Weather loach floating - current stress in the tank making it worse

[Loach Obsessed]

I have a tank with mostly weather loaches in, I have 2 that are about 10" long, 5 that are about maybe 5" long, along with a bristle nose catfish, 3" rainbow shark and a 23 year old clown loach who wasn't meant to stay when I got him and his tank mates... about 3 years ago! Somehow he never left when the rest did lol so he's just.. well... him, we'll ignore the fact he probably shouldn't be in there for now.

One of my big weather loaches though has started floating.... and with a week of stressed fish and me doing my best its got worse, tonight after dinner i found her trapped in one of the ornaments... after 30 minutes of attempting to get both her front fins back against her body without breaking them i finally got her out. But now she is floating even worse!
(have put a history down below as its a bit of a long read, but this has been grumbling for quite a while this floating issue, but hasn't been anyway as bad as has been the last week!!)
So i've had her about 4 year (i call her a she but i actually have no clue, she is just more plump that the others)
Current behaviour : she is basically floating to the top, as if there is too much air is her, no i know about how take gulps of air and the surface and expel air from the other end! She doesn't seem to do a lot of expelling of air, this week i've sometimes found that if i massage her belly gentle (she's friendly) she will then expel a load of air and she can then rest at the bottom for a bit, but obviously this isn't a solution.
I can't currently water test as i can't find my kit (everything got dumped out of the tank cabinet so we could move the tank to dry the carpet) but normally i'll test the water just before i do a water change and from memory it was
Ammonia 0.5
Nitrite 0
ph just before 7... 6.7 or something
Nitrate was very high which i wasn't sure why, but then someone mentioned about testing my tap water to see what it comes out of and i never got round to doing that...
They were living in a 190L and having water changes about once a month of about 25% changed and i would use the electric gravel cleaner in between to just keep it tidy and remove as much waste as i could.

If she were a goldfish i would say she was suffering swimbladder.... but can weather loach get swimbladder issues??

What can i do? I've seen some say about epsom salt dips, can you use epsom salts with them because they are scaleless i'm not sure.
I also saw a video of where this guy took his weather loach out of the tank for 5 minutes, saying it was something to do with ... ahh can't remember but basically the same way they can sense storms etc that thing...
But not knowing more about this issue i'm reluctant to try them without knowing more and getting more advice. I asked 2 of my local fish shops... and they basically didn't have an answer except what i'm already doing.

I'm really hoping getting them back into a decent size tank (i've ordered a fluval roma 200L) will help her out, but i'm also worried incase it doesn't...

A few pics below and the past years history as it does relate to this is below the pics.

And this is how i found her tonight!


History: She started getting a bit of back end floating up when i moved to my new place in May last year, i monitored her, tried giving her peas etc only very rarely did she suddenly start floating, she'd have a bit of a spaz out around the tank for 5 minutes and then calm down and be fine. Unfortantly on thursday evening last week i noticed my tank was leaking.. i'm in the UK and we had only gone onto lockdown a few days earlier... perfect! So.. Friday i knew i had to get them out of the tank, unfortantly the only thing i had that i could use as an emergency tank was a 40L tub i use to use for baby guppies! Its only about 12" high however and with there layer of sand in there as well it soon became very very clear that if i left them in there while i sorted out a new tank, they would die! I managed to get hold of a 70L tank someone agreed to lend me and my dad agreed to go and get it for me as i can't leave the house, but of course it meant moving them again, so more stress for them.
This was when i noticed she had started struggling to stay on the bottom of the tank, it wasn't all the time... if she could keep herself down using a ornament or something then eventually she would stop floating, up until the time she started swimming around again or if i fed them i noticed that would also make her start floating again. Now i know 70L is way too small for these fish, they came out of a 190L tank, so i've been using 2 small filters, plus a sponge filter and an addition airstone, and doing a 15L water change mostly daily (i missed once i think), i use stress coat when i do water changes and under current circumstances have been using the double dose.
During this time i've been hunting for a tank which has proved tricky as some places are closed, (i actually ordered a tank, twice! And got messed around) so... finally have a new tank coming on monday from a local shop, tonight i find her stuck in an ornament where i'm presuming she tried to get into to stop herself floating but coz she is a bit on the flat side she got stuck! 30 mins to get her out, she's got a few scraps and a split front fin but she is now floating worse! I'm guessing the stress hasn't helped there and maybe made it worse??

