Loaches Online Forum

Get yourself a cheap quarantine tank (around here, 10g tanks can be had very cheaply), and isolate your featherfin (assuming that your African Highfin Catfish is a Synodontis Euptera, aka featherfin catfish) for treatment. Then you you can treat him properly without fear of hurting the loaches. Also...

The best emergency treatment for ich is the adjustment knob on your tank heater. Aquarium salt is also good to have on hand, provided your fish are tolerant of it (most loaches are somewhat intolerant of salt, so be careful). Ich Attack may or may not work on standard ich, but it definitely did not ...

First and foremost, don't transfer ANYTHING from the tank with ich to the new tank!!! Keep everything separate, fish included. Make sure that ALL signs of ich are gone, then wait another 3 weeks (at least) before moving fish to the new tank, which will give you time to do a proper fishless cycle. NE...

Is there a school of dither fish in with them? Loaches look to the other denizens of the tank to determine whether or not it is safe to come out of hiding. If there are other, active fish around, the loaches are more likely to be active as well. I have Australian Rainbowfish and White Skirt Tetras i...

Sounds like an incredible setup, but that is decent fish load, even for such a large tank. However, if your water chemistry is good and your fish are getting along with each other, they should be fine. Ph and nitrates are the two things I tend to watch the most when I'm concerned about excessive bio...

300 gallons is more than adequate for 10 clown loaches, I suggest not separating them.

If you do have to separate them, they should be okay as two groups of 5, but they would definitely be better off if they can be left as one large group.

What is causing you to think your tank is overloaded?

I always try to avoid buying species that are endangered, if I know ahead of time that they are. Even the best aquarium stores don't usually have that kind of information available (maybe they should).

I do, however, support breeding efforts made so that rare fish can be made available to the trade.

A year seems like a more likely time-frame, particularly if your loaches were healthy to begin with. I've read that healthy fish can support a small load of parasites for extended periods of time without any apparent ill effects.

I suppose it's possible he's being bullied out of his meals, though I still think it would be a good idea to treat for parasites. They can become infected at any time, particularly if you get new fish, share equipment between tanks, or add tank decorations from other tanks. Can parasites live for 8 ...

Have you ever treated Spot for internal parasites (aka skinny disease)?

Also, 150 gallons seems a bit on the small side for such enormous fish.

I'm particularly fond of my 6 Australian Rainbows, and they get along well with the loaches. They also deal well with the current coming out of the powerheads, which is something to consider when using a river tank type manifold setup.

Well, without more info it's hard to offer advice, but... Rainbow sharks are territorial, as are the clown loaches but to a lesser extent. Also, 2 clown loaches in a tank is 3 - 4 loaches to few. They do not thrive unless they are in groups of 5 or more. Since clowns get BIG, a big tank is a must in...

Check out this fantastic idea for catching loaches without harming them:

http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=24801

The loach's spine is back in as of this morning, but I am still curious if this is a normal occurrence.

Has anyone else witnessed anything similar with their loaches?