sick little yo-yo

mister ben

mister ben

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Jan 22, 2005
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sick little yoyo

Alright everyone, I have a yoyo loach in my tank and he doesn't seem to be doing very well. Since I introduced him two weeks ago he has become quite thin and I think I can actualy see his ribs now, it's so sad. He's only a baby. I also noticed that he doesn't use all of his fins, they simply stay clamped to his body and he looks like he's handicapped when he swims. He totally gets his *** kicked by the filter, which he used to love swimming in the current. I guess that I should also note that he doesn't really move around very much anymore either.

I know he isn't being terrorized, his only tank mates are 2 panda cories and 4 harlequins and I've never seen them give him any trouble. If anything, I think I should be worried about him terrorizing them! Everyone else in the tank seems to be doing perfectly fine.

Any ideas about what may be wrong with him or any suggestions on how to nurse him back to health?

I included before and after photos for analyzation and comparison. The 'before' was taken the day I brought him home, the 'after' just a few minutes ago.

Thanks.

loach1_before.JPG loach2_after.JPG
 
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Poor little guy! Yoyos are my favorite loach and it hurts to see one like that. Do you have a tank with snails in it? If not, maybe your local LFS would give you some. That's their all-time favorite food. If he won't eat snails, you have a bigger problem that I can help with. Good luck!
 
I don't have any snails, but perhaps I could get some from my lfs. Thanks for the suggestion. I'd really like to just get over to my lfs as they are very helpful and informative, but I have been booked all weekend and won't be able to do so until tomorrow. I hope it isn't too late for this guy, but I think it may already be.

Thanks again.
 
most loaches like a bit of company of their own species, maybe getting a friend may help

it may also be an internal parasite which is causing it to waste away
 
sounds like your loach may be sick with something- the only time ive seen my fish with their fins clamped on the side is when they have ich
 
Ich was my guess too, my fish only seem to clamp their fins to thieir body when they have ICH, although in saying that I'd have expected the loach to have develioped white spots after 2 weeks !!!!. Very odd, you could try adding some salt to the water and see if that helps him at all, if it is an illness of some kind maybe some salt will help ????.
 
I am currently in the process of raising the water temp. and adding salt. I also lowered the water level to increase aeration.

Interesting enough though, now one of my cories has developed some sort of swim bladder issue. His eyes are sunken in and cloudy and he can't swim properly, just flops around the tank as best he can. Him and the loach are pretty much in the same condition, laying on their sides gasping for air at the bottom of the tank.

I hope I haven't contracted some sort of disease that's going to destroy all my fish. This really sucks and I don't know what to do. Thanks for your help everyone. Next time the cory makes his way over to an area of the tank conducive to photography I'll post a pic.
 
As promised, a picture of the sick cory. I apologize for the fact that it is a little blurry.

I find the most notable aspects of the photo include the darkened color, sunken eyes, cloudy eyes, and shiny gills; all of which are developements of the last 2 days.

Is any of this adding up for anyone out there? I hope so. Thanks again everyone.

sick cory1.JPG
 
Argh. OK, first of all loaches do not have scales, thus they are particiularly sensitive to salt. I wouldn't dose that tank with salt any more than you already have. Second, if your loach has ich, you'd know about it because you'd see the small white parasites attached to him. The pictures you're showing don't show any sign of that, so I doubt he has ich.

It's likely an internal parasite that's eating away at him and if he's wasted away this long then I'm not sure how much longer he'll be around, but you can darn well try to help him :)

If possible, find a quarentine tank, maybe 10 gallons for him and your cory (who looks much worse off, I'm sorry to say...) Parasites can be transferred to the other tnak inhabitants, so you don't want to risk getting the rest infected. Try feeding something like this or, if that doesn't work, treat the water with something like this I know Junglelabs makes a number of anti-parasite foods, search for more info on them. If you can't get the meds right away, try feeding something like bloodworms, or a treat like that. Anything to get at least get SOME nutrition in him.

I'm no expert on fish diseases, I should add, but I have had problems with fish not eating and getting thinner and thinner, and adding the metronidazole helped get them eating normal food again. Search this forum and others (myfishtank.net, fishprofiles.com etc.) for more information on treating internal parasites. Good luck, and keep us posted on what happens with your yo-yo loach.
 
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