 

[Aquarium guy person]

I couldn’t help you but I have the same problem! It goes away and comes back for me

 

[JuiceBox52]

Hi! What sized tank?
Your ammonia is a it high and you said your nitrate was as well do a 75%water change to help lower these. If it still is not at the correct levels you can do 50% daily or every other day to lower it. @Colin_T and @Byron may be able to help also

 

[Colin_T]

The fish has excess mucous on its body and edge of the fins. This is usually caused by something in the water stressing the fish out. High nitrates will definitely cause that, but ammonia, nitrite, low pH or chemicals can also cause it.

If you can check the tap water for nitrates then do.

The electric gravel cleaners that suck the gunk up and trap it in a mesh bag are useless and not worth using. A basic model gravel cleaner (like the one in the link below) is the best thing to use because it removes the gunk and some water at the same time.

Aquarium Cleaning Made Easy

Aquarium cleaning should take 30 minutes every two weeks. Learn how the professionals do it in 18 easy steps.

www.about-goldfish.com

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To help fix the excess mucous, wipe the inside of the glass with a clean sponge, and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water and re-use them.

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The floating is probably due to air trapped in the fish's intestinal tract. Normally the loaches swallow a bit of air to get oxygen and to help with their buoyancy. If the fish eats well, the air gets pushed out the other end (fish farts) and the fish doesn't have a problem. However, if the fish is sick and stops feeding, the air remains trapped and if the fish takes in more air from the surface, it can eventually float around.​

Cleaning up the tank (water changes, gravel cleaning, filter cleaning) will usually help the fish start eating again and get rid of the air trapped in them.

If you feed a lot of dry food, reduce that and use frozen (but defrosted) foods or live foods like Brineshrimp and Daphnia.

 

[Loach Obsessed]

The fish has excess mucous on its body and edge of the fins. This is usually caused by something in the water stressing the fish out. High nitrates will definitely cause that, but ammonia, nitrite, low pH or chemicals can also cause it.

Humm I was told that the mucus layer was normal with loaches but now you've mentioned it... I can see she does feel/look different to the others. This past week they have all been under a huge amount of stress due to the tank issue. I'm a bit unsure come Monday when new tank comes on whst is best to do... put them straight into there new tank.... with as much tank water as I can get from old tank, plus their sand and ornaments or do I leave them in the 70L tank they are currently in (and have been in for about a week now and which is way too small for them I know) for say another week whilst I get the new tank up and running... new tank is 200L.. thoughts?

If you can check the tap water for nitrates then do.

Having just found my test kit I'm going to be doing just that.

The electric gravel cleaners that suck the gunk up and trap it in a mesh bag are useless and not worth using. A basic model gravel cleaner (like the one in the link below) is the best thing to use because it removes the gunk and some water at the same time.

Should have said I have both types. So I use the normal gravel cleaner when doing my ususal water change/Tank clean but in between those times I use the electric one more as a tidy up, get some of the crap out so it doesn't clog up the filter etc

To help fix the excess mucous, wipe the inside of the glass with a clean sponge, and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Again as I mention they'll be going into a brand new tank... so...? Will this still apply?

The floating is probably due to air trapped in the fish's intestinal tract. Normally the loaches swallow a bit of air to get oxygen and to help with their buoyancy. If the fish eats well, the air gets pushed out the other end (fish farts) and the fish doesn't have a problem. However, if the fish is sick and stops feeding, the air remains trapped and if the fish takes in more air from the surface, it can eventually float around.
If you feed a lot of dry food, reduce that and use frozen (but defrosted) foods or live foods like Brineshrimp and Daphnia.

She is still eating well. Main diet has been catfish pellets, recently I started adding in frozen bloodworm but I'm weary about over feeding the bloodworm.
This morning the tank is quiet and she's not floating at the top, which is the normal, her floating times tend to be more evening/overnight... if that means anything.
Also would the length of time the tank is on make a difference.

Thank you for your help guys. I'm very open to advice, especially if I'm doing anything wrong!!!