Help! Loach Dying!

[Crossfire]

I put my hands in twice, to make sure he was alive and to move him to a more secluded area.
I know handling fish is bad, but I was very gentle.

 

[Tuxyu3]

Sorry, i think i mis-worded myself. I did not mean StressCoat+ is bad for scaleless fish, i myself use it. It is just that i have heard people saying it irritates their loaches and i myself have seen my cory's flashing immediately after i add it. Nothing to be worried about, i just was not sure it would be the best thing to calm him down. Hope that makes sense

 

[Crossfire]

He's still breathing heavily, but he's mostly staying in one spot. He's taken to lying upside down or on his side

I fear he may be in his last few hours of life

 

[Baccus]

With his fast breathing are his gill enflamed or has he ghosted out his colour?i

 

[Crossfire]

His color is still as bright and vivid as ever.
With kuhlis, it is hard to tell if their gills are inflamed, because they have big red gills....so I wouldn't know....No other fish (besides Lumpy) are exhibitng fast breathing or any other signs of bacterial or parasitic infections.

Could you give me a description of inflammed gills?

 

[Crossfire]

However, Lumpy, a loach recently bought, does have faded colors and is breathing fast. He also lays on his side and doesn't shy away from my hand, but he eats and he doesn't move so sluggishly and awkwardly like Luke is now...
You don't....you don't think they have a bacterial infection, do you?
That would be very, very bad....I have nowhere to QT them, so the whole tank will need treatment....I have an assassin snail, and amano shrimp, and scaleless fish....I have Seachem KanaPlex if needs be....

 

[Baccus]

Sorry I couldn't get back to you earlier was on my phone and at work and they are not mutually agreeble.
A bacterial infection could be any number of actual illnesses, and I would have thought the other fish might have started showing signs or similar problems by now.
I am actually starting to wonder if its an oxygen thing, from memory you only used to have 2 or three khuli's before getting Luke and Lumpy? The peacock goby you have, had a while now, could it be starting to show a a bit of desire for territory? I know they are usually peaceful and good community additons, but temperments can change when maturity sets in. And I am just trying to rule out that the goby hasn't been chasing or nipping the khuli's to keep them away from some deired real estate.

Unfortunately the only medication that is a broad spectrum medicine that I know is safe to use on tetras, fry loaches (and from trial and thankfully no error- shrimp- well cherry and a few of my native species anyway) is an Australian brand that probably wont be availble to you. But I can give you the levels of active ingredient and you might be able to find a similar product with the same levels of active ingredient.
Active constituents
24.2grams/Litre Mafenide HCL
3.3grams/litre Aminacrine HCL
0.4grams/Litre Malachite Green
The only trouble is this is still no answer to the underlaying problem/ health issue and normally I wouldn't advice to medicate without having a good idea what you are medicating for.

If you can I would also just try adding an airstone to the water, I know people say it doesn't work but I find them benefitical.

I really wish I could be of more help, I love khuli loaches too.

 

[Crossfire]

I don't think oxygen is a problem...wouldn't other fish be exhibit king symptoms too? And my male peacock hides I'm the java fern all day....never seen him go after a fish other than other peacock gobies.....

I had four kuhlis....Leo Lily Luna and Luke...then I got Lumpy And Lorelei....then Luna died and now Luke is dying...and lumpy has been exhibiting strange symptoms since day one

 

[Baccus]

I was thinking that the oxygen might have been depleted at the bottom of the tank, I know it worked wonders for my Corys and my Khuli loaches often hang around and play in their bubble wall.
I am begining to wonder if perhaps the loaches got treated with something at the LFS, maybe not intentionally but some how some where I wonder if they have come into a chemcial that doesn't agree with them. It would explain why only the new additons are exhibiting symptoms while the exisiting ones are fine. Of course this theory goes out the window if Lorelei is acting fine, unless she some how avoided the "treatment".

 

[Crossfire]

Luke was not one of the new loaches. He was in there for a few months before Lumpy and Lorelei came along. Lorelei is perfectly healthy: eating, sifting through sand, skittish like a loach should be, and occasionally swimming. Lumpy, however, is pale in color, has nubs for whiskers due to living in a tank full of gravel (no signs of infection) isn't skittish torwards my hand (has however, become more so since he arrived) And has the habit of lying on his side...he eats funny too...he won't sift sand, he eats some then shoots it out his mouth...however, he is beginning to sift sand normally. But he is skinny and I have yet to witness him eat, but I'm not entirely sure either..He may eat scruds when I'm not looking, he tends to come out during the night more than the other loaches.






Not that this matters anymore....Luke died sometime last night. Found the poor guy in full rigor. I took some pictures of him, in case you guys can identify and telltale signs of disease

It's heartbreaking...two perfectly healthy loaches die overnight from apparently nothing...Even Lumpy, who I assumed would die, is healthier than they were in their final hours...What caused this? What is killing my loaches?

Ironic, though. Luke and Luna were always closest to each other, swimming with each other in tandem and exhibitng spawning behaviors....Maybe after Luna died, Luke died of a broken heart We'll never know

 

[Zikofski]

hey tux no worries makes sense i guess