Loaches Online Forum

I see where you're going about pathogens in fish sold to customers... and those customers coming back for meds... sounds sort of like a sleazy deal if that's what's going on. But my sincere concern is with fish I've had for years and years that are long past anything the pet store might have had. It...

I'd feel bad for her, too, and as much as I care about fish... I'd be disinclined to even sell her any after an outburst like that. Luckily, we didn't get such characters at our fish store so I never had to turn anyone away. People will generally listen, but sometimes you do get those bad apples, an...

I'm not totally in left-field thinking this is a ridiculous move? I sure hope this "idea" doesn't spread. It doesn't solve any issues that might exist--at least, not in my opinion.

I was in Petco just yesterday looking for fish medication (specifically praziquantel), and I learned that Petco is nixing almost their entire fish medication stock. I left angry over that since I've been relying heavily on medications for over a year now and would have lost so many more fish without...

That I'm not certain of, most of my experience has been with clowns. I imagine fish, though, are somewhat like people--some will respond to a treatment, and others won't. Mine just happened to respond to the slight increase in heat, and some of the literature I've read or have heard about has said t...

Yes, based on my experience, I'd slowly raise the temperature back up to 84F and just be sure to monitor all of the fish closely for signs of moderate to severe distress. I would only bring it up to 86F as a last resort because 86F is the very limit of what many fish will tolerate, at least in my ex...

That's handy! If my smaller clowns ever had an issue I might try that, but even though my big guy is much reduced, he's still 11" long so that'd be an awful big T pipe! They have a curved pvc pipe at the moment and it's huge. Unfortunately, all of the clowns use it.

Well, I will be sure to get him the bloodworms he seems to like. Part of the problem might be that he's just not getting enough because the other clowns are so ravenous (the new alpha has been gaining weight since this one has been losing it). I have a couple of choices, neither of which makes me ha...

Agreed with most everything mentioned above. I've dealt with ich a couple times now on my loaches, and I've never lost one to it. It can be fatal if left untreated, but it's not so quickly lethal as so many other things I've seen and had to weather. When my tanks had ich, I generally kept the temper...

Well, to anyone that recalls all my tank problems and deaths over the past year or so, the new tank finally seems to be doing okay with some minor leftovers from the old tank (which I never figured out what the problem was). Unfortunately none of the fish seem all that happy but I'm honestly not cer...

Thanks for your kind words--I really could use a break from all this. The 90g is ALMOST done. I noticed that the pH was a bit high at 7.8, so I'm going to try and stabilize it at 7.0 or so before I put any other fish in it. All other parameters are perfect.

I'm wondering if it's more the alternative, that he wasn't allowed at feeding time or just wasn't up to trying to get his fill due to "depression" from his loss of status or bullying. I've seen him and the others depressed before, especially when they get moved around the tanks or medicated. Fornax ...

I'll see what I can do. He's not big on coming out to the front of the tank, and the tank is having a cloud issue. Then there's getting him to hold still.

I have another tank that I'm trying to cycle... a 90 gallon. Perhaps I can split the pack between the two for a while, in hopes that someday they will get along again. I just worry because the older alpha has list quite a bit of mass. He's not gaunt, but he's very slender these days.

So, amidst all the other rotten things going on in my life right now, I think an alpha change in my clown loach pack has taken place. It makes me really unhappy, since the old alpha appears all beten up: the top fin is all torn up with whole chunks taken out of it, the nose has a white patch, and th...