New to Dojo Loaches, are these healthy?

This forum is for all health-related questions on Loaches and other freshwater fish.

Moderator: LoachForumModerators

Post Reply
Khylea
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2015 3:58 pm

New to Dojo Loaches, are these healthy?

Post by Khylea » Thu Jul 23, 2015 2:07 pm

Hi, my husband and I are not new to fish keeping in general but after the last of our aging tropicals died we decided to go new routes.

So one tank, is now stocked with my husband's 4 new (had them a week-2 week) Golden Dojo Loaches. They are currently in a 40 breeder tank, with only a few pink Ramshorn Snails and trumpet snails with a pool filter sand substrate, and a good bit of java ferns and hides.

We did not quarantine since the tank was empty, (it was cycled with media from my established goldfish tank).

Temp is 75-76°
Filtration is two double sponge filters.
Water param is 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and around 5 nitrates before a water change.

They were extremely tiny and various sizes to the point they looked more like worms when we got them and all had reddish gills. They came from a local mom and pop store that takes better care of their fish than most.



They already seem to have much lighter gills and are double their size except for the smallest one. That one I just can't tell if it's growing yet or if it just still looks so small just because it was much smaller to begin with.

What are warning signs I need to look for with these guys?
So far they still are very skiddish and stay extremely still most of the time when they see me until they either spaz out all over the place or give in and do what looks like I would imagine was normal feeding behavior. With the smallest always hanging back.

Do they just need more time to adjust?

The "skinny disease" stuff I keep seeing has me concerned.

User avatar
mikev
Posts: 3103
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2006 6:06 pm
Location: NY

Re: New to Dojo Loaches, are these healthy?

Post by mikev » Thu Jul 23, 2015 3:57 pm

The "skinny disease" stuff I keep seeing has me concerned.
Rightly so. Non-growing loaches are quite often affected by parasites. And it is easiest to just deworm them and not to worry anymore.

OTOH, red gills are not necessarily something to worry about. Younger/smaller fish often shows redder gills -- not because the gills are actually redder, but simply because there is less tissue to cover them.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 59 guests