Loaches Online Forum

ha. nice

I see 9988 and 3200

I have one with letters instead of numbers.

palaeodave wrote:I can't actually decide if I think that's really cute or really ugly!

I know what you mean. It's like a pug or a chow.
So he can't eat like his bros and sis... His mouth is pointed straight ahead.

Some run it all the time.
Some run it only when there is trouble.. It saves the life span of the bulb.

Mistergreen- I respect your opinion, I really do, but how did you figure it's viral? From what I've read, fish viral infections are incurable. They need a host to spread. Antibiotics will have no effect on them. You could be right that it is viral, but there is no way of knowing that for sure. I th...

oooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...
you can make your own!

If you have a sump system or set one up.. And you have a light hood on the sump tank.. You can install a UV bulb in the hood.

http://www.1000bulbs.com/Ultraviolet-Germicidal/

You wouldn't want UV interacting directly with the fish.

Unfortunately, I have no money. Is there an alternative to treating for a virus? No, unfortunately. this is the cheapest UV out there and it doesn't need to be attached to a canister filter.. You just put it in your tank like an extra powerhead. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cf...

I'm going out on a limb and say this is an internal viral infection. All you can do is wait it out and not do too many water changes. Your water parameters are fine as far as I can tell. The viral infection oddly fits the 'bloat' your other loach too. I guess depending where the infection occurs, th...

hey tanja, Check the whole head area for a small pit or hole... It could be a start of 'hole in the head' disease.. I remember way back when my rainbow had trouble swimming because of it.. The hole wasn't obvious either. It swam in circles and sometimes upside down. I think the bacteria attack their...

sorry to hear.
Do you have any test kits to check for water parameters?

This is peculiar... Any fish with symptoms, take them out of the main tank.. There might be a virus floating around.

you or the fish should be fine for the night Tanja. Epson salt or Magnesium Sulfate is a salt :) Your sea salt has lots of different minerals Like Magnesium, Sodium, Sulfur etc... Salts have a curious property of drawing water out of cells so that would help with the dropsy. Now to find out the caus...

I found this on thekrib.com for you Dropsy Fish swells up like a balloon and may show popeyes. It may recover with no treatment and may die despite it. The swelling is because the fish is absorbing water faster than it can eliminate it, and it can be caused by many different problems. High nitrates ...

gram negative bacteria include pathogenic bacteria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gram_negative_bacteria antibiotics like Erythromycin (maracyn I) will kill gram negative bacteria while leaving gram positives alone... I believe nitrafying bacteria are gram positive so Erythromycin is safe for the tank...

condolences,

what sp. is he?

Did you mention the age of this tank since the restart? Has any unaccounted fish gone missing ie.. dead in the tank. And hate to say this but always quarantine fishes before adding them to the main tank. But I don't think disease is the main issue here. Sounds like the water chemistry in intolerable...

In my case (b. histrionia), the hole punching was a phase... They didn't really eat the leaves when I looked at the holes carefully.

They gave up that habit a few months later.