All loches I have bought suddenly die and breath heavily at the top except Kuhlis. Clowns where quicker with it, so I tried 3 yoyos. They grew, were eating well, and lasted 2 months and grew to around 4.5cm. Today suddenly, like with the clowns, one was dead, the other is breathing heavily at the top, and the other is fine. The on breathing heavily has a red color to its whiskers, but the mouth looks normal. I tried water changes many times but they still die at the end. I increased oxygenation rn but I need to understand why. I have a 120g tank with alot of plants and logs. The video below is at the top of the tank with a floating water sprite.
Yoyo loaches dying suddenly
- Thread starter XavNav55
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fishorama
Fish Addict
Red whiskers say bacterial infection to me. Do you vacuum around the plants? What are your water parameters & water change schedule? Filtration? How long has this tank been set up? Sorry, more questions than help.
Tank has been setup for 3 years, filtration is external with filter media, activa carbon, and filter sponges(white and black). Water changes are every 2 weeks and I vacuum the plants not very frequently, once a month. Parameters I only have acess to PH wich is about 7.0 and no sign of chlorine. Water temp is 27C. Just another question, If any of those are a problem, why do my kuhlis all have +2 years? Oh and also I have alot of snails Yoyos were eating.(That was one of the reasons I got them)
There's something wrong with the water. Did you do anything to the tank yesterday?
Do a big water change and gravel clean the substrate. Make sure the new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine.
Increase aeration and clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the lawn outside.
Do a big water change and gravel clean the substrate. Make sure the new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine.
Increase aeration and clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the lawn outside.
Changed the water, cleaned the substrate, cleaned the filter, and increased the aeration. Loach is still alive and no longer at the top, but it still looks like its having a seizure. He moves but slowly and doesnt close his mouth. The other loach is still good. All other fish are good.
Do a few more water changes during the next week and hope for the best.
If fish ever get sick, wipe the inside of the glass down, do a massive water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified, and clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. That usually helps buy some time to try and figure out what is going on.
If fish ever get sick, wipe the inside of the glass down, do a massive water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified, and clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. That usually helps buy some time to try and figure out what is going on.
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Glad that the loach is doing better. 
Still I'm curious as to your water. As to the fish that have died does the tank's water KH and GH fit the species?
Still I'm curious as to your water. As to the fish that have died does the tank's water KH and GH fit the species?
The moment I see anything wrong with any of my fish, I do a 50% water change. Then I ask questions as to what's going on.
In many cases, dropping into a weekly 40-50% change routine for a few weeks can let you reduce to 25% every week to ten days after that, with nothing spreading through the tank.
In many cases, dropping into a weekly 40-50% change routine for a few weeks can let you reduce to 25% every week to ten days after that, with nothing spreading through the tank.
I need to order a good test kit because the one I have is only strips that measure Ph, chlorine, and alkalintiy. GH may be the problem with the clowns I had, but I dont know the measurement.Glad that the loach is doing better.
Still I'm curious as to your water. As to the fish that have died does the tank's water KH and GH fit the species?
For any aquarium i have under 45 gallons; i always with religion ('cept when travelling) do at least 50% water change with ro water.
For the larger aquariums i do less with a maximum of 40 gallons. What can i say i'm too lazy to pull 300 gallons from a 600 gallon aquarium....
Oh well - the bigger question i haven't seen in this thread is why are things going downhill over time and there is simply not enough information like size of the aquarium frequncy of water changes how nitrate is changing over time et all.
As for the video doesn't work on my system so i'm not able to watch it but i would be very concern if this is something that happens multiple times esp with fishes like yoyo and clown loaches as they are very very durable rugged little critters - hard to find fishes more rugged - their only negative is being scaleless which seems to make them more vulnerable to bacteria but a stable aquarium shouldn't be introducing harmful bacteria.
Anyway for clown loaches you should have at least a 100 gallons and for the yoyo at least 40 so if your aquarium is like a 5 that might explain the issue.
You want a test kit to measure ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. You already have one for pH, which is good but ammonia is the most common cause of fish dying when there isn't a disease. Most paper test strips will test nitrite and nitrate, along with pH, GH, KH and chlorine. However, they don't normally do ammonia, so most people look for a liquid test kit that does ammonia and separate kits for nitrite and nitrate. It also depends on how much you can afford. The liquid test kits tend to be a bit more accurate than the paper test strips but they cost a bit more.
If you have a pet shop nearby, you can take a glass full of tank water into them and ask them to test the water for ammonia, nitrite & nitrate. Some shops charge a small fee for this but it can be cheaper than buying the kits, especially if you only get the water tested once a month or if the fish get sick.
If you do buy test kits (liquid or paper strip), check the expiry date on them and try not to buy any kit that is sitting in a warm area or in sunlight (next to a window). Heat, light and humidity destroys the active ingredients in the test kits so they need to be kept cool, dry and dark. When you get the test kit/s home, put them in a plastic container and keep them in a cool, dark, dry place. I kept my kits in an icecream bucket with a lid and had it on the bottom shelf in the fridge.
*NB* Make sure children and animals can't get to the test kits because the ingredients are poisonous. Wash your hands with soapy water after working in the tank or doing water tests. If you use the liquid test kits, rinse the phials out well after use.
Tank is 120 gallons, and water changes are 30% every two weeks, but now im doing 50% and increased aeration. That solved the problem, but I also cleaned the filter and scaled fish dont have problems, so I dont really know how much the scaleless characteristic makes them more sensitive. Clown loaches all came with Ick, cured it, but the fish store water in my area is not the best, so you could tell some had issues.
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I'm no pro on this but would assume that a scaled fish has more protection, due to the scales, than a fish without scales as to parasites that enter the surface of the fish.
Scaleless make them (more?) vulnerable to parasite and certain bacteria. As long as water conditions are good and nothing evil is introduced they are pretty robust fish adaptable to a wide range of temp and water hardness though the clowns do prefer it warm.
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