Pakistani Loach In Trouble

[ClaireN]

Hope somebody can help, or has an idea of what is happening.

My boyfriend has a Pakistani Loach in his 216L tank, it used to be the life and soul of the party swimming around and being very nosy, chasing some of the other fish, but recently he has not been himself, hiding a lot with the Plec not swimming much, and he seemed to have developed what can only be described as a pot belly.

Yesterday though I noticed that he is having trouble swimming, he seems to sink like a stone, and is now lying on the plec as he cant hide in the crevices by himself as he falls off, this morning it was even worse, he was sitting on the bottom of the tank having trouble to stay up right, sort of rolling from one side to the other, he eventually managed to drag himself up to his little hidey hole with the Plec.

What do you think is wrong? Is there anything we can do to help him?

 

[Lateral Line]

A number of things spring to mind.

Firstly, loaches are sociable fish and do best in groups of 3 or more. Hiding is a common symptom of being alone. That said, many loaches tend to hide a lot anyway.

I have seen loaches stuff themselves so full of food, that they look like they will explode. They recover though and are ready to do it again if a glut of food presents. So the pot belly may not be a problem.

Loaches are bottom dwellers. As they grow larger, they will spend more and more time on the substrate as they are dense, swimming does become more difficult for them, so again, this may not be a problem. They also have a tendency to lie on their sides, or even on their backs if the mood takes them, so this again may not be a problem.

Things to look out for, is he eating and is he producing waste? Are your water parameters good? Is he getting a varied diet?

 

[ClaireN]

A number of things spring to mind.

Firstly, loaches are sociable fish and do best in groups of 3 or more. Hiding is a common symptom of being alone. That said, many loaches tend to hide a lot anyway.

I have seen loaches stuff themselves so full of food, that they look like they will explode. They recover though and are ready to do it again if a glut of food presents. So the pot belly may not be a problem.

Loaches are bottom dwellers. As they grow larger, they will spend more and more time on the substrate as they are dense, swimming does become more difficult for them, so again, this may not be a problem. They also have a tendency to lie on their sides, or even on their backs if the mood takes them, so this again may not be a problem.

Things to look out for, is he eating and is he producing waste? Are your water parameters good? Is he getting a varied diet?

Thank you for your response Lateral Line.

We think he is eating and producing waste ok, but it is hard to tell as he doesn't come out a lot when the lights are on, he seems to think that the best place to be is sitting on Plec's stomach for support, which looks very funny, but when we moved the tank around and took his old home out it had a lot of waste in it and it was only really him that went in there, so we are guessing that he is.

We feed the fish a mixture of normal flake, veg flake, various tabs for bottom dwellers including algae tablets, and as treat about once a week they get frozen food e.g. bloodworm, brineshrimp or daphnia.

Water parameters are Ammonia - 0, Nitrite - 0, Nitrate - 40-60, my boyfriend has always had high nitrate problem and we are trying to combat this with water changes but our tap water reads quite high as well so its a never ending battle.

Is there anything else we should be feeding him? or looking out for?

Claire