out and about doing the loach dance during the day, for the past few days as well. That's unusual for him, he's usually only active during the afternoon and evening. It also looks like his breathing might be a bit more rapid than usual.

We've done water tests with the quick test strips, and everything comes back in good ranges.

Everyone else in the tank is eating and acting normal. I think I'll try doing a small water change either tonight or tomorrow to see if this improves anything.

If anyone has any ideas, please let me know

Thanks!

Kelly

[water patters]

We did a water change earlier tonight, and tested the water afterward, only to discover the nitrates were high. We treated the tank with some Amquel plus, and cleaned out the filter.

We have an XP3, and usually we find sand at the bottom of the filter, after all the media is taken out. Tonight we found an usual amount of waste in there as well.

We're planning on doing small water changes and checking the filter over the next few days, hopefully this will decrease the nitrate levels, and Zippy (our alpha loach) will start eating, and acting normal again.

Thanks,

Kelly

[Diana]

Keep up the water changes. Live plants and water changes are the only way to lower nitrates. Small water changes may not remove as much nitrate as the fish are adding (ammonia > nitrite > nitrate). If the new water can be made to match the tank water for GH, KH and temperature, and there are no other issues, I would do larger water changes. Get the nitrates well under 20 ppm.

[water patters]

Hey everyone, just a quick update

So, we had gotten the nitrates back to normal, and our alpha clown still wouldn't eat! Everyone else was acting fine through this whole ordeal...

So, we started trying to think of what changed... and we think it was the food. We usually get them the Hikari sinking wafers, and they stopped selling them at the petsmart we go to. Luckily we were able to find the Hikari wafers at another store, and he started eating again.

Clown's sure can be picky!

[soul-hugger]

I'm not sure if this will affect you in the US, but all the stores in my area have stopped selling Hikari. Apparently there are new regulations keeping it from coming in. I'm not sure of the exact details, but some distributors in Canada have decided to stop selling it. Just wanted to give you a heads-up in case something similar is happening in your area too. You may want to stock up.

Sometimes a little garlic rubbed on food will help picky fish eat. Loaches also love fresh food such as fruit, vegetables, beans, and seafood. My fish love it when we have seafood for dinner because they get to join. They'll even eat grains of rice, which is a treat I only give them once in awhile.

soul-hugger