What's wrong with my loaches?!

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Catnkit

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jun 8, 2011
270
1
18
Toronto
My pair of weather loaches don't seem to be doing too well with their fins. Some fins amongst them are torn a bit, and overall it seems like all of their fins are jagged. One of the pair even has bloody streaks in some of his. The other appears to be missing two of his barbels and one is turning white.

They seem to be active and eating, but their fins have been getting worse for two days now. I only noticed the barbel thing on one today.

I've done a weak ich and fungus treatment, I'll be doing a big water change tomorrow and the day after. No other fish in the tank seem to be affected (except for my bichir who just as mysteriously got a huge rip in his tail fin... it's starting to heal now). I did a water test and my nitrites are fine but my nitrates seem to be kind of high. My ammonia isn't perfect if I'm reading the test right but it's about as close to normal as I feel safe with. Could high nitrates do this? I don't know how long they've been like that. (can't have been long, I tested a short while ago)

The water temp has been about 80 for weeks, I can't get it lower. Hot summer. None of the fish are aggressive as far as I can tell. My only suspicion if I had to point a finger would be my pictus, and he's leaving the tank soon either way. My gravel is standard size, and they've been fine with it up until now.

Someone please help! My last loach post was ignored, but now it's really important!

Cat
 
Ah, sorry I wasn't monitoring this. I've figured out that they were getting nipped, I'm taking measured to stop and reverse the problem. Thanks to you two who replied! I'll be keeping in mind the note to post pics when in need of help!

Thanks!

Cat
 
i realize that this post is a little old but when we thought our weather loaches were getting nipped, it turned out to be fin and tail rot :(, we lost one of our biggest loaches to it :(..... we used pima fix but it wasnt doing anything so we figured it was bacterial and not fungal so we treated with maracyn TC and that took care of the problem. be really careful treating them make sure the medication is safe for them.
 
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