Loach going nuts after WC

[dogdoc]

Something very strange is going on with one of my YoYo loaches. The last two water changes I have done he's freaked out. Right after I refill the tank he goes zipping around and running into things hard. Speeds to the top of the tank, acts like he's in distress and dying.

I use prime as a dechlor, and I typically add my ferts slowly to the tank as it refills. Weird thing is that only one of the four loaches is doing this. All the other fish seem fine too. He usually settles down in a few hours, but he is scaring the heck out of me.

Any ideas?????

[original kuhli]

Ever heard of a chinese weather loach? They're the most sensitive of loaches, they lack(like all loaches) some mechanism which equalizes their internal pressure with that outside their body.

It poses an issue when the pressure outside their body drops, thus the chinese weather loach becomes active when pressure drops in an effort to equalize(release) the pressure inside his body. With regards to swimming to a shallower depth in the tank I suspect the slight decrease in pressure helps him out with this problem.

So, they're all members of the same family, the chinese is the most sensitive and I've seen all my loaches do this to some extent. I wouldn't be concerned about it one iota!

[spypet]

I went through the same thing.
watch your pH very carefully for any wide swings.
dechlor in your water may not be enough.
you may need a pH regulator like baking soda.
(or Seachem's ph 7.0 Neutral Regulator™)
if the yoyo develops a red nose it's going to die
within a week and should be isolated to another tank.
you may also have too much junk built up in your gravel
that got disturbed during the wc. consider a good
gravel vacuum, and feed your fish less food/often.

when you have loaches, it may be best to dissolve
your ferts well in hot water before adding to the tank,
don't add the dry powder to your tank directly.
or you can put dry ferts in a 3x4 250 micron media bag
and simply hang that inside your tank water.
this let's the ferts dissolve without not yet
dissolved crystals accumulating in your gravel.

[Lupin]

Originally Posted by spypet

if the yoyo develops a red nose it's going to die
within a week and should be isolated to another tank.

I've never heard of that. Where's a link to prove it? It is easy to assume so fast that loaches will die within a week after that "red nose".
By the way, fish don't have nose but rather you are referring to it as tip of its mouth.

when you have loaches, it may be best to dissolve
your ferts well in hot water before adding to the tank,
don't add the dry powder to your tank directly.
or you can put dry ferts in a 3x4 250 micron media bag
and simply hang that inside your tank water.
this let's the ferts dissolve without not yet
dissolved crystals accumulating in your gravel.

I have used solid ferts before with 6 loaches in my tank. There is no problem with them and in fact, I find them a nuisance for digging up the ferts again. I would assume brands of solid ferts have different effects? Though in salt, it has to be dissolved before being placed in the tank.

[spypet]

blue, that red nose thing happened to my own yoyo's
so i don't care if it's been "documented" or not.
other ideas are just mitigating factors that can
agitate scaleless fish. if you don't have these
problems, then consider yourself lucky.

[dogdoc]

What I find really weird is that all of the loaches have been in the tank for a year or more. I'm doing things basically the same as I always have. So nothing has really changed but this new behavior. I do dissolve my ferts in a cup of tank water and then slowly add the mix as the tank fills. Have always done it this way without probs.

And when I said he swam to the top of the tank, I don't mean he did it in a leisurely way. He shot to the top like he was on fire. His coloration was poor. When he did this the time before he rammed his head so far into the gravel that I had to move him for fear that he wouldn't be able to breathe.

And all the other loaches are looking at him like "Hey man, what's up with you?"

It's just weird.

[newshound]

my zebra loaches have "red noses" all the time.
never really noticed it on my yoyos.

[fresh_lynny]

my kuhlis freak out after every water change...they look like they are on crack! but they calm down after a while. I don't think it is out of stress, they seems to be active, that's it. They are in good health otherwise.