Help!

You will eventually want your own test kits if this is a hobby you want to stick with, you don't want to have to take samples to the store eveytime you want to check something. ph, amonia, nitrite and nitrate are the must haves. It is possible that the fish brought in an illness/were sick to begin with, but water quality should always be the first problem to eliminate, hence the need for your own test kits ;) !!

Also, new setups will sometimes develop some algae, that will often go away on its own. However, if you would like some algae eating fish you have options... otos are good, but can be a little sensitive. Some plecos get HUGE so you have to be very careful, but bristlenose plecs stay pretty small and are good algae eaters. Do you know what it was you bought before?
 
Water chemistry levels...

Well, the good news is that there were no casualties last night. I bought a water test kit, complete with test tubes and drops, etc. The water looks fine. The numbers were: ph - 7.6, Ammonia - 0ppm, Nitrite - 0ppm, and Nitrate 10 - 20ppm. The numbers are probably so good right now since I did a Turbo Start 700 treatment with a 30% water change on Friday night.

What is concerning me at this point I guess is that I am wondering if the loaches are downing weak fish, not necessarily sick fish, but weak fish. I have two small Bochata Botia, neither is full grown and one is just a babe, he's very tiny. But the larger of the two has become quite aggressive towards other fish. I bought them to keep the snails in check, but if they also make a snack out of fish that aren't feeling up to par that particular day, then I'll see if the fish shop will take them back.

I can't find my receipts for the algae eaters to tell you what kind they are and couldn't get a good picture of the one I have left. All I can say is that he is a little guy still, is quite common, is dark gray with a black stripe from head to tail on his sides and has a whitish underside. I only have 1 survivor out of a total of 5 of them. Two died, I replaced them, and two died.

If anyone has anything further that I should look into or can tell me if botias have a predatory tendency, I'd appreciate it. Otherwise, I have the water kit now, and I'll lay off any additions for awhile and just cross my fingers.
Take care,
Mary.
 
Mary, I have a skunk loach in my 55g tank and I suspect him of picking on some of my other fish. So I think yes, that could be happening to you also. The algae eater-type fish are so similar looking that you'll probably need a picture for anyone to identify it. You could look up pictures of algae eaters on the internet to try to identify it.
 
What are they doing to make you say they are aggressive? Make sure they have some good hiding spots, that might help. Also, any fish will make a meal out of a dead/almost dead fish, so it isn't their fault :) !! I did find this on them, I don't know if its helpful to you:

: Will eat snails and help keep snail population down. Does not like being the only one of it's kind. In my opinion you should have no less than 3 together. Can burrow under the gravel. Likes to hide. Might be found hiding inside the filter! I think they do better if they have a tube to hide in.

Otherwise, it sounds like the tank is cycled, maybe you just got some bad fish. A QT tank is great to have, that way you don't run the risk of introducing disease to your main tank. There is an article in the article section about QT tanks in case you're interested.
 
Holly9937 said:
What are they doing to make you say they are aggressive? Make sure they have some good hiding spots, that might help. Also, any fish will make a meal out of a dead/almost dead fish, so it isn't their fault :) !!
Click to expand...

He chases the other fish quite often. He didn't do this for the first several weeks, but has been picking up on the habit quite a bit. I got the last two of this loach and the shop said that they hadn't seen them for over a year and grabbed up what their supplier had. They know I would like more, but it all depends on whether the supplier has them or not. I have not seen this particular loach at any other shops.

Don't get me wrong, I really like them. They have a really nice piece of driftwood that they sleep and hide under, lots of plants and stones and ornamentation to hide in and under and I do watch them go in and out of whichever jet filter is not running. I guess what really made me think of the loaches is one small gourami I had that died. It was fine in the morning, eating, swimming, showing no signs of stress or illness, was dead 3 hours later. Surprisingly, he hadn't been eaten on at all, but when I took him out I noticed a big red patch on his side, almost looked like a bruise from a bite. I was going to take him to the shop and ask them what they thought, but my boyfriend talked me out of it saying that he thought it happened after the fish was dead and that neither I nor the fish guys are forensic experts and would just be guessing. ;)

For now, I'm trying to concentrate on what I do know. The water's fine. The fish appear to be fine. The algae eaters and the rams died almost immediately. So I'm going to avoid them for awhile. I lost some stable fish but not too many and the fact that no one died last night is a good sign. And I'm going to hold off on adding any more fish and stressing my tank right now.

This is a good forum. I've just joined though I've been reading it for awhile. Thanks!
Mary.
 
i wouldn't rule out the botia being a bully. Mine comes out and chases my other healthy fish. I've seen him in a fight with my rainbow shark.
 
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