Loaches Online Forum

Sounds like either a water quality issue or a mycobacterial infection (if it's emaciated). Quarantine tank and quick treatment with kanamycin and erythromycin or trimethoprim sulfa is likely your only chance. I think it'll be dead soon since it sounds like it's in dire condition and the usual outcom...

To be clear, your husband recently started medicating them?

Usually, fish problems can be traced to any recent changes made. That includes medications and even water changes themselves.

I ordered 20 small (~1.25" long) clown loaches from liveaquaria.com last week. They shipped Thursday and arrived 9 am the next day with no losses. I trickled water into a bucket containing the fish and their original water over several hours until the TDS of both the tank and their bucket water esse...

I would disagree with the fish store's conclusion. Many people here have treated the disease successfully. As someone with a microbiology background, I'd say that it's generally futile to try to sterilze and restock a tank. If you just treat the affected fish and keep water quality high, the fish wi...

You'd be surprised at how far away from civlization you can find pollutants these days. I wouldn't risk it. Use an RO filter if you want softer water.

What size tank do you have it on? What pump do you use with it? Do you have any other filtration on that tank? I'm trying to get ideas for what my next filtration scheme is going to be. I have it on a 125 gal acrylic tank stocked with cichlids. I've tried pretty much all the filters: the Magnum 350...

If you're looking at a filter of that size and price, consider an Ocean Clear bead filter. It requires a separate pump but you'll get more flow. Water changes are combined with backflushing the filter. Just turn off the pump, flip a few valves, connect the drain hose, turn the pump on and wait a fe...

If you're looking at a filter of that size and price, consider an Ocean Clear bead filter. It requires a separate pump but you'll get more flow. Water changes are combined with backflushing the filter. Just turn off the pump, flip a few valves, connect the drain hose, turn the pump on and wait a few...

I have 7 UV sterilizers (3 active duty, 1 reserve, 1 that I currently don't use and needs a new bulb, and 2 that are junk and need new bulbs). The two junk ones are an older Coralife and an Aquanetics 8W. You can still find replacement bulbs. The Aquanetics clearly has a burned out bulb but I'm not ...

For my 125, I initially tried the Rainbow-Lifegard (now Pentair) modular filtration system then a wet/dry and then an Ocean Clear bead filter. I had various problems with the first two. The bead filter is wonderful. It doesn't clog quickly and there's no media to remove and clean. I just backflush i...

I always see tanks for cheap on Craigslist.

wow...5 watts? the minimum i can find here in Malaysia is 9 watts.. :( It's the new submersible mini-UV made by JBJ. I'd also use it for hospital tanks. The pump and light are integrated together and placed inside the tank so there's no plumbing to deal with. Only the ballast sits outside the tank....

A UV sterilizer should do the trick and your fish would be less likely to get sick as well. I just got my smallest UV unit ever, a 5W submersible unit, to take care of green water in my 10 gal planted tank and it's done a wonderful job. For ponds that get a lot of sunlight, they're almost a requirem...

Try Marine Depot and Champion Lighting as well as others.

Avoid Rio and Mag Drive pumps.

I currently use a Gen-X which, after breaking-in, is fairly quiet and it has an external fan for self-cooling.

Hmmmm...I threw one of the stainless steel rods onto my scale and it was just under 19 grams at 12" long and 1/8" diameter. The ends came ground down nicely so they're quite blunt. It actually takes some effort to skewer raw zucchini slices. I never really had any problems using a fork...I just want...