I posted this on a loach specialty forum, but I am looking for help from anyone who may know what this is!
We screwed up with timing on getting a new heater for the tank - our last one broke and we haven't been able to afford a new one until this week. So the tank has been at room temperature (68 degrees) for about a month and a half. It was stupid, but we had no choice.
On Sunday (the 24th), I went to crawl into bed (tank is in the bedroom) and the Opaline Gourami that we've had for two years could barely swim and he died about five minutes after I found him in distress. I immediately cleaned the tank from top to bottom since six hours earlier the fish had been acting fine and I was worried about a possible ammonia spike or a toxin. (We don't have testing kits here.) I did an 80% water change and sand vac, along with rinsing the filter media and cleaning off the plastic plants.
Two kuhli loaches (the lone striped and one of the blacks) where having trouble swimming and breathing and kept drifting onto their sides. The three clown plecos had dropsy. The other 10 kuhlis all seemed fine.
Knowing that there's a good chance the deaths were from the low water temps causing a drop in their immune system, I wasn't sure what to do. I dug out a spare junior heater (7W) and threw it in the tank. Between that and using a space heater in the bedroom the tank climbed to 74 degrees, and had been holding steady from 6am Monday morning until this afternoon. I had the water tested on Monday and it was fine. (0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite, 10ppm nitrate)
On Monday I lost the striped kuhli. Tuesday was the black kuhli. On Wednesday I lost another black kuhli. The clown plecos seem to have recovered from the dropsy, but it is really hard to tell since they hide so much. At the very least, by today all the fishes' color have improved.
Now the kuhlis are acting very odd - careening around the tank looking like their having seizures (extreme flicking of their bodies), rubbing themselves around the plastic plants and the driftwood, and even curling themselves into corkscrews as if to itch their own bodies. This just started on Thursday. I've got one loach in particular that is spinning in circles vertically. They also keep burying their heads into the sand and staying that way looking like ostriches. (I keep thinking they're dead because they are staying that way for hours!)
I see no signs of ich or velvet on any of the 9 remaining black kuhlis or the three clown plecos. (I also saw no signs of visible illness on the dead gourami or kuhlis - I checked before I buried them.) I'm nervous about using medications without knowing what would do the most good, if it would do any good. I DO NOT want to loose these fish, even if I was being stupid about the heater. (I've had a lot of sleepless nights this week, believe me.)
I got the new heater in today and am slowly upping the temperature to 82 degrees just in case it is ick. I've also added a Tablespoon of aquarium salt to the tank for the same reason. It's a 20 gallon tank with a fine grain sand bottom. Some of the kuhlis seem to be acting normal again for the first time in days. I know that the salt is a risk with the kuhlis but something is causing them extreme discomfort and I don't know how to deal with it other than just heat and salt.
Here are two photos I took to show what I'm talking about when I say they are corkscrewing. They are actually staying in these odd positions for a number of minutes.
We screwed up with timing on getting a new heater for the tank - our last one broke and we haven't been able to afford a new one until this week. So the tank has been at room temperature (68 degrees) for about a month and a half. It was stupid, but we had no choice.
On Sunday (the 24th), I went to crawl into bed (tank is in the bedroom) and the Opaline Gourami that we've had for two years could barely swim and he died about five minutes after I found him in distress. I immediately cleaned the tank from top to bottom since six hours earlier the fish had been acting fine and I was worried about a possible ammonia spike or a toxin. (We don't have testing kits here.) I did an 80% water change and sand vac, along with rinsing the filter media and cleaning off the plastic plants.
Two kuhli loaches (the lone striped and one of the blacks) where having trouble swimming and breathing and kept drifting onto their sides. The three clown plecos had dropsy. The other 10 kuhlis all seemed fine.
Knowing that there's a good chance the deaths were from the low water temps causing a drop in their immune system, I wasn't sure what to do. I dug out a spare junior heater (7W) and threw it in the tank. Between that and using a space heater in the bedroom the tank climbed to 74 degrees, and had been holding steady from 6am Monday morning until this afternoon. I had the water tested on Monday and it was fine. (0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite, 10ppm nitrate)
On Monday I lost the striped kuhli. Tuesday was the black kuhli. On Wednesday I lost another black kuhli. The clown plecos seem to have recovered from the dropsy, but it is really hard to tell since they hide so much. At the very least, by today all the fishes' color have improved.
Now the kuhlis are acting very odd - careening around the tank looking like their having seizures (extreme flicking of their bodies), rubbing themselves around the plastic plants and the driftwood, and even curling themselves into corkscrews as if to itch their own bodies. This just started on Thursday. I've got one loach in particular that is spinning in circles vertically. They also keep burying their heads into the sand and staying that way looking like ostriches. (I keep thinking they're dead because they are staying that way for hours!)
I see no signs of ich or velvet on any of the 9 remaining black kuhlis or the three clown plecos. (I also saw no signs of visible illness on the dead gourami or kuhlis - I checked before I buried them.) I'm nervous about using medications without knowing what would do the most good, if it would do any good. I DO NOT want to loose these fish, even if I was being stupid about the heater. (I've had a lot of sleepless nights this week, believe me.)
I got the new heater in today and am slowly upping the temperature to 82 degrees just in case it is ick. I've also added a Tablespoon of aquarium salt to the tank for the same reason. It's a 20 gallon tank with a fine grain sand bottom. Some of the kuhlis seem to be acting normal again for the first time in days. I know that the salt is a risk with the kuhlis but something is causing them extreme discomfort and I don't know how to deal with it other than just heat and salt.
Here are two photos I took to show what I'm talking about when I say they are corkscrewing. They are actually staying in these odd positions for a number of minutes.
) 
/www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Lawler_some_signs_of_sick_fish.html
