Zebra Loach Acting Strange / Like He's Dying

[KurtLoach]

I have a 20g community planted tank, with 7 danios, 5 zebra loaches, 2 African Dwarf Frogs, and 1 apple snail (the only big enough to not get killed by the loaches).

I have one loach who is acting very strangely. I call him "Hurt Fin Loach", because once at feeding, Fat Frog (who gets defensive around food) bit his fin and held on for a second or two. Ever since then (or maybe around then), he's been perching up high in the sword plant and sweetgrass, on his side or upside down, or lying out in the open, which is strange for a loach to do, especially given that I have ample hiding places for the loaches. At least 6 spots that the 5 loaches all enjoy hiding in.

The strange part is that he's not dying. He's actually quite lively, when provoked, say, by the big loach chasing him, or by me moving past the tank. Apart from his behaviour, he's a healthy loach. I have a breeding net that's currently empty, and I've put him in there with some shelter twice now, but I've left a small opening at the top in case he wanted out. And he wants out every time.

What gives?


Also, I had a bunch of ghost shrimp, but I had a horrible cyanobacteria outbreak (twice), and coming off the medication killed them all off. It's starting to come back, so I've drastically cut back on feeding them, but I don't know if this is the problem. I also don't want to underfeed anybody, since I have a runt loach and a big fat loach who tends to bully the others.

Alsoalso, I have fish food pellets with spirulina, which is basically cyanocbacteria. Is there any chance this could contribute to an outbreak?

 

[KurtLoach]

I should mention that apart from a few tears in his fin (tears, not missing chunks) he looks physically healthy. My main concern is that something's going on inside, since fish aren't known to be drama queens.

 

[fishorama]

How long ago did the loach get hurt? Is there any redness or whiteness? If it's just the thin part of the fin & not the fleshy part it should heal pretty fast with lots of clean water, try every other day WCs if you can. I don't know about that behavior in striatas, mine hide more but my clowns lie in the open sometimes on their sides. They save upside down for in the caves.

Water changes will help with cyano too. I get it in 1 tank when the water movement is slow from overgrown plants or dirty filter. I've never done antibiotics to kill it, just trim, clean & vac. Check your nitrate level too, cyano likes low to none, you might need to dose.

Your striatas, while very slow growing, will need more room than a 20g eventually.

edit: spirulina or any foods do not cause cyano.

 

[KurtLoach]

He looks fine. No markings on him apart from the torn fin. All the other loaches act normal (well, for loaches!), but this guy drapes himself on things near the top of the tank and lies still.

I should mention that he babies the hurt fin, keeping it at his side whenever possible. How do you treat a loach that is hurt?

 

[fishorama]

Frequent water changes will help him heal fastest, daily or every other day, 30% if possible. When did the frog injure him?

Have you ever wormed the loaches with something like levamisole? How long have you had the loaches? I always treat in quarantine...I don't want to be alarmist but my odd acting "veggie clown loach" did succumb to...something. Even with levamisole & antibiotics, he died of some kind of chronic wasting disease. Veggie was overly interested in, you guessed it, veggies, anubias flowers...just not a good eater of all loach foods: pellets, bloodworms, flake. Is your torn fin guy eating?

 

[Jeremy Smith]

Check with the south american cichlid members, there was a vitimin that we used to help heal injuries. Unfortunatly I can not remember if it was a,c, or e.
As for the odd behavior could be due to the injury, They are a schooling fish so an injured fish is a threat to the rest of the school, wich in turn would make an isolation, majority of the time. An experience I have witnessed is the school from time to time would seem to almost check up on the injured or sick. Best wishes hope that he recovers soon