Super Loach

[Jamie]

Just thought I'd share a story with you guys. The other day I completely tore my 150 gallon planted tank apart in an effort to clear out some extreme algae. Nothing was left in the aquarium except the fish and my substrate. I created a mild bleach solution in a pretty large cooler to clean all of my plants and decorations. I also had a dechlorinator solution next to it to counter act the destructiveness of the bleach once the plants were cleaned. About half way through I took one of my large pieces of driftwood and dunked the whole thing in the bleach solution. after about a minute or two I pulled it out and sprayed it down with the garden hose before I put it into the dechlorinator sloution. I grabbed another large piece of driftwood and began the same process. When I pulled it out of the bleach solution to rinse it off with the hose, I saw something flopping around in my walkway. Upon further investigation, I realized it was one of my Zebra Loaches!!! The poor guy took a ride out of the tank, sat in the bleach solution for a few minutes, and then was blasted out of the driftwood by a pressurized stream of water. I thought for sure that he was a gonner. I wasn't quite sure what to do. I figured I had two choices, I could either put him right back in the tank or throw him in the dechlorinating solution. Though the water was pretty cold, I decided to dechlorinate him, I figured it was his only chance. I let him sit in there for about ten minutes then I scoop him up and put him back into the tank. My whole cleaning process took about eleven hours. Each time I returned to the tank I checked up on him to see if he was showing sign for better or worse. Amazingly, by the end of the night, he was still kicking. By morning, I figured he would be stuck to my filter intake. Much to my suprise, he was motoring around with the other botia striatas like nothin ever happened. Amazing! This is once tough loach.

[dethjam316]

that's **** amazing. i always check and doublecheck and triplecheck from driftwood pieces for loaches, since i have so many in my main tank. invariably, there is always at least one lodged somewhere. i had a yoyo loach hitch a ride on a driftwood piece i moved to another tank, and it was weeks before i realized he was happily swimming around all by his lonesome in the other tank, chasing around the gouramis by himself. of course, i'm sure he's happier now back with all the other loaches...

whenever i'm cleaning or moving driftwood or something now, i put it in a bucket full of tank water and dunk it about a million times. in the midst of all that dunking, i leave the piece of wood in the bucket for 10-15 minutes to try my best to make sure there aren't any hitchhiker loaches.

[beviking]

You're more patient than I am dethjam316. I put the driftwood into an empty bucket (after trying to make sure no hitchhikers are on board) and check it frequently. Without water, they flop and eventually come out. Of course there is a little amount of water that drains off the log, so it isn't completly dry.

[dethjam316]

i'd make the argument that loaches, especially skunk loaches, are among the hardest fish to catch out there, even in a bucket with a gallon of water and nothing else! i always try to avoid my fish flopping on the ground in any way, but loaches are terribly tough fish.

[valerie]

Thats one lucky loach. Watch for Ich in the next few days to make sure he is ok.

I also was prunning my plants heavily due to an algae outbreak and was throwing the clipping right into the garbage. Well about 45mins after i was done prunning i head somethign from teh garbage can but i thought it was jstu the leaves settling. WEll it keep making this rustling noise and i finally went over to see what it was. It was my BN pleco flopping aroun dthe bottom of the can. I guess he was attached to the leaves and i threw him out with them. It freaked me out and i had to get my dad to scoop him out, which thankfully he did as i couldn't get him out with the net but in the process the pleco stuck him with his spines.

Fish are hardier then we give them credit